An Overview of 
A Process Model for Building Social Capital in Virtual Learning Communities

By: Ben Daniel, Gord McCalla and Richard Schwier

This article briefly introduces the reader to the concept of social capital arising from social interactions in virtual learning communities. It explains how trust can be created through the act of storytelling, which is enhanced by a shared language including a common vocabulary.  Social capital is defined as “a stock of active connections among people: the trust, mutual understanding, and shared values and behaviours that bind people as members of human networks and communities” (based on Cohen & Prusak, (2001), p.1). Trust is build through social interactions which are sustained by two key factors.  First, there has to be a context or social space in which the interactions can happen.  Second, it takes time to build trust.

Daniel, McCalla and Schwier provide a brief introduction to social capital and prepare you for their second more detailed article on social capital in virtual learning communities.

Daniel, B. K., McCalla, G., & Schwier, R. A. (2002). A Process Model for Building Social Capital in Virtual Learning Communities. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Computers in Education (Vol. December 0, p. 574). Washington, DC: IEEE Computer Society. Retrieved from http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=839212