Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study whether the use of a shared study space played a role in shaping graduate students’ social networks by exploring how the copresence in space was related to the structure of friendship and advice networks. The authors first proposed two concepts of spatial copresence: measured spatial-temporal copresence and perceived copresence. The authors then examined the role of copresence through a case study of a shared study space occupied by 27 graduate students in the same department.

Design/methodology/approach

Copresence relations were first constructed through a six-month room access history data set and self-reported data to examine whether measured spatial-temporal copresence was consistent with perceived copresence. Friendship and advice network relations were then analyzed with copresence, social media connections, class project collaboration relations and social homophily (nationality, gender, cohort) through quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) and MQAP analysis.

Findings

The authors found that students who used the shared study space more often reported more friendship and advice ties. The perceived copresence and the measured spatial-temporal copresence were highly correlated. Copresence relations, as measured by survey and room access history, were both significantly correlated with advice relation, which was associated with perceived social support.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the debate about whether “space” continues to play significant roles in graduate students’ social networks in the context of flexible learning environments. The results also reveal new directions for research methods in studying spatial proximity in flexible settings.

中文翻译：

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共享学习空间在塑造研究生社交网络中的作用

目的

本文的目的是通过探讨空间中的共存关系与友谊和咨询网络的结构之间的关系，来研究共享学习空间的使用是否在塑造研究生的社交网络中发挥了作用。作者首先提出了空间共存的两个概念：测量的时空共存和感知的共存。然后，作者通过对同一系中27名研究生所占共享学习空间的案例研究，研究了共存的作用。

设计/方法/方法

共存关系首先通过六个月的房间访问历史数据集和自我报告的数据构建，以检查测得的时空共存是否与感知到的共存一致。然后，通过二次分配程序（QAP）和MQAP分析，通过共存，社交媒体联系，班级项目协作关系和社交同质性（国籍，性别，同类）来分析友谊和建议网络关系。

发现

作者发现，使用共享学习空间的学生更经常报告更多的友谊和忠告。感知共存与测得的时空共存高度相关。通过调查和房间访问历史记录衡量的共存关系都与建议关系显着相关，建议关系与感知到的社会支持相关。

创意/价值

这项研究为关于“空间”在灵活的学习环境下是否继续在研究生的社交网络中发挥重要作用的辩论做出了贡献。结果还揭示了研究在灵活环境中进行空间邻近性研究方法的新方向。