Participation In Online Discussions Research Articles

Course Evaluation and Improvement Based on Association Rule Mining in English Online Teaching and Learning

Association rule mining in English online teaching and learning involves the analysis of patterns and relationships within large sets of data to uncover meaningful insights that can enhance the teaching and learning experience. By examining student interactions, performance data, and usage patterns on online learning platforms, educators can identify correlations between different learning activities, student characteristics, and learning outcomes. This paper explores the application of the Frequent Pattern System Modelling Association Rule (FPSMAR) in the realm of online English teaching and learning. FPSMAR offers a data-driven approach to analyzing student interaction data, uncovering meaningful patterns and associations between different elements of the online learning environment and student outcomes. Through the analysis of association rules and frequent patterns, educators gain valuable insights into effective instructional strategies, learning patterns, and areas for improvement. The study presents association rules indicating relationships such as the correlation between multimedia resource usage and high language proficiency or active online discussion participation and enhanced speaking ability. The study reveals association rules indicating strong relationships, such as a correlation coefficient of 0.80 between multimedia resource usage and high language proficiency, or a confidence level of 0.85 indicating enhanced speaking ability through active online discussion participation.

Characteristics promoted in order to develop student's critical thinking disposition in online discussions during a fully online course

Online discussion boards were organised to develop the critical thinking disposition of students and their attitude toward disaster mitigation during a fully online course. In order to promote participation in the discussions, an incentive was provided to all discussants. Assessment of the effectiveness of the lecturer’s invitation to join the discussion was conducted to extract which participants posted once, and the learning activity and characteristics of these students was evaluated. In the results, the levels of participation in online discussions affected some factor scores for personality and learning performance. Also, the causal relationships of the development of literacy of critical thinking disposition were analysed, and the factor of participation level in online discussions was examined.

Incivility and Intolerance in COVID-19 Discussions on Facebook

The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled heated discussions and intensified polarization in the exchange of opinions. Due to strict government restrictions, including a hard lockdown, much of this debate took place online. In this study, we examine how Czechs engaged in political discussions on Facebook during the pandemic. This research looks into the occurrence of incivility and intolerance and the similarities/contrasts with normatively desirable discursive features. We also focus on the perception of differences between various types of antinormative expressions among participants in online discussions and their roles. We use a mixed-method approach: a quantitative content analysis of comments on the Facebook pages of two of the Czech Republic’s most popular news media outlets (i.e., public service television, ČT24, and commercial television, TN.CZ) and two top Czech politicians (Andrej Babiš and Tomio Okamura); and qualitative interviews with 20 participants collected during the Springs of 2021. Data were downloaded by Facepager during the hard lockdown in the Czech Republic (March and April 2021), and the final sample consisted of 1,792 comments. We reveal that incivility, when expressed with a justified opinion, was less likely to directly attack other commenters within the thread. We also observe differences in the amount of incivility in politicians’ pages compared to the news media. Incivility has increased over time since the hard lockdown started. We address the implications of different conditions in which incivility and intolerance occurred and their impact on deliberative democracy.

Mechanisms influencing the learning effect of ISM network under big data regression algorithm

Abstract Exploring the impact mechanism of online learning effectiveness can effectively optimize and improve the impact to enhance online learning effectiveness. This paper describes a big data Gaussian process regression model under big data technology, and global a priori sparse approximation and local approximation solve the predicted distribution results. The training conditional probabilities and test conditional probabilities of the hidden variables are optimized using the induced point method and the spectral approximation method. Then, a simple analysis of the network learning behavior applied by the ISM model is introduced using the big data Gaussian process regression model, and the key, direct and fundamental factors that may affect the network learning are mined. Finally, relative data analysis was conducted based on the relevant influencing factors mined by the ISM model. From the number of course visits, 34.54% of the learners’ visits to the course are mainly concentrated between 100-199 times. Regarding the length of discussions, the per capita participation in online discussions was 37.32 minutes, and most learners mainly focused on 0-50 minutes. It indicates that using big data Gaussian regression model can analyze the influencing factors of online learning through ISM model, and the targeted improvement and optimization can enhance the effectiveness of online learning.

