Local Preferential Attachment of Posting Behaviour on MOOC Discussion Forum

Xiaoguang Zhu; Huining Song; Yao Zhu

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.12

| Peer-Reviewed

Local Preferential Attachment of Posting Behaviour on MOOC Discussion Forum

Xiaoguang Zhu, Huining Song, Yao Zhu

Published in International Journal of Education, Culture and Society (Volume 6, Issue 5)

Received: 25 August 2021 Accepted: 18 September 2021 Published: 29 September 2021

Views: Downloads:

Download PDF

Share This Article

Twitter
Linked In
Facebook

Abstract

Online education has become a popular education paradigm and foundation for future educations. Compare to traditional offline classes, online education could support massive participants, but also confronting engagement and retention problems. Many studies have analysed participant’s behaviour to enhance the engagement concerning social, cognitive and technical factors, such as 1) knowledge, cognitive process and social dimensions of micro-collaborations; 2) effects of rating visualization on reading behaviour. However, fewer studies have concerned the organization of discussion forum on posting behaviour analysis. Therefore, this study explores patterns of posting behaviours with consideration of forum organization. In detail, this study applied local preferential attachments (LPA) on the posting behaviour of MOOC discussion forum, and discovered their patterns concerning social, emotional and technical factors. The LPA model will measure message attributes on thread page as a factual local environment of posting behaviour. With statistical test on collected data, we validated the significance and linearity of the LPA on measurements of responses number and message length. Results indicated that: 1) most LPA of posting behaviour are significant; 2) comment behaviour expressed sub-linearity on responses number, and others expressed super-linearity; 3) posting behaviour was affected by compound factors of self-identity, knowledge exchange and community citizenship. Their significant preferences suggested that: 1) forum organization is significant to model posting behaviour; 2) re-organize threads and mark message status could improve engagement of participants.

Published in	International Journal of Education, Culture and Society (Volume 6, Issue 5)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.12
Page(s)	167-175
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

MOOC, Massive Open Online Course, Discussion Forum, Local Preferential Attachment, Posting Behaviours, Knowledge Exchange, Community Citizenship

