What is the purpose of this paper?

In this paper the authors discuss what it mean to use Cohere’s online dialogue environment to monitor online learning activities and develop useful learning analytics, by starting on the analysis of the online discourse which learners are involved in.

What can be done to help the educator understand the meaning of the term?

Comparison between different learners link types table, and different analytics on the data can support the understanding of those deeper reflections on learners’ use of language.

What are the main categories of rhetorical moves?

If the authors look at Rebecca’s list of rhetorical moves, the authors can notice that she classified as gray (neutral) rhetorical moves which refer to descriptive turns in the conversation, aiming to: i.e. identify similarities, illustrate, give examples and discover relationships.

What did the researchers have to do to create a discourse network?

In order to do this, they had to create new posts in which they described more general reflections on research questions, goals and activities and then they had to start creating semantic connections between the document annotations and the posts (for more info on the Cohere’s user interface and how to build semantic connections and discourse networks through Cohere please refer to [16,17]).

What is the main focus of discourse analysis?

This approach to analyzing dialogue, in search of clues and indicators of learning, builds on the tradition of scholarly and scientific discourse.

What is the second strand of work on which the authors build?

Theory is a second strand of work on which the authors build, given the importance of reflection and critical thinking in learning discourse.

Open AccessProceedings Article10.1145/2090116.2090120

Discourse-centric learning analytics

Anna De Liddo, +4 more

- 27 Feb 2011

- pp 23-33

133

TL;DR: This work motivates a focus on learners' discourse as a promising site for identifying patterns of activity which correspond to meaningful learning and knowledge construction, and presents examples of analytics at the level of individual learners and groups.

Abstract: Drawing on sociocultural discourse analysis and argumentation theory, we motivate a focus on learners' discourse as a promising site for identifying patterns of activity which correspond to meaningful learning and knowledge construction. However, software platforms must gain access to qualitative information about the rhetorical dimensions to discourse contributions to enable such analytics. This is difficult to extract from naturally occurring text, but the emergence of more-structured annotation and deliberation platforms for learning makes such information available. Using the Cohere web application as a research vehicle, we present examples of analytics at the level of individual learners and groups, showing conceptual and social network patterns, which we propose as indicators of meaningful learning.

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Most frequently asked questions

1. What are the contributions mentioned in the paper "Discourse-centric learning analytics" ?

Using the Cohere web application as a research vehicle, the authors present examples of analytics at the level of individual learners and groups, showing conceptual and social network patterns, which they propose as indicators of meaningful learning.

2. What is the third strand of work informing their approach?

The third strand of work informing their approach derives from Rittel’s formative work on Issue-Based Information Systems and his argumentative method for sensemaking deliberation in complex problem spaces [7].

3. What is the meaning of positive links?

Positive link types are represented with a green link and label, and express positive rhetorical moves such as i.e. supports, agrees with, improves on, is consistent with, predicts, proves, solves the problem etc.

4. What is the main idea of Cohere?

Following the approach of structured deliberation/argument mapping, Cohere renders annotations on the web, or a discussion, as a network of rhetorical moves: users must reflect on, and make explicit, the nature of their contribution to a discussion.

Figure 8: List of semantic connections in which learners have compared their thinking with other learners

Figure 6: Link types usage statistics. Arrows show three connections categories - Neutral, Positive and Negative

Figure 2: Shows how Cohere augment common online dialogue text: the icons at the side of each post shows rhetorical role of the post and the semantic connections the rhetorical move

Figure 10: Link distribution histograms for COP15 and OLnet Team discussion groups.

Figure 7: Comparing four users’ usage of link types.

Table 1: Example of Link Type Analytics for a learner

Citations

•Journal Article•10.1504/IJTEL.2012.051816

Learning analytics: drivers, developments and challenges

Rebecca Ferguson

- 01 Jan 2012

- International Journal of Technology Enha...

TL;DR: This review of the field begins with an examination of the technological, educational and political factors that have driven the development of analytics in educational settings, and goes on to chart the emergence of learning analytics.

...read moreread less

1.7K

•Proceedings Article•10.1145/2330601.2330616

Social learning analytics: five approaches

Rebecca Ferguson, +1 more

- 29 Apr 2012

TL;DR: It is proposed that Social Learning Analytics can be usefully thought of as a subset of learning analytics approaches, and early work towards implementing these analytics on SocialLearn, an online learning space in use at the UK's Open University, is described.