Unveiling Utopian Civic Engagement: Empowering Digital Natives through Digital Literacy for a Better Future

This study aims to uncover the potential of empowering digital natives through digital literacy to strengthen utopian civic engagement for a better future. The research methodology employed in this study is grounded theory, with data collected through in-depth interviews with 15 digital natives respondents in Bandung, Indonesia. The collected data was then analyzed using NVivo version 12 Plus for Macbook software. The study's findings indicate that digital literacy promotes positive social media use and enhances digital natives' civic engagement. Digital natives with high digital literacy tend to have greater social and political awareness, enabling them to identify and address complex social issues through active participation in online discussions and actions. Furthermore, digital literacy helps shape their civic identity and a sense of belonging to online communities. The conclusion of this research provides a deeper understanding of the potential for empowering digital natives through digital literacy for utopian civic engagement.

Barriers to Participation in Polarized Online Discussions About Covid-19 and the Russo-Ukrainian War

Even though social networking sites create a unique online public space for the exchange of opinions, only a small share of citizens participate in online discussions. Moreover, research has depicted current online discussions as highly uncivil, hostile, and polarized, and the number of heated discussions has escalated in the last two years because of health, social, and security crises. This study investigates the perceived barriers to participation in Facebook discussions, focusing on two topics: the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russo-Ukrainian War. It explores the role that the negativity of these online discussions has on participation. To investigate the perspectives of users and their personal experiences with online discussions in times of crisis, we apply a qualitative research method and interviews with participants. We collected and analyzed 50 semi-structured interviews with Czech Facebook users who participated in discussions during the spring of 2021 (i.e., Covid-19) and the spring of 2022 (i.e., Russo-Ukrainian War). The results show that, after initial mobilization at the beginning of the pandemic, the crisis reinforced several crucial barriers to participation in discussions due to the perceived persistence of polarization (e.g., the spread of disinformation, the bipolar character of discussions, negative perception of opponents), which subsequently spread to other areas and issues. The data also implies that these barriers tend to demobilize less active participants, those who do not have strong opinions, and participants who think the subject matter is not worth the heated exchange of opinions.

KAṞṞAL KAṞPITTALIL EDMODO [EDMODO-BASED LEARNING

The dimension of education has changed as a result of technology’s rapid development. The emergence of social networking tool has enabled people to connect and collaborate throughout of social networking tool enabled people to connect and collaborate throughout the computer. An educational network, Edmodo aims to provide teachers with tools to help them communicate and connect with their students and parents. Teachers can share content, texts, videos, homework, and assignments with their students using Edmond's app or website. We used an explanatory approach to understand Edmodo in detail. The results show that using Edmodo-based learning is the best teaching and learning tool for teachers and students. Edmodo-based e-learning in the blended learning process successfully facilitates student participation in online discussions and assignments and can increase students' interest and motivation to improve their learning outcomes. The results of this paper suggest that learning activities need to be developed on the basis of sociocultural theory and a systems approach to communicative learning so that they can improve interaction and communication through the use of Edmodo-based e-learning in a blended learning process applied to the student learning process in education.

Students’ Participation in Online Discussion of ESP Course through Team Based Project

This study aims to analyze students’ participation in online discussion forum of ESP course with Team Based Project. The materials and process of this model have been designed in the LMS for students. There were 98 participants from 5 classes of ESP course taken as the sample of this research. Various difficulties faced by students in developing communication in writing become more complicated when learning is done online. Team based project is applied because it demands the ability of the students themselves to solve problems (Student Center Learning) and in responding to the acquirement of Indonesian Qualification Framework (IQF) Curriculum that as a new Higher Education Key Performance Indicator (IKU) from the Ministry of Education. A survey with quantitative approach is conducted in this research. The results show that the respondents reacted to numerous responses into many aspects such as; 1) demographic information; 2) patterns of online participation 3) frequency of participation in online discussion forum; 4) percentage of read but no response posts; 5) percentage of response and response posts; 6) benefits of participation in online forum; 7) perceived impact of discussion forum on student learning and performance; and 8) problems of participation in online forum.

