Increasing student retention and persistence -- in particular classes or intheir major area of study -- is a challenge for universities. Students'academic and social integration into an institution seems to be vital forstudent retention, yet, research on the effect of interpersonal interactions israre. Social network analysis is an approach that can be used to identifypatterns of interaction that contribute to integration into the university. Weanalyze how students position within a social network in a Modeling Instruction(MI) course that strongly emphasizes interactive learning impacts theirpersistence in taking a subsequent MI course. We find that students with highercentrality at the end of the first semester of MI are more likely to enroll ina second semester of MI. While the correlation with increased persistence is anongoing study, these findings suggest that student social integrationinfluences persistence.
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