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International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education

AIED 2018: Artificial Intelligence in Education pp 111–126Cite as

Towards Combined Network and Text Analytics of Student Discourse in Online Discussions

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 10947))

Abstract

This paper presents a novel method for the evaluation of students’ use of asynchronous discussions in online learning environments. In particular, the paper shows how students’ cognitive development across different course topics can be examined using the combination of natural language processing and graph-based analysis techniques. Drawing on the theoretical foundation of the community of inquiry model, we show how topic modeling and epistemic network analysis can provide qualitatively new insight into students’ development of critical and deep thinking skills. We also show how the same method can be used to investigate the effectiveness of instructional interventions and its effect on student learning. The results of this study and its practical implications are further discussed.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, Rua Dom Manuel de Medeiros, Recife, Brazil

    Rafael Ferreira & Vitor Rolim

  2. University of Edinburgh, Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh, EH8 9YL, UK

    Rafael Ferreira & Dragan Gašević

  3. University of South Australia, 160 Currie Street, Adelaide, SA, 5000, Australia

    Vitomir Kovanović

  4. Monash University, 19 Ancora Imparo Way, Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia

    Dragan Gašević

Authors
  1. Rafael Ferreira
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  2. Vitomir Kovanović
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  3. Dragan Gašević
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  4. Vitor Rolim
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rafael Ferreira .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Carolyn Penstein Rosé

  2. University of Technology, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Roberto Martínez-Maldonado

  3. University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany

    H. Ulrich Hoppe

  4. UCL Institute of Education, London, UK

    Rose Luckin

  5. UCL Institute of Education, London, UK

    Manolis Mavrikis

  6. UCL Institute of Education, London, UK

    Kaska Porayska-Pomsta

  7. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Bruce McLaren

  8. University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

    Benedict du Boulay

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Ferreira, R., Kovanović, V., Gašević, D., Rolim, V. (2018). Towards Combined Network and Text Analytics of Student Discourse in Online Discussions. In: Penstein Rosé, C., et al. Artificial Intelligence in Education. AIED 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10947. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93843-1_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93843-1_9

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-93843-1

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