...read moreread less

542

Journal Article•10.1177/0002764213479367

Informing Pedagogical Action: Aligning Learning Analytics With Learning Design

Lori Lockyer, +2 more

- 12 Mar 2013

- American Behavioral Scientist

TL;DR: It is argued that to move from small-scale practice to broad scale applicability, there is a need to establish a contextual framework that helps teachers interpret the information that analytics provides.

...read moreread less

449

•Journal Article•10.21917/IJSC.2015.0145

Application of Big Data in Education Data Mining and Learning Analytics-A Literature Review

Katrina Sin, +1 more

- 01 Jul 2015

TL;DR: This study looks into the recent applications of Big Data technologies in education and presents a review of literature available on Educational Data Mining and Learning Analytics.

...read moreread less

266

10.1504/ijtel.2012.051816

Learning analytics: drivers, developments and challenges

Rebecca Ferguson

...read moreread less

212

...

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References

•Journal Article•10.1207/S15327809JLS0303_3

Computer Support for Knowledge-Building Communities

Marlene Scardamalia, +1 more

- 01 Jul 1994

- The Journal of the Learning Sciences

TL;DR: The conceptual bases of computer-supported intentional learning environments (CSILE) as mentioned in this paper come from research on intentional learning, process aspects of expertise, and discourse in knowledge-building communities, and combine to support the following propositions: schools need to be restructured as communities in which the construction of knowledge is supported as a collective goal, and the role of educational technology should be to replace classroom discourse patterns with those having more immediate and natural extensions to knowledge building communities outside school walls.

...read moreread less

2.3K

•Book

Opening Pandora's Box: A Sociological Analysis of Scientists' Discourse

Nigel Gilbert, +1 more

- 27 Apr 1984

TL;DR: A possible history of the field of scientific discourse can be found in this article. But it is not a complete history of all scientific discourse, as discussed in this paper, nor a complete survey of all existing works.

...read moreread less

1.7K

Journal Article•10.1016/S0378-4371(00)00018-2

Scale-free characteristics of random networks: the topology of the world-wide web

Albert-László Barabási, +2 more

- 15 Jun 2000

- Physica A-statistical Mechanics and Its ...

TL;DR: This work introduces a model that leads to a scale-free network, capturing in a minimal fashion the self-organization processes governing the world-wide web.

...read moreread less

1.6K

Computer support for knowledge-building communities

Marlene Scardamalia

- 01 Jan 1996

TL;DR: This article focuses on educational ideas and enabling technology for knowledge-building discourse and the conceptual bases of computer-supported intentional learning environments (CSILE), described as a means for refraining classroom discourse to support knowledge building in ways extensible to out-of-school knowledgeadvancing enterprises.

...read moreread less

1.4K

•Book

Argumentation Schemes for Presumptive Reasoning

Douglas Walton

- 01 Nov 1995

TL;DR: The Argumentation Schemes of as mentioned in this paper are: Argumentation from Ignorance. Argument from Consequences. Presumptive Reasoning. Ignoring Qualifications and ignoring Qualifications.

...read moreread less

1.1K

...

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Discourse-centric learning analytics

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Most frequently asked questions

1. What are the contributions mentioned in the paper "Discourse-centric learning analytics" ?

2. What is the third strand of work informing their approach?

3. What is the meaning of positive links?

4. What is the main idea of Cohere?

5. What is the purpose of this paper?

6. What can be done to help the educator understand the meaning of the term?

7. What are the main categories of rhetorical moves?

8. What did the researchers have to do to create a discourse network?

9. What is the main focus of discourse analysis?

10. What is the second strand of work on which the authors build?

Figures

Citations

Learning analytics: drivers, developments and challenges

Social learning analytics: five approaches

Informing Pedagogical Action: Aligning Learning Analytics With Learning Design

Application of Big Data in Education Data Mining and Learning Analytics-A Literature Review

Learning analytics: drivers, developments and challenges

References

Computer Support for Knowledge-Building Communities

Opening Pandora's Box: A Sociological Analysis of Scientists' Discourse

Scale-free characteristics of random networks: the topology of the world-wide web

Computer support for knowledge-building communities

Argumentation Schemes for Presumptive Reasoning

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