“Get Your Teeth Fixed Before You Go on TV”: Online Discussions of Reality Television as the Hegemonic Gaze Pointed at Socially Unacceptable “Others”

The article is engaged with the question of how viewers of Czech reality television programmes negotiate the social status of low-income participants in online discussions. The analysis is triggered by an enquiry into practices of stigmatisation and the processes of drawing, maintaining, and shifting boundaries between the normalised, well-ordered “self” and the poverty-stricken, socially unacceptable “other”. The public judgement of people lacking economic and cultural capital is analysed using Internet and social network debates related to the Czech adaptations of the reality TV programmes Výměna manželek (Wife Swap, TV Nova, 2005-present) and Prostřeno (Come Dine with Me, TV Prima, 2010-present). This method provides insight into the creation of consensual meaning, and allows the analysis of the positions, claims and arguments adopted by online discussants. The research outcome showed some important differences between the evaluations offered by the producers of programmes and those accepted by viewers.

Incorporating fantasy into gamification promotes student learning and quality of online interaction

We used the design-based research approach to test and refine a theoretically grounded goal-access-feedback-challenge-collaboration gamification model. The testbed was a 10-week, university-level e-learning design course offered in two consecutive semesters. In Study 1, we implemented the initial goal-access-feedback-challenge-collaboration model in semester one of the 2020–2021 academic year (N = 26). The aim was to enhance student behavioral engagement in online discussion forums, affective engagement in the class, and learning performance. The results of Study 1 showed that although most participants were engaged in this gamified learning experience during the first two sessions, they gradually lost interest and their participation in online discussions dropped over the next eight weeks. Thus, we introduced a new element, fantasy, into the original model. In Study 2, we tested the effectiveness of the goal-access-feedback-challenge-collaboration-fantasy model on students’ learning outcomes in semester two of 2020–2021 (N = 23). The results of Study 2 suggested that, compared to the original model, the goal-access-feedback-challenge-collaboration-fantasy model can better promote students’ engagement in online discussion, as measured by increased interaction with peers, learning experience, and learning performance.

Analysing interactions in online discussions through social network analysis

AbstractBackgroundOnline discussion is one of the commonly used tools to enhance students' interactions and engagements in online courses, but it is not clear how social presence in online discussions impacts students' learning and what kinds of interactions we should encourage. Social network analysis provides a new methodology to investigate how social interactions in online discussions influence learning.ObjectivesThe study aims to identify students' online discussion interaction patterns and investigate how they are related to students' learning performance in an asynchronous course.MethodsStudents who enrolled in an asynchronous undergraduate course were invited to participate in this study. Participants' online discussion participation data were collected from six online discussions from an asynchronous online course. Data were analysed using social network analysis methods as well as correlation and regression analysis.Results and ConclusionsWe found that statistically significant positive correlations existed between learning performance and out‐degree and closeness, respectively, which provided evidence to support that social interactions in online discussions have positive correlations with learning. We also found that out‐closeness contributes to students' learning performance. The results of the study imply that knowledge construction occurs mainly in the centre of the outgoing network. By interpreting this study's results with the social construction of knowledge model, we conclude that knowledge construction mainly happens in reading and commenting on others' posts by internalizing and integrating external useful information from others.ImplicationsWhile numerous studies have emphasized the importance of interactions in online discussions or collaborative learning, there are limited studies on what kind of interactions we should encourage and what role students play in knowledge construction. The results of this study provide evidence that knowledge construction happens when students are reading and commenting on others' posts, which includes a hidden process of integrating external useful information into their own understanding. Practical strategies are provided to encourage students to be expansive and actively reach out to other students.

Expression in the Virtual Public: Social Justice Considerations in Harvesting Youth Online Discussions for Research Purposes

Information posted by youth in online social media contexts is regularly accessed, downloaded, integrated, and analyzed by academic researchers. The practice raises significant social justice considerations for researchers including issues of representation and equitable distribution of risks and benefits. Use of this type of data for research purposes helps to ensure representation in research of the voices of (sometimes marginalized) youth who participate in these online contexts, at times discussing issues that are also under-represented. At the same time, youth whose data are harvested are subject (often without notice or consent) to the risks associated with this research, while receiving little if any direct benefit from the work. These risks include the potential loss of online social community as well as threats to participant rights and wellbeing. This paper explores the tension between the social justice benefit of representation and considerations that would suggest caution, the latter including inequitable distribution of research-related costs and benefits, and the traditional ethics concerns of participant autonomy and privacy in the context of youth participation in online discussions. In the final section, we propose guidelines and considerations for the conduct of online social media research to assist researchers to balance and respect representational and participant rights or wellbeing considerations, especially with youth.

