Development Trajectory of Student Cognitive Behaviors in a SPOC Forum: An Integrated Approach Combining Epistemic Network Analysis and Lag Sequential Analysis

Abstract

SPOC forums are the main vehicle for learners to communicate and interact online. Learners are able to conduct group knowledge construction through collaborative discussions; thus a large amount of text data are generated. These data often reflect learners’ implicit cognitive behaviors. This study aimed to explore the development trajectory of group cognitive behaviors in a SPOC forum among learners, and to further uncover the behavioral regularity that learners’ cognitive behavior may subsequently shift and change over time. Specifically, we collected 35 participants’ forum data across 14 weeks. Lag sequential analysis and epistemic network analysis were jointly adopted to discover cognitive behavior sequence and the connection structure between cognitive behaviors in different learning stages. As discussion progressed in the forum, behavior sequence had the tendency of diversity and the change of cognitive behavior structure was significant. Especially in the final stage, learners’ cognitive behaviors gradually shift to lower-order cognitive behaviors, which may be related to preparation for exams. Therefore, teacher could rethink the design of discussion content and examination style to maintain a relatively high level of cognitive engagement in forum discussion.