Social learning analytics (SLA) tools are designed to visually demonstrate online discussions with a goal to foster student engagement. However, empirical studies indicate controversial results of the effect of SLA tools on student engagement. This design-based research designs a student-facing SLA tool to demonstrate discussions from three…

Social media platforms like "Twitter" are venues for 24/7 political discussion -- including deliberation, everyday banter, and bickering. For youth, these platforms offer new opportunities and risks for participation, and suggest corresponding implications for civic education. This qualitative, exploratory study examines how 15 civic…

Technology-driven interactions are becoming commonplace, particularly as online classes, telecommuting, and virtual meetings across distances and time zones have all increased in popularity. Platforms such as Google Meet, Skype, Webex, and Zoom use synchronous audio-visual communication supported by text-based chat, emoticon responses, and other…

This article proposes an automatic group formation method applying the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to boost the quality of students' online interactions. The groups were heterogeneous regarding their levels of knowledge and their interests, and three different leadership roles were distributed among group members. A case study with…

The impetus for this study began during an elementary teacher education course meeting, where preservice teachers discussed whether or not it was appropriate to discuss controversial topics--including race--with young children. Preservice teachers disclosed their "uncomfortableness" with race at large, and emphasized that discussions…

The study presented in this article explores the ways in which discursive-technologies shape interaction in "digitally-mediated" educational settings in terms of affordances and constraints for the participants. Our multi-scale sociocultural-dialogical analysis of the interactional order in the online sessions of an "Italian for…

Knowledge sharing visibility (KSV) is a critical environmental factor which can reduce social loafing in knowledge sharing (KS). This is especially true in ICT [information and communication technology]-based KS in learning organisations. As such, it is imperative that we better understand how to design technology enabled knowledge management…

This mixed-methods study looks at patterns of emoticon usage in adult, ESL student writing. Data are drawn from 13 students and their participation in online discussion forums designed to supplement a traditional ESL writing course. The study conceptualizes computer mediated communication as a hybridized and emergent form which utilizes features…

Students studying a third-year e-commerce subject experienced face-to-face and online discussions as an important part of their learning experience. The quality of the students' experiences of learning through those discussions is investigated in this study. This study uses qualitative approaches to investigate the variation in the students'…