Analyzing Online Learners’ Knowledge Construction in Asynchronous Discussion Forums Using Interaction Analysis Model

Abstract

For the past decades, interest in research studies focusing on how interaction and learning take place, and how computer-mediated asynchronous tools such as Asynchronous Discussion Forum (ADF) opens opportunities for online learners to collaborate and construct knowledge, has elevated among online learning advocates and practitioners. Related literature on knowledge construction in discussion forums is now seen as an essential part of the teaching and learning process in an online learning environment. As we move from traditional to virtual classrooms, the need to look into models and approaches to analyze knowledge construction in discussion forums, especially in the Philippine setting where it is relatively very scarce or not investigated at all, is inevitable to have a deeper understanding of student participation in an online learning setting. By employing a content analysis using the Interaction Analysis Model (IAM), this study uncovered what level of the social construction of knowledge was reached in the discussion forums of the online graduate colloquium. In addition, this study also looks at the factors that might be attributed to the patterns of how knowledge is constructed in the discussion forums in an online learning environment. This study emphasizes the potential of providing more opportunities for online learners to create knowledge by empowering students through the creation of a learning environment that encourages interactions and collaborations among themselves. The results of this study will hopefully contribute to the studies on methodologies and approaches to explore online interactions focusing on knowledge construction in discussion forums in an online learning environment.
 Keywords: knowledge construction, asynchronous discussion forum (ADF), online learning, Interaction Analysis Model (IAM)