Investigating the Differences of Student Interactions between Behavior- and Content-based Networks in Online Discussions

Tianhui Hu, Huanyou Chai, Sannyuya Liu, Qian Zhang, Guanxian Yi, Zhi Liu, Zhu Su

2020

Abstract

The online asynchronous forum provides a platform for learners to interact with their peers and furtherly improve their critical skills. Understanding the characteristics of student interactions is thus the key to acquiring some useful insights about how learning occurs in online learning environment. Social network analysis (SNA) as a useful tool is often used to analyze student interactions in behavior-based network, in which network tie is defined as the responsive or co-occurrence relation. However, effective student interactions usually rely on the communication of course content as a form of knowledge, not the behavior itself. To this end, this paper began with the word segmentation of every student’s posts, then constructed a network with ties defined as the relations between learners who have co-occurrence of course contents words in their posts, and finally examined the differences of group and individual indexes between behavior- and content-based networks. Results showed that there existed significant differences in the structural and statistical properties between these two networks, and the content-based network was more conducive to discovering the actual interactions between learners in online discussions.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Hu T., Chai H., Liu S., Zhang Q., Yi G., Liu Z. and Su Z. (2020). Investigating the Differences of Student Interactions between Behavior- and Content-based Networks in Online Discussions.In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU, ISBN 978-989-758-417-6, pages 253-260. DOI: 10.5220/0009346602530260

in Bibtex Style

@conference{csedu20,
author={Tianhui Hu and Huanyou Chai and Sannyuya Liu and Qian Zhang and Guanxian Yi and Zhi Liu and Zhu Su},
title={Investigating the Differences of Student Interactions between Behavior- and Content-based Networks in Online Discussions},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU,},
year={2020},
pages={253-260},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0009346602530260},
isbn={978-989-758-417-6},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU,
TI - Investigating the Differences of Student Interactions between Behavior- and Content-based Networks in Online Discussions
SN - 978-989-758-417-6
AU - Hu T.
AU - Chai H.
AU - Liu S.
AU - Zhang Q.
AU - Yi G.
AU - Liu Z.
AU - Su Z.
PY - 2020
SP - 253
EP - 260
DO - 10.5220/0009346602530260