Providing coaching to participants in inquiry-based online discussions contributes to developing cognitive presence (CP) and higher-order thinking. However, a primary issue limiting quality and timely coaching is instructors' lack of tools to efficiently identify CP phases in massive discussion transcripts and effectively assess learners'…

Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) has shown considerable promise, but thus far the literature has tended to focus on individual technological tools, without due regard for how the choice of one such tool over another impacts CSCL, either in outline or in detail. The present study, therefore, directly compared the learning-related…

Learning Analytics constitutes a key tool for supporting Learning Design and teacher-led inquiry into student learning. In this paper, we demonstrate how a Social Learning Analytics toolkit can combine social network analysis and content analysis for supporting a global and formal teacher inquiry. This toolkit not only supports teachers in…

Analysing the structure of a social network can help us understand the key factors influencing interaction and collaboration in a virtual learning community (VLC). Here, we describe the mechanisms used in social network analysis (SNA) to analyse the social network structure of a VLC for teachers and discuss the relationship between face-to-face…

This paper reports a 5-year design experiment on cumulative knowledge building as part of an international project. Through a longitudinal study and analysis of cumulative research data, we sought to answer the question, "what happened and why in knowledge building?" Research data constitute messages which participants have written into a shared…