Understanding Online Discourse Strategies for Knowledge Building Through Social Network Analysis

Abstract

Assessing the development of students’ knowledge building discourse is difficult. It would be beneficial to have clear indicators of such discourse to understand if and how it is developing. The aim of this research is to identify indicators that can monitor how the knowledge building process develops during online discussions. In particular, we analyzed university students’ discourse in an online setting oriented to knowledge building. An innovative mixed-method analysis approach was used. First, a qualitative content analysis was conducted to detect students’ discussion strategies; second, an innovative version of Social Network Analysis (SNA), called Strategy Network Analysis was applied to analyze the relations among discursive strategies and to identify the most typical ones. Results showed that the most often used strategies in the knowledge process were “developing hypothesis” and “asking questions or problems of investigation.” These were also the most effective strategies together with “expressing agreement or disagreement.”