References

[1]	Mohan John Blooma, Jayan Chirayath Kurian, Alton Yeow Kuan Chua, Dion Hoe Lian Goh, and Nguyen Huong Lien. Social question answering: Analyzing knowledge, cognitive processes and social dimensions of micro-collaborations. Comput. Educ., 69: 109–120, 2013.
[2]	Jürgen Buder, Christina Schwind, Anja Rudat, and Daniel Bodemer. Selective reading of large online forum discussions: The impact of rating visualizations on navigation and learning. Comput. Human Behav., 44: 191–201, 2015.
[3]	J. C. C. Chan, K. F. Hew, and W. S. Cheung. Asynchronous online discussion thread development: Examining growth patterns and peer-facilitation techniques. J. Comput. Assist. Learn., 25 (5): 438–452, 2009.
[4]	Chao-Min Chiu, Hsin-Yi Huang, Hsiang-Lan Cheng, and Pei-Chen Sun. Understanding online community citizenship behaviors through social support and social identity. Int. J. Inf. Manage., 35 (4): 504–519, 2015.
[5]	Michelene T. H. Chi and Ruth Wylie. The ICAP Framework: Linking Cognitive Engagement to Active Learning Outcomes. Educ. Psychol., 49 (4): 219–243, 2014.
[6]	Liping Deng and Nicole Judith Tavares. From Moodle to Facebook: Exploring students’ motivation and experiences in online communities. Comput. Educ., 68 (October): 167–176, 2013.
[7]	Jiaming Fang, Lufen Tang, Jingjing Yang, and Min Peng. Social interaction in MOOCs: The mediating effects of immersive experience and psychological needs satisfaction. Telemat. Informatics, 39: 75–91, 2019.
[8]	Khe Foon Hew and Wing Sum Cheung. Students’ and instructors’ use of massive open online courses (MOOCs): Motivations and challenges. Educ. Res. Rev., 12: 45–58, 2014.
[9]	H. Jeong, Z. Néda, and A. L. Barabási. Measuring preferential attachment in evolving networks. Europhys. Lett., 61 (4): 567–572, 2003.
[10]	[Yeonji Jung and Jeongmin Lee. Learning Engagement and Persistence in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS). Comput. Educ., 122: 9–22, 2018.
[11]	Carmel Kent, Esther Laslo, and Sheizaf Rafaeli. Interactivity in online discussions and learning outcomes. Comput. Educ., 97: 116–128, 2016.
[12]	P. L. Krapivsky, S. Redner, and F. Leyvraz. Connectivity of growing random networks. Phys. Rev. Lett., 85 (21): 4629–4632, 2000.
[13]	Jérôme Kunegis, Marcel Blattner, and Christine Moser. Preferential Attachment in Online Networks: Measurement and Explanations. In WebSci, pages 1–10, Paris, France, mar 2013. ACM.
[14]	Saskia Metzler, Stephan Günnemann, and Pauli Miettinen. Stability and dynamics of communities on online question-answer sites. Soc. Networks, 58: 50–58, 2019.
[15]	M E J Newman. Prediction of highly cited papers. Europhys. Lett., 105 (2): 28002, 2014.
[16]	Tai-Quan Peng. Assortative mixing, preferential attachment, and triadic closure: A longitudinal study of tie-generative mechanisms in journal citation networks. J. Informetr., 9 (2): 250–262, 2015.
[17]	Camille Roth and Jean Philippe Cointet. Social and semantic coevolution in knowledge networks. Soc. Networks, 32 (1): 16–29, 2010.
[18]	Daniel T. Seaton, Yoav Bergner, Isaac Chuang, Piotr Mitros, and David E. Pritchard. Who does what in a massive open online course? Commun. ACM, 57 (4): 58–65, 2014.
[19]	Ayse Saliha Sunar, Su White, Nor Aniza Abdullah, and Hugh C. Davis. How learners’ interactions sustain engagement: A MOOC case study. IEEE Trans. Learn. Technol., 10 (4): 475–487, 2017.
[20]	Alexei Vázquez. Growing network with local rules: Preferential attachment, clustering hierarchy, and degree correlations. Phys. Rev. E, 67 (5): 1–15, 2003.
[21]	Inder M Verma. Editorial expression of concern: Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 111 (29): 10779, 2014.
[22]	Li-Na Wang, Jin-Li Guo, Han-Xin Yang, and Tao Zhou. Local preferential attachment model for hierarchical networks. Phys. A Stat. Mech. its Appl., 388 (8): 1713–1720, 2009.
[23]	Wei Wang, Lihuan Guo, and Rui Sun. Rational herd behavior in online learning: Insights from MOOC. Comput. Human Behav., 92: 660–669, 2019.
[24]	Jingjing Zhang, Maxim Skryabin, and Xiongwei Song. Understanding the dynamics of MOOC discussion forums with simulation investigation for empirical network analysis (SIENA). Distance Educ., 37 (3): 270–286, 2016.

Cite This Article

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Xiaoguang Zhu, Huining Song, Yao Zhu. (2021). Local Preferential Attachment of Posting Behaviour on MOOC Discussion Forum. International Journal of Education, Culture and Society, 6(5), 167-175. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.12

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Xiaoguang Zhu; Huining Song; Yao Zhu. Local Preferential Attachment of Posting Behaviour on MOOC Discussion Forum. Int. J. Educ. Cult. Soc. 2021, 6(5), 167-175. doi: 10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.12

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Xiaoguang Zhu, Huining Song, Yao Zhu. Local Preferential Attachment of Posting Behaviour on MOOC Discussion Forum. Int J Educ Cult Soc. 2021;6(5):167-175. doi: 10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.12

