The Influence of Students’ Horizontal and Vertical Network Behavior on Learning and Performance

Drawing on social network and network behavior literature, this research examines how students’ network behavior for learning (or educational network behavior) with peers (i.e., horizontal network behavior) and with the instructor (i.e., vertical network behavior) outside class influences their learning, which in turn affects their grade performance. It also investigates how students’ perceived instructor support moderates the relationship between their vertical network behavior and learning. For Study 1, with a cross-sectional design, 198 undergraduate students participated in the survey, while for Study 2 we collected data from 163 undergraduate students at two different times of the semester and grade performance from course instructors at the end of the semester. Both studies found that students’ horizontal and vertical network behavior for learning increases their course grade performance via enhanced learning. It also found that students’ vertical network behavior with the instructor is more likely to be positively associated with their learning when they perceive that the instructor provides strong support to students