Dr. Shane Dawson is a Senior Research Fellow with the Centre for Learning Innovation at Queensland University of Technology in Australia. He is the first postdoctoral fellow with UBC’s Institute for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and, for the past year, he has been working on developing a WebCT Vista Forum Social Network Analysis Tool with Aneesha Bakharia, a fellow Australian colleague.
What is the WebCT Vista Forum Social Network Analysis Tool?
The Social Network Analysis Tool gives instructors a visual representation of the discussion forum activity within WebCT Vista. Rather than just a list of posts and replies, the tool allows instructors to see which students are talking amongst each other and the thread depth for each topic; this indicates the reply frequency to a particular post – the higher the thread depth, the more replies a topic has received. By looking at thread depth, instructors can see which specific questions and postings have generated the most discussion. This information can indicate that certain topics were easier or more difficult for students to understand than others.
Why the Discussion Forum Matters
Dr. Dawson’s work has focused on tracking WebCT Vista usage amongst students, and his findings have shown that those who participate in discussion forums on a regular basis receive better grades than those who do not. This suggests that participation in the discussion forum facilitates student learning.
For the instructor, this tool is valuable because he or she can draw conclusions about whether the intended pedagogy is reflected in the online discussion. Since data can be gathered at any time, it also serves as a more regular way of generating student feedback. The tool can thus be used to complement standard course evaluation systems, which are generally collected once per term.
Dr. Dawson also found that students converse with other students of a similar academic ability. For instance, students that are performing well in a class generally discuss topics amongst others who are also performing well. Similarly, students that are having some academic difficulty generally converse amongst others who may also require some learning support. This prompts the question of how these students identify each other, which might speak to the way a question is posed in the context of the forum. The key for Dr. Dawson, though, is to develop learning activities that promote discussions and exchanges among high and low performing students. If such connections can be fostered, it can make for a more beneficial learning experience for all students.
Identifying Disconnected Students
The Social Network Analysis Tool also helps instructors identify disconnected students who have not been a part of active discussions and who might need extra learning support. These might be students that have not posted items to the discussion board, or those who have posted but have not received replies. It is possible that students who do not participate in the discussion forum are doing well in the course, and are still engaged with their coursework. However, the WebCT Vista data provides a more targeted approach to assist teaching staff to identify students requiring some learning assistance.
After identifying these students, instructors can take a proactive approach by contacting the students to make sure that they are on track in the course, and encouraging them to participate in the forum. If the student is struggling with the coursework, an instructor can offer more assistance or encourage him or her to post questions on the discussion forum to get help from classmates. An instructor can also connect a student, who is having some learning difficulties, with someone who has a good grasp of the course content. If an instructor can encourage these students to engage in the discussion, it will enrich the learning experience for all.
The Social Network Analysis Tool also identifies who the teaching staff (instructors and teaching assistants) are talking to, and who they respond to in the discussion forum. Such information shows the teaching staff where they are predominantly spending their time – with the high or low performing students – so that they can see if changes need to be made to the way they allocate their resources.
Visualization of Social Network Analysis Tool: Each red dot represents a student (names have been omitted in this example), while the black arrows indicate whom each student is conversing with. The four unconnected red dots represent students who have not received replies to their posts – these are the disconnected students. The students in the centre of the image are the students who participate the most in the discussion forum.
What’s Next
Dr. Dawson notes that the Social Network Analysis Tool has already been used by some instructors at UBC to assist in developing more personalized student learning environments. The next step for him is to simplify aspects of the tool, to promote its features, and to make it widely accessible across all of UBC.
Dr. Dawson sees the potential for this tool to be used in a much broader way, so that the students, and not only the teaching staff, can access the data generated. If students are able to compare their own performance in the discussion forums with that of their peers, they can take charge of their learning and monitor the effects of participation on their academic performance.
Such a proactive approach to learning is one that may motivate students to participate and become more engaged in a course. With the help of the Social Network Analysis Tool, instructors can make better use of the discussion forum, which makes for an enhanced collective learning experience.
To find out how you can use the Social Network Analysis Tool, please visit the Student Engagement and the LMS page