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.12,
  author = {Xiaoguang Zhu and Huining Song and Yao Zhu},
  title = {Local Preferential Attachment of Posting Behaviour on MOOC Discussion Forum},
  journal = {International Journal of Education, Culture and Society},
  volume = {6},
  number = {5},
  pages = {167-175},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijecs.20210605.12},
  abstract = {Online education has become a popular education paradigm and foundation for future educations. Compare to traditional offline classes, online education could support massive participants, but also confronting engagement and retention problems. Many studies have analysed participant’s behaviour to enhance the engagement concerning social, cognitive and technical factors, such as 1) knowledge, cognitive process and social dimensions of micro-collaborations; 2) effects of rating visualization on reading behaviour. However, fewer studies have concerned the organization of discussion forum on posting behaviour analysis. Therefore, this study explores patterns of posting behaviours with consideration of forum organization. In detail, this study applied local preferential attachments (LPA) on the posting behaviour of MOOC discussion forum, and discovered their patterns concerning social, emotional and technical factors. The LPA model will measure message attributes on thread page as a factual local environment of posting behaviour. With statistical test on collected data, we validated the significance and linearity of the LPA on measurements of responses number and message length. Results indicated that: 1) most LPA of posting behaviour are significant; 2) comment behaviour expressed sub-linearity on responses number, and others expressed super-linearity; 3) posting behaviour was affected by compound factors of self-identity, knowledge exchange and community citizenship. Their significant preferences suggested that: 1) forum organization is significant to model posting behaviour; 2) re-organize threads and mark message status could improve engagement of participants.},
 year = {2021}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Local Preferential Attachment of Posting Behaviour on MOOC Discussion Forum
AU  - Xiaoguang Zhu
AU  - Huining Song
AU  - Yao Zhu
Y1  - 2021/09/29
PY  - 2021
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.12
T2  - International Journal of Education, Culture and Society
JF  - International Journal of Education, Culture and Society
JO  - International Journal of Education, Culture and Society
SP  - 167
EP  - 175
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-3363
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.12
AB  - Online education has become a popular education paradigm and foundation for future educations. Compare to traditional offline classes, online education could support massive participants, but also confronting engagement and retention problems. Many studies have analysed participant’s behaviour to enhance the engagement concerning social, cognitive and technical factors, such as 1) knowledge, cognitive process and social dimensions of micro-collaborations; 2) effects of rating visualization on reading behaviour. However, fewer studies have concerned the organization of discussion forum on posting behaviour analysis. Therefore, this study explores patterns of posting behaviours with consideration of forum organization. In detail, this study applied local preferential attachments (LPA) on the posting behaviour of MOOC discussion forum, and discovered their patterns concerning social, emotional and technical factors. The LPA model will measure message attributes on thread page as a factual local environment of posting behaviour. With statistical test on collected data, we validated the significance and linearity of the LPA on measurements of responses number and message length. Results indicated that: 1) most LPA of posting behaviour are significant; 2) comment behaviour expressed sub-linearity on responses number, and others expressed super-linearity; 3) posting behaviour was affected by compound factors of self-identity, knowledge exchange and community citizenship. Their significant preferences suggested that: 1) forum organization is significant to model posting behaviour; 2) re-organize threads and mark message status could improve engagement of participants.
VL  - 6
IS  - 5
ER  -

Copy | Download

Author Information

Xiaoguang Zhu

School of Management Engineering, Xuzhou University of Technology, Xuzhou, China
Huining Song

School of Management Engineering, Xuzhou University of Technology, Xuzhou, China
Yao Zhu

School of Management Engineering, Xuzhou University of Technology, Xuzhou, China

Download PDF

Sections

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Xiaoguang Zhu, Huining Song, Yao Zhu. (2021). Local Preferential Attachment of Posting Behaviour on MOOC Discussion Forum. International Journal of Education, Culture and Society, 6(5), 167-175. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.12