Discourses of colorblind racism on an internet forum

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes discourses of everyday racism and colorblind racism on an internet forum. While skin color is invisible online, identities as black, white and shades in between show through participants’ perspectives and communicative behavior in discussions about racism. Critical race theory and whiteness studies argue that there is a perception gap between black and white perspectives on racism, linked to positionality in social structures, which influences experiences and shapes perceptions of the world. This paper shows how black participants in online discussions tend to be more conscious of racial issues and skilled at recognizing racism, while whites often reflect a colorblind discourse that denies structural racism and reproduces everyday racism. Starting with critical perspectives of conscious blacks on the forum and drawing on Cultural Discourse Studies and critical race theory, this paper examines power relations and cultural perspectives underlying white participants’ claims, perspectives and speech acts.

Cognitive relations in online learning: Change of cognitive presence and participation in online discussions based on cognitive style

This study aims at investigating the change of cognitive presence (CP), which is one of the basic variables for effective learning in online discussions, based on the cognitive style. Cognitive styles of the participants were identified based on the group embedded figures test (GEFT). The participants of the study took part in online discussions for seven weeks. Content analysis was used to measure cognitive presence in students’ online discussions. The analysis was based on practical inquiry (PI) model which defines four phases of cognitive presence. The data were also analysed using the nonparametric tests, Spearman Rhu correlation, and descriptive statistics. The findings indicate that, in regard to the cognitive presence of the participants, those phases with the highest frequency are found to be exploration and triggering event. It is also found that the CPs of the participants do not vary based on their cognitive styles. In addition, unlike what was reported by previous studies there are no significant differences between the number of words used by the participants and the rate of involvement in online discussions depending on their CPs. On the other hand, there are moderate and strong correlations between the participants’ CP phases suggesting that the CP phases may be developed in relation to one another. Based on the findings, some suggestions are developed in regard to the scope of learning analytics and discussion dynamics concerning the discussion environments in online learning.

Activation of a student’s individual educational activity in a foreign language in conditions of distance learning

The relevance of this article is determined by the general interest into modern distance technologies in higher education and the need to develop distance education in foreign languages for adult students. Distance learning is closely related to the individual independent educational activities of the student. This article aims to analyze how active techniques can be integrated and effectively used in the individual educational activities of a distant university student. The article presents some possible methods of enhancing the individual educational activities of students who study in a university system applying distance technologies such as participation in online discussions, expert opinions, intellect-maps and reflection, which allows students to effectively learn a foreign language and to develop professional and intercultural-communicative competencies. The didactic possibilities of activating the individual educational activities of students are considered, examples from the practice of e-learning using the distance educational technologies (DET) are given. The practical significance of the article lies in the idea of using active techniques in preparing classes in a foreign language for distance students studying mainly individually.

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF GOOGLE CLASSROOM FOR ONLINE DISCUSSIONS

Covid-19 pandemic brings massive impacts to many life sectors, especially education. Schools and colleges are closed temporarily so that online learning is the only way to continue the education. Of many online platforms and media found on internet, Google Classroom provides features to support the online active learning activities. Therefore, this study is aimed at investigating the effectiveness of Google Classroom for online discussions.By involving 39 sixth-semester students of English Education Program – Universitas Nahdlatul Ulama Surabaya (UNUSA), this descriptive qualitative study captured the comment threads on Google Classroom as the data to describe the number of comments and participants in online discussions. Those data were collected and interpreted to prove that the platform supported written online discussions.The results found that the total number of comments found in 14 meetings was 457 comments which were mostly dominated by the students. The findings showed the students’ increasing participation in online discussions. Google Classroom with its features enables them to minimize the psychological barriers, provide attention, support and motivation in sharing ideas in written comments. Furthermore, notifications sent automatically to the students’ Gmail account is an advantage. In conclusion, Google Classroom is effective to increase the students’ participation in online discussions. With the features provided in the online platform, the students build up more enthusiasm, motivation, attention and support to share comments and ideas during online discussions. Thus, the use of this platform should be taken as a consideration when oral discussions do not work as expected.

