Interaction In Discussion Forums Research Articles

Discussion forums and student engagement: A social network analysis perspective

AbstractOnline courses frequently use discussion forums to enhance student engagement, an approach that is critical to fostering positive student learning outcomes. Because discussion forums are common in online classes, many instructors rely on summary statistics and self‐reported measures to assess student engagement. However, these metrics overlook the structural and relational dimensions of student interactions in discussion forums. To complement those other metrics, this study uses social network analysis to examine interactions in a discussion forum to expose the structural and relational dimensions of student interactions. We aggregated data on student interactions in a discussion forum for an undergraduate class with 31 enrolled students. The graphical representation of student interactions in the discussion forum revealed the social positions and roles of students and exposed the strengths and weaknesses in the structural and relational ties. Mathematical analysis accurately measures student interactions in the forum using measures of centrality. Both of those analyses enabled the description and comparison of interactions at the group and individual levels. Social network analysis is a practical method that adds another perspective to our understanding of student interactions in discussion forums. The outcomes of social network analysis can help instructors design courses, devise appropriate teaching interventions, and effectively use forums to engage students to improve learning outcomes.

Capturing the Distance Learning in Indonesian Higher Education: Lecturers and Students’ Perspectives during Pandemic for Post-Pandemic

Since the pandemic, some universities can act swiftly to develop distance learning mechanisms, but others organize distance learning sporadically by allowing each lecturer to manage without standards. This research used a qualitative survey involving 66 students and 57 lecturers from various universities in Indonesia. It delivered dual perspectives between students and lecturers to improve previous research that did one perspective only. Most recognized the benefits of time and location flexibility when participating in distance learning but were dissatisfied with its implementation. During the pandemic, students were forced to explore independently by reading slides, listening to lecturers, watching videos, discussing in the online room, and doing independent assignments without any preparation. The pandemic also significantly changed the lecturers' teaching styles. They performed several variations in delivering material, increasing interaction in discussion forums, and evaluating the learning. Generally, distance learning without complete preparation since the pandemic was relatively good, as indicated by (1) lecturers' satisfaction with the course material delivery, (2) students' activeness according to the lecturer, and (3) learning outcomes achievement. These findings become insight for university stakeholders to enhance distance learning processes in the post-pandemic era since students and lecturers have felt its benefits but require many improvements.

Predicting Cognitive Presence in At-Scale Online Learning: MOOC and For-Credit Online Course Environments

In this study, we work towards a strategy to measure and enhance the quality of interactions in discussion forums at scale. We present a machine learning (ML) model which identifies the phase of cognitive presence exhibited by a student’s post and suggest future applications of such a model to help online students develop higher-order thinking. We collect discussion forum transcript data from two online courses: CS1301 (an introductory computer programming MOOC) offered by edX and CS6601 (a graduate course on artificial intelligence) which uses the Piazza online discussion tool. We manually code a random sample of students’ posts based on the Community of Inquiry coding scheme and explore trends in cognitive presence within and across the courses. We further use this coded data to analyze the relationship between students’ observed cognitive presence and course grades. In terms of testing and building an ML model, we use a Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers model that uses a deep learning technique to train large text corpus and fine-tune the language model. Our results suggest that deeper cognitive engagement with course concepts, as expressed by higher cognitive presence, are associated with better learning outcomes for students in both course settings. Our ML approach achieves 92.5% accuracy on the classification task, motivating the use of ML for instructional interventions in online courses. We expect that our research study will not only contribute to extending the literature on cognitive presence but also have a beneficial impact on online instructors or curriculum developers in higher education.

Identifying patterns of epistemic emotions with respect to interactions in massive online open courses using deep learning and social network analysis

Convincing evidence found by educators and psychologists shows that learners' interactions in discussion forums in massive online open courses (MOOC) overwhelmingly affect their epistemic emotions. In a MOOC context, epistemic emotions, such as the experiences of curiosity, enjoyment, confusion, and anxiety, are caused by the cognitive equilibrium or incongruity between new information and existing knowledge while learning via a MOOC course. Therefore, uncovering the relationships among epistemic emotions and interactions from large-scale MOOC data is an important task. By gathering multiple data generated by 1190 Chinese learners, this study employed a combination method of deep learning and social network analysis (SNA) to identify patterns of epistemic emotions with respect to interactions on a MOOC platform. The results revealed that four patterns, identified from core, neighbor, scattered, and peripheral learners, tended to expand relationships by votes and construct deep communication by comment and reply interactions. Of particular interest, the core and neighbor learners' patterns demonstrated significantly higher interactions and epistemic emotions than the scattered and peripheral learners’ patterns.

