Reciprocity in student online discussions

Shitian Shen, Jihie Kim, Jaebong Yoo

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

Abstract

Online discussion is a popular tool for information exchange in web-based education. Analyses of how students interact or their contribution styles can help us understand weaknesses or strengths of the participants. This paper presents a framework for capturing information trading behaviors in Q&A discussions using a 'reciprocity' model. We measure the reciprocity of a student based on (a) the degree of responses that he/she received from other students in discussing his/her questions and (b) the degree of contributions in discussing other students' problems. We use a linear regression to model the overall reciprocity rate over time, and correlate the regression coefficient of the reciprocity rate to the student course grade. We found that although the overall reciprocity rate is not statistically correlated to the grade, high performing students have larger reciprocity rates and help other students more actively. We expect that the reciprocity rates revealed from discussion participations can help instructors make online activities more balanced.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)157-160
Number of pages4
JournalComputer-Supported Collaborative Learning Conference, CSCL
Volume2
StatePublished - 2013
Event10th International Conference on Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, CSCL 2013 - Madison, WI, United States
Duration: 15 Jun 201319 Jun 2013

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