Friends and gurus: do students ask for help from those they know or those who would know

Collaboration is beneficial to learning, and in the software engineering it also prepares students to working methods used in the industry. Previous studies have found that students' friendships from before the course predict communication during courses. Moreover, how well a student is connected with peers is a good indicator of study success. In this study, we explore how much help seeking in team work is guided by previous social connections and to what extent students with best skills in the problem domain act as hubs of interaction. We studied group work in a university level Web software programming course. Based on log data and a questionnaire conducted at the end of the course, we found that while students knowing each other was the basis of group formation, within those groups students with higher measured knowledge were more likely to be asked for help. Student's exam score positively correlate with being asked for help by other group members.