Influence of MOOC learners discussion forum social interactions on online reviews of MOOC

Although some studies have explored massive open online courses (MOOCs) discussion forums and MOOC online reviews separately, studies of both aspects are insufficient. Based on the theory of self-determination, this paper proposes research hypotheses that MOOC learning progress has a direct impact on MOOC online reviews and an indirect influence on MOOC online reviews through social interactions in discussion forums, as well. Coursera the largest MOOC platform, is selected as the empirical research object, and data from learners who participated in the MOOC discussion forum and provided MOOC online reviews from August 2016 to December 2019 are obtained from the most popular course, “Machine Learning”. After processing, data from 4376 learners are obtained. Then, according to research hypotheses, multi regression models are constructed accordingly. The results show that the length of MOOC online review text is affected by the MOOC learning progress, the number of discussion forum posts, the number of follow, the online review sentiment and MOOC rating. This study highlights the main factors that affect MOOC online reviews. As a result, some suggestions are put forward for the construction of MOOC.

Look who’s talking: Exploring instructors’ contributions to Massive Open Online Courses

AbstractPrevious research on xMOOC pedagogy has established that learner interactions in discussion forums play a fundamental role in learning. However, little is known about the extent to which MOOC instructors engage with learner conversations and the impact this has on learner engagement. Adopting a novel design, this study went beyond self‐reported methods, and combined transcript analysis and in‐depth interviews to examine the dynamics of learner‐instructor interactions and to revisit the use of the Community of Inquiry framework (CoI) in MOOC context. The findings revealed that the majority of instructors’ contributions to learner conversations are social, followed by teaching and cognitive contributions. While all contribution types decreased over the duration of the MOOC, the relative importance of each type did not necessarily change. Furthermore, the analysis showed that learners engaged with 42% of instructor contributions by responding to or liking them or both. Considering the application of the CoI to massive and open online learning contexts, this study demonstrates that while the framework can unfold educational transactions in MOOCs, reoperationalisation and reconceptualisation of some indicators along with the introduction of new indicators are essential. The implications of this for theory and practice are discussed.

An analysis of the orthographic errors found in university students’ asynchronous digital writing

This article presents an analysis of the orthographic errors found in university students’ asynchronous digital writing. A university and a society belonging to the twenty-first century require students and professionals who can use their language correctly in any context, device and mode of communication. The research was based on a sample of 1237 digital interactions in discussion forums and emails between students of the National University of Distance Learning on subjects related to academic work. We applied a descriptive quantitative methodology by means of a statistical and lexicometric analysis of the written texts and multiple regression analysis, related to four independent variables: gender, studies, interlocutor (professor/student), and digital device (fixed, mobiles) and three orthographic sub-levels (punctuation, accentuation and spelling). The results show that there is considerable room for improvement in the orthography of university students’ asynchronous digital writing. A total of 71.3% of errors were not conditioned by independent variables but by ignorance of the orthographic rules or incorrect use of the language.

A Critical Analysis of Characteristics that Influence the Effect of Instructor Discussion Interaction on Student Outcomes

Teacher presence facilitates students’ social and cognitive presence in online courses. Instructor interaction in discussion forums, a widely adopted instructional strategy, establishes teacher presence but research on the optimal frequency and content of instructor interaction in discussion is underdeveloped. This research evaluated 1625 instructor posts in 36 graduate-level courses in education to determine their impact on students’ perceptions of the quality of the instructor and course, students’ perceptions of their learning, and students’ actual achievement. Findings suggest the frequency of instructor interaction in discussion has no effect on student outcomes, but posts that are instructional improve students’ perceptions of their learning, and posts that are conversational improve students’ perceptions of instructor and course quality and their actual academic achievement. Implications for instructors and policymakers are addressed.

The Use of Phrases Containing misunderstanding in German Discussion Forums

This article focuses on phrases which include the word misunderstand (missverstehen) in German discussion forums. The article shows that the word misunderstanding not only is bound to actual misunderstandings in conversation but also is used as face work in order to stabilize communication. It is not a sign of a disturbance or interruption in interaction. Rather, the aim of the use of misunderstanding is to stabilize interaction in the forum and construe . Understanding occurs when the participants in the interaction can interpret the information in a message as relevant. This information is built on contextualisation cues, which make it possible for the receiver to connect an utterance to the context. Missing/irrelevant contextualization cues make the content of the message irrelevant and this causes a , since the interlocutors do not share the same understanding of the context. The is negotiated on a meta level in an interactional sequence, referred to as a script in this article. Each contribution in the forum sequence is considered to be a slot in this script. The verb misunderstand can be used in different slots in these scripts for specific purposes. This article shows that the distribution of specific components in the message defines these purposes. tense, modal constructions, passive etc). They all stem from internet discussion forums with a variety of themes. The aim is to show that the phrases containing the word misunderstanding are used to stabilize communication in different scripts and are not a sign of a break or disturbance in the communication. It is shown how face saving and face threatening acts (FTAs), respectively, are handled in different kinds of scripts. This article does not deal with different kinds of misunderstandings or investigate the reasons why misunderstandings occur. It also does not attempt to show quantitatively how frequently different pragmatic functions of phrases containing the word misunderstanding appear in discussion forums. The article focuses on how the word misunderstand/ing/ influences interaction in discussion forums.