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Xiaoguang Zhu; Huining Song; Yao Zhu. Local Preferential Attachment of Posting Behaviour on MOOC Discussion Forum. Int. J. Educ. Cult. Soc. 2021, 6(5), 167-175. doi: 10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.12

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Xiaoguang Zhu, Huining Song, Yao Zhu. Local Preferential Attachment of Posting Behaviour on MOOC Discussion Forum. Int J Educ Cult Soc. 2021;6(5):167-175. doi: 10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.12

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.12,
  author = {Xiaoguang Zhu and Huining Song and Yao Zhu},
  title = {Local Preferential Attachment of Posting Behaviour on MOOC Discussion Forum},
  journal = {International Journal of Education, Culture and Society},
  volume = {6},
  number = {5},
  pages = {167-175},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijecs.20210605.12},
  abstract = {Online education has become a popular education paradigm and foundation for future educations. Compare to traditional offline classes, online education could support massive participants, but also confronting engagement and retention problems. Many studies have analysed participant’s behaviour to enhance the engagement concerning social, cognitive and technical factors, such as 1) knowledge, cognitive process and social dimensions of micro-collaborations; 2) effects of rating visualization on reading behaviour. However, fewer studies have concerned the organization of discussion forum on posting behaviour analysis. Therefore, this study explores patterns of posting behaviours with consideration of forum organization. In detail, this study applied local preferential attachments (LPA) on the posting behaviour of MOOC discussion forum, and discovered their patterns concerning social, emotional and technical factors. The LPA model will measure message attributes on thread page as a factual local environment of posting behaviour. With statistical test on collected data, we validated the significance and linearity of the LPA on measurements of responses number and message length. Results indicated that: 1) most LPA of posting behaviour are significant; 2) comment behaviour expressed sub-linearity on responses number, and others expressed super-linearity; 3) posting behaviour was affected by compound factors of self-identity, knowledge exchange and community citizenship. Their significant preferences suggested that: 1) forum organization is significant to model posting behaviour; 2) re-organize threads and mark message status could improve engagement of participants.},
 year = {2021}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Local Preferential Attachment of Posting Behaviour on MOOC Discussion Forum
AU  - Xiaoguang Zhu
AU  - Huining Song
AU  - Yao Zhu
Y1  - 2021/09/29
PY  - 2021
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.12
T2  - International Journal of Education, Culture and Society
JF  - International Journal of Education, Culture and Society
JO  - International Journal of Education, Culture and Society
SP  - 167
EP  - 175
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-3363
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijecs.20210605.12
AB  - Online education has become a popular education paradigm and foundation for future educations. Compare to traditional offline classes, online education could support massive participants, but also confronting engagement and retention problems. Many studies have analysed participant’s behaviour to enhance the engagement concerning social, cognitive and technical factors, such as 1) knowledge, cognitive process and social dimensions of micro-collaborations; 2) effects of rating visualization on reading behaviour. However, fewer studies have concerned the organization of discussion forum on posting behaviour analysis. Therefore, this study explores patterns of posting behaviours with consideration of forum organization. In detail, this study applied local preferential attachments (LPA) on the posting behaviour of MOOC discussion forum, and discovered their patterns concerning social, emotional and technical factors. The LPA model will measure message attributes on thread page as a factual local environment of posting behaviour. With statistical test on collected data, we validated the significance and linearity of the LPA on measurements of responses number and message length. Results indicated that: 1) most LPA of posting behaviour are significant; 2) comment behaviour expressed sub-linearity on responses number, and others expressed super-linearity; 3) posting behaviour was affected by compound factors of self-identity, knowledge exchange and community citizenship. Their significant preferences suggested that: 1) forum organization is significant to model posting behaviour; 2) re-organize threads and mark message status could improve engagement of participants.
VL  - 6
IS  - 5
ER  -

Copy | Download