Visualise and Evaluate Interactions of Students in Online Discussion Forums

Abstract

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have been widely used in educational institutions to enhance student learning both within and outside the classroom. Recent technological advancements have made it possible to access real-time student data and evaluate performance of students. Monitoring of student social networks assists instructors in identifying student isolation and community formation. The Social Networks Adapting Pedagogical Practice (SNAPP) tool assists instructors to extract and visualise students online network interactions resulting from discussion forums posts and replies. This study aims to visualise and evaluate interactions of students in online discussion forum which was used for project collaboration. Online discussion forums were integrated into a postgraduate course at Cyprus International University (CIU) and students were asked to discuss course and term project related topics on the forum. Then, their interactions were examined with SNAPP tool which, helps to visualise and analyse student data to provide suggestions to promote discussions in courses.

Keywords: Discussion forums, SNAPP, online network interactions, blended learning