Measuring network rationality and simulating information diffusion based on network structure

The absence of rationality in online public discussions leads to many negative problems, such as cyber violence, which often causes serious psychological harm to the people involved in public opinions. The participants in online discussions constitute a complex network system; however, until now, there are few studies that have proposed a definition and measurement of network rationality from a systematic perspective, which makes us unable to assess the rationality of a network reasonably. In this paper, we propose a definition and measurement of network rationality. Then, we build a model based on the fraction of rational nodes and homophily to simulate the generation of social networks, and we reveal their influence on network rationality and irrational information diffusion on a network. Our preliminary results show that a network with higher rationality will create a ”virtuous circle” more easily than a network with lower rationality, even if they have exactly the same initial number of rational nodes. In addition, the higher the rationality of a network is, the weaker the influence of the irrational information on the network will be.

Gendered (in)visibility in digital media contexts

In digital media environments, gendered inequalities can be observed on the level of representation and participation in online discussions and digital communities as well as regarding the prevalence of gender norms in self-presentations, and power relations in social interactions. The #MeToo debate exemplifies how gendered inequalities become visible in social media but also reveals the increasing hostility against women online. Drawing on the concept of digital visibility and informed by theoretical perspectives on gendered digital visibility from gender and feminist research and media and communication studies, the article reviews current research and identifies three distinct processes that characterize gendered digital visibility: (1) replication, (2) reinforcement, and (3) resilience. In doing so, the article proposes a taxonomy of research on gendered digital visibility. Findings highlight the ambivalence of women’s participation in online discussions as well as the replication and reinforcement of gender norms through digital technology. Moreover, interrelatedness of these processes and implications for future research are discussed.

Citizen curation and the online communication of folk economics: the China collapse theory in Hong Kong social media

Folk economics has become increasingly influential in today’s era, where laypeople can (inter)actively deconstruct official discourse and form their truth in social media. This article examines the formation and popularization of folk economics by investigating the localized China collapse theory known as zhibao in one of the most influential online forums in Hong Kong. By analyzing the popularization of zhibao as citizen curation – the subjective and non-professional collection, assessment, and criticism of information by participants in online discussions for the benefit of the group – this article questions the dichotomy between folk economics and mainstream economics, arguing that laypeople may selectively appropriate conventional economics into their discourse. Furthermore, by investigating the citizen curation of zhibao diachronically, this article suggests that online discussion participants’ attention to the credibility of the news sources may be negatively related to the credibility of the discourse they are curating.

Using online discussions to connect theory and practice in core engineering undergraduate courses

AbstractProviding engineering undergraduate students opportunities to connect real‐world applications with a theory is key to preparing them for the workforce; however, this task often requires a balancing act between meeting course objectives in content‐heavy core engineering undergraduate courses and providing experiences that connect real‐world applications with theory. This study seeks to address this problem through the integration of online discussion prompts to promote a connection to real‐world practical applications. The study included undergraduate students enrolled in three engineering core courses. The hypothesis was that participation in online discussions (using prompts) would lead to (a) an increase in student empowerment towards self‐regulated learning and (b) enhanced student engagement and perception of participating in online discussions. Students participated in eight online discussions and were evaluated using pre‐ and post‐assessments. Findings show students across disciplines liked online discussions because they allowed enough time to develop thoughts and promote critical thinking through extending class topics, which increased the control of their own learning. In addition, students were more active in the course activities and offered useful feedback and reflection, which enhanced student engagement. Such feedback included ideas to improve the online discussion, for example, the need for clearer instructions and instructor feedback, better scheduling of due dates, and more engaging discussion prompt. In summary, integrating online discussions into core engineering courses, without sacrificing class content, can indeed have positive implications for self‐regulated learning and higher student engagement.