Exploring students' discourse in academic settings over time can provide valuable insight into the evolution of learner engagement and participation in online learning. In this study, we propose an analytical framework to capture topics and the temporal progression of learner discourse. We employed a Contextualized Topic Modeling technique on…

A discussion forum is a valuable tool to support student learning in online contexts. However, interactions in online discussion forums are sparse, leading to other issues such as low engagement and dropping out. Recent educational studies have examined the affordances of conversational agents (CA) powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to…

A discussion forum is a valuable tool to support student learning in online contexts. However, interactions in online discussion forums are sparse, leading to other issues such as low engagement and dropping out. Recent educational studies have examined the affordances of conversational agents (CA) powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to…

In this study we explored questioning behaviors among elementary students engaging in inquiry science using the "Knowledge Forum", a computer-supported collaborative learning tool. Adapting the theory of systemic functional linguistics, we developed the Ideational Function of Question (IFQ) analytical framework by means of inductive analysis of…

By participating in asynchronous course discussion forums, students can work together to refine their ideas and construct knowledge collaboratively. Typically, some messages simply repeat or paraphrase course content, while others bring in new material, demonstrate reasoning, integrate concepts, and develop solutions. Through the messages they…

Flipgrid as an asynchronous video-mediated online discussion platform has offered a space for teachers and students to interact and show their thinking in remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. While Flipgrid discussions can afford educators the chance to build on students' creative language use, the choices teachers make when designing the…

Net-based collaborative learning discourses often suffer from deficiencies such as lack of coherence and coordination. It is suggested that the provision of two functionalities, referencing and typing, which learners may optionally use to ground their contributions during a chat-based discourse, can improve collaborative learning. In particular,…

Recent research indicated that students' ability to construct evidence-based explanations in classrooms through scientific inquiry is critical to successful science education. Structured argumentation support environments have been built and used in scientific discourse in the literature. To the best of our knowledge, no research work in the…

This paper reports on an aspect of the EC funded Argunaut project which researched and developed awareness tools for moderators of online dialogues. In this study we report on an investigation into the nature of creative thinking in online dialogues and whether or not this creative thinking can be coded for and recognized automatically such that…

This paper investigates the complex interactions that occur as teachers meet online to justify and negotiate their assessment judgements of student work across relatively large and geographically dispersed populations. Drawing from sociocultural theories of learning and technology, the technology is positioned as playing a role in either…

Evaluating promisingness of ideas is an important but underdeveloped aspect of knowledge building. The goal of this research was to examine the extent to which Grade 3 students could make promisingness judgments to facilitate knowledge-building discourse. A Promising Ideas Tool was added to Knowledge Forum software to better support…

This article reports a grounded theory study of the moderation of asynchronous online discussions, to explore the processes by which tutors in higher education decide when and how to moderate. It aims to construct a theory of e-moderation based on some key factors which appear to influence e-moderation. It discusses previous research on the…

The case study describes the early stages of building and using a learning management system (LMS) to aid in the productivity of an education faculty unit. Little to no research exists regarding teacher education units using LMSs to create an online web group for work purposes. The literature review preceding the case study illuminated some of the…

Although protocol analysis can be an important tool for researchers to investigate the process of collaboration and communication, the use of this method of analysis can be time consuming. Hence, an automatic coding procedure for coding dialogue acts was developed. This procedure helps to determine the communicative function of messages in online…

Teacher education students have a significant role to play in the sustained application of ICT in schools. It is imperative therefore, that they are exposed to effective use of ICT in their training. However, "effective use" is subjective and existing characterisations of this construct appear to drive different ICT implementation plans…