TY - GEN
T1 - A network analysis of student groups in threaded discussions
AU - Kang, Jeon Hyung
AU - Kim, Jihie
AU - Shaw, Erin
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - As online discussion boards become a popular medium for collaborative problem solving, we would like to understand patterns of group interactions that lead to collaborative learning and better performance. In this paper, we present an approach for assessing collaboration in online discussion, by profiling student-group participation. We use a modularity function to compute optimal discussion group partitions and then examine usage patterns with respect to high-versus low-participating students, and high- versus low-performing students as measured by grades. We apply the profiling technique to a discussion board of an undergraduate computer science course with three semesters of discussion data, comprising 142 users and 1620 messages. Several patterns are identified, and in particular, we show that high achievers tend to act as 'bridges', engaging in more diverse discussions with a wider group of peers.
AB - As online discussion boards become a popular medium for collaborative problem solving, we would like to understand patterns of group interactions that lead to collaborative learning and better performance. In this paper, we present an approach for assessing collaboration in online discussion, by profiling student-group participation. We use a modularity function to compute optimal discussion group partitions and then examine usage patterns with respect to high-versus low-participating students, and high- versus low-performing students as measured by grades. We apply the profiling technique to a discussion board of an undergraduate computer science course with three semesters of discussion data, comprising 142 users and 1620 messages. Several patterns are identified, and in particular, we show that high achievers tend to act as 'bridges', engaging in more diverse discussions with a wider group of peers.
KW - group detection in discussions
KW - Student online discussions
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77955869145&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-642-13437-1_70
DO - 10.1007/978-3-642-13437-1_70
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:77955869145
SN - 364213436X
SN - 9783642134364
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
SP - 359
EP - 361
BT - Intelligent Tutoring Systems - 10th International Conference, ITS 2010, Proceedings
T2 - 10th International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems, ITS 2010
Y2 - 14 June 2010 through 18 June 2010
ER -