Reliance, liance et alliance : opérationnalité des concepts dans l'analyse du climat socio-relationnel de groupes restreints d'apprentissage en ligne

Abstract

The aim of the research we are presenting here is to measure the link between the "socio-relational climate" of a small group in a collaborative work environment and the quality of the collective work they provide. The methodological approach adopted, based on an analysis of the asynchronous exchanges between members of a group, allows us to find a procedure that takes stock of some components of "socio-relational climate" that could account for the results in terms of learning. Two notions – derivatives of the sociological concept "reliance" – will be called upon: "liance" and "alliance". The former accounts for the quality of the relation (warmth, intimacy, emotions, etc.) the speakers create during their asynchronous exchanges. The latter translates the way in which the participants comfort their association contract with the goal of completing group work and in order to respond to the pedagogical requirements previously set.The results of this research show that, in the condition our study was conducted, the model of reliance accounts for a substantial part of the overall quality of the collective learning products and possesses an internal homogeneity that cannot be neglected. These elements concur in supporting the conceptual basis and the operating characteristics of the model presented here.

Keywords

• online interaction
• online exchanges
• social dimension
• asynchronous communication