Una mirada retrospectiva en la conformación de una comunidad virtual de aprendizaje. Un estudio con alumnos de posgrado

This paper describes an experience that took place at a posgraduate university program. The aim is to to analyze the creation of virtual learning communities according to their main characteristics. 50 students from a postgraduate course in virtual mode participated in this study, which took place in a Master on the Teaching of Natural Sciences at a state university in Argentina. For data gathering, tasks developed by students and analysis of interactions in discussion forums were used. Discussion of results shows that the course provided opportunities for support, discussion and simultaneous development and socialization of ideas which allowed the development of a learning community.

A visualisation tool to aid exploration of students’ interactions in asynchronous online communication

Much research in recent years has focused on the introduction of virtual learning environments (VLEs) to universities, documenting practice, and sharing experience (Armitage, Browne, & Jenkins, 2001; Browne & Jenkins, 2003; Moron-Garcia, 2004; Weller, 2007). Attention has been directed towards the importance of online dialogue for learning as a defining feature of the VLE. Communicative tools are an important means by which VLEs have the potential to transform learning with computers from being passive and transmissive in nature, to being active and constructivist (Pavey & Garland, 2004). However, practical methods of reviewing and analysing online communication to trace cycles of real dialogue (and learning) have proved somewhat elusive. Qualitative methods are also under-used for VLE discussions, since they demand new sets of research skills for those unfamiliar with them, and can be time intensive. This paper describes a visualisation tool to aid the analysis of online communication. The tool has two purposes: first, it can be used on a day-to-day basis by teachers or forum moderators to review the development of a discussion and to support appropriate interventions. Second, the tool can support research activities since the visualisations generated provide the basis for further qualitative and quantitative analysis of online dialogue. The visualisation software is designed to encode interaction types simply and quickly. The software was tested and then used to analyse data from a sample of forums within the Moodle VLE. The paper discusses both the method of visualisation and analysis of the online interactions as a pilot for further research analysing interaction in discussion forums.

Relation Between the Complexity of Individuals' Expression and Groups Dynamic in Online Discussion Forums

This article presents a study concerning the comprehension of interactions in discussion forums. In particular, we approach the role of the complexity of individuals' written expression in the various facets of these interactions, such as the level of activity or the fidelity of the group's members. The study is based on the analysis of traces of activities highlighted by related works in the field of social psychology. Among other things, the results show that the amount of in- ter-group relations is directly connected to the complexity of individuals' expression.

Técnicas para el análisis y visualización de interacciones en ambientes virtuales

Asynchronous forums, e-mail lists, and chat rooms create virtuaql environments where it may not be easy to detect communication problemas among the participants. Anyone who wants to teach through an online environment finds that current learning management systems do not provide enough information about the communication structure of the group, level of participation, and other structural characteristics of the interactions that happen in this environment. In this work, the use of social network analisis methods (SNA) and visualizations for online environments had been explored. The procedures to create the visual objects that represent intangible online interactions are shown and the usefulness of these images as devices for data pattern recognition is analized. The validity of SNA techniques and visualizations as tools for instructors of online courses and researchers to evaluate participation and interaction in discussion forums was examined. This study showed that SNA metrics and the visualization of interactions are useful and potentially effective tools to analize online interaction patterns.

Health-Care Professionals' Participation in an Online Discussion Forum: The Impact on Structure, Content and Interaction

ABSTRACT The study investigates the impact by health-care professionals on a Norwegian Internet discussion forum. A comparison of the same forum in time-periods with either high or low level of professional involvement was performed. The hypothesis was that professional involvement would have marked effects on the interaction in discussion forums; among other things encourage short and factual/practical interaction patterns at the expense of social climate. A range of different methods were utilized, quantitative analysis, (qualitative) content analysis, and visual mapping. The results show differences between high and low professional involvement in the forum in terms of activity level, distribution over week-days, social presence density, and structure. Some methodological reflections are offered, as well as recommendations for future research.

Online group interaction and mental health: an analysis of three online discussion forums.

The present study examined interactions on three Norwegian online discussion forums, and attempted to identify differences in interactions and plausible outcomes of thematically dissimilar forums. Four categories were applied to the forums in order to distinguish potentially constructive and destructive uses. Interaction along the constructive-destructive dimension was contingent upon the themes discussed, as well as the level and nature of professional involvement. Interaction adhering to a destructive dimension was identified only in relation to the forum for eating disorders. Discovering to what extent theme and professional involvement influence interactions in discussion forums might guide further professional involvement in online group settings and the design of appropriate online environments.