@inproceedings{5447f2edabac403f85d4fbffebc4f0bc,
title = "An Analysis of MOOC Discussion Forum Interactions from the Most Active Users",
abstract = "Many massive open online courses (MOOCs) offer mainly videobased lectures, which limits the opportunity for interactions and communications among students and instructors. Thus, the discussion forums of MOOC become indispensable in providing a platform for facilitating interactions and communications. In this research, discussion forum users who continually and actively participate in the forum discussions throughout the course are identified. We then employ different measures for evaluating whether those active users have more influence on overall forum activities. We further analyze forum votes, both positive and negative, on posts and comments to verify if active users make positive contributions to the course conversations. Based the result of analysis, users who constantly participate in forum discussions are identified as statistically more influential users, and these users also produce a positive effect on the discussions. Implications for MOOC student engagement and retention are discussed.",
keywords = "Distance education, Learning forum, MOOC, Online learning",
author = "Wong, {Jian Syuan} and Bart Pursel and Anna Divinsky and Jansen, {Bernard J.}",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.; 8th International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling, and Prediction, SBP 2015 ; Conference date: 31-03-2015 Through 03-04-2015",
year = "2015",
doi = "10.1007/978-3-319-16268-3_58",
language = "English",
series = "Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)",
publisher = "Springer Verlag",
pages = "452--457",
editor = "Kevin Xu and Nitin Agarwal and Nathaniel Osgood",
booktitle = "Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling, and Prediction - 8th International Conference, SBP 2015, Proceedings",
address = "Germany",
}