Fine grained analysis of students’ online discussion posts

Collaborative discussions should engage all students, not just a few who dominate (“leaders”) while others participate as “followers” (Zhu, 2006). Cunningham (1991) noted that collaborating learners bring, discuss and debate multiple perspectives to develop their own position while acknowledging others' views. Higher levels of knowledge construction emerged when posts stimulated frequent reply by multiple participants (Aviv, Erlich, Ravid, &...