Interactivity involves the active engagement with others within their online community, not passive interactions. For example, instead of reading someone else's paper and leaving no comments or replies(passive), a student would read this paper and submit some sort of comment or reply about the paper including their thoughts and/or suggestions on how to improve it. Interactivity is important for social cohesion, when there is more interactivity, there is more social cohesion.

Interactivity

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.

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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.

Engagement Impact on Group Cohesion

Social cohesion is the sense of connectedness and belonging that people feel with others who share their values, beliefs, and goals. It can also refer to the degree of harmony and cooperation among groups in a society. Social cohesion can have positive effects on individual and collective well-being, such as trust, happiness, health, and social capital.

Social 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 Social cohesion within Group Cohesion

Inclusivity is when the entire online community feels comfortable and accepted by the rest of the members to contribute and engage with the rest of the group. This is another important piece to increasing social cohesion. When more people are interacting with one another, there is greater likelihood everyone is coordinating and collaborating without risk of social loafing.

Inclusivity

Research has explored the effects of different degrees of social cohesion on knowledge sharing. Such research has found a curvilinear relationship between degree of social cohesion and knowledge sharing

Effects of Different Amounts Of Social Cohesion on Knowledge Sharing

When people are divided along different lines such as race, ethnicity, religion, or income, it can create a sense of distrust and animosity between different groups. This can weaken the social fabric of society, reducing social cohesion and making it harder for people to work together to solve common problems.

Social Fragmentation Reduce Social Cohesion

Creating a connection within the members of the community creates a sense of belonging and a motivation to continue engaging with others and the goals within the group. 
Social cohesion can be increased by improving:
- social loafing 
- social presence
- social capital
- personalized profiles
- gamification
- sharing of news

Factors that Interact with Social Cohesion in Communities

Research has focused on the ways in which social connectedness, i.e., how connected students are, differs in in different learning environments.

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