Computer Conferencing Trails

1
Computer Conferencing Trails

• Canan Blake
• IET
• The Open University, UK

2
Outline of the presentation

• trails in computer conferencing
• case study of analysis of interactions in an
  undergraduate course
• case study of two graduate courses in different
  disciplines, investigating to what extent
  students are engaged in an academic debate

3
Computer conferencing trails

• learner created
• how to classify and visualise these trails
• content analysis
• adding metadata to the contributions
• classifying and visualising computer conferencing
  trails can provide a means of
• reflecting on the discussion
• assessing the effect of individual contributions
  and learning process
• learners may benefit from revisiting the trail
  and reflecting upon it

4
Case study 1 Interaction analysis for the
computing group work project

• Undergraduate introductory course on object
  oriented technologies
• Group work projects are assessed, e.g marks for
  participation and quality of contributions
• Task application of object oriented analysis
  techniques in the development of a software system

5
Case study 1(continued)

• analysis of messages sent to the group working
  project on system design
• classification of contributions into propositions
  and queries followed by labelling
• construction of a conference interaction map
• 27 propositions and 9 queries, inference skills,
  explicit and implicit interactions
• mixed student perception

6
(No Transcript)
7
Interaction map shows

• clusters and trails of discussion
• influential contributions
• level of student participation

8
Case study 2 Two postgraduate courses in social
history and science

• conferencing is the primary medium through which
  the tuition takes place
• students have access to a variety of data
  sources, e.g.
• transcribed copies of archive sources, copies of
  maps of Victorian London, census data
• published and commissioned articles, electronic
  databases, WWW, etc.

9
Case study 2 (continued)

• for a better understanding of relevant factors
  that affect trails and learning objects created
  by learners in computer conferences we need
  investigate different contexts and...
• patterns of participation
• the content of the messages
• extent to which they formed an academic debate
• issues many more and substantially longer
  messages than the previous case study

10
Social history course

• two tutorial groups
• discussing Traditions in Social Investigation
• categories
• formed by a grounded theory approach
• not exclusive
• provide evidence that students are engaged in an
  academic debate and they collaborate

11
(No Transcript)
12
(No Transcript)
13
Science communication course (1)

• groups of around 20 students
• discussing a particular issue
• students decide on the topic
• Global warming
• Cellular nuclear replacement
• Nuclear waste disposal
• Genetically modified organisms

14
Science communication course (2)

• initial questions from tutor followed by opening
  statements from students
• discussion
• mid-conference summing up and new directions
• discussion
• closing statements from students and final
  statement from tutor

15
(No Transcript)
16

• Lively discussion
• Little overt disagreement
• Personal views are not very common
• support for argument from a variety of sources

17
Conclusions

• Different types of analysis provide different
  information about the nature of trails and
  learning objects created by the learners
• evidence of collaborative work
• document student actions
• also convey information to participants about
  other participants