When measuring social cohesion, one way to do so is by measuring the social engagement. This means we measure the extent to which students/individuals are interacting with each other in a collaborative way,  i.e. interactivity. The more interactive the community is, the higher the social cohesion is.

Engagement impact on Social cohesion within Group Cohesion

Engagement is one of the ways that cohesion can be measured within an online community. The more behavioral, social, and cognitive engagement there is, the more cohesion there is within the group as well. Engagement can also be thought of as a requirement for cohesion, therefore measuring this is a good indicator of how cohesive a group is/can be.

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Substantiating factors are elements that impact group cohesion and the development of it. Main factor examples include:
- social interaction
- linguistic style matching
- gaming
- teamwork orientation
- collective efficacy
- social shared regulated learning
- collective task value
- engagement

Major substantiating factors for Group Cohesion

Altebarmakian, M., & Alterman, R. (2019). Cohesion in online environments. International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, 14, 443-465.

Cohesion in online environments

Engagement Impact on Group Cohesion

Collective efficacy is the shared belief that the group as a whole is able to perform the task. The greater the collective efficacy is the greater the group cohesion is. Additionally, when group cohesion is also high, this increases the belief system that the group has the capacity to complete the task (i.e. collective efficacy).

Collective Efficacy impact on Group Cohesion

Teamwork Orientation assesses to what degree a person values team work vs. individual work. Those who have a higher teamwork orientation tend to be more satisfied to work in teams and are more cooperative when working with others.

When teamwork orientation is high, cohesion is also likely to increase because of the increase in collaboration and cooperation amongst the group members

Teamwork Orientation Impact on Group Cohesion

Collective Task Value involves an individual's perception of the overall group's value of the task. The more similar these perceptions align with one another, the higher the group cohesion is. 

Collective Task Value Impact on Group Cohesion

With greater communication amongst those within the group, collective effort also increases, further enhancing the group cohesion. More specifically, when the interactions include a positive attitude relative to the task, group cohesion is increased.

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