1. Automated dialog analysis to predict blogger community response to newcomer inquiries.
- Author
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Nistor, Nicolae, Dascalu, Mihai, Serafin, Yvonne, and Trausan-Matu, Stefan
- Subjects
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FACTORIAL experiment designs , *INTERPERSONAL relations , *LEARNING strategies , *SCHOOL environment , *BLOGS , *SOCIAL learning theory , *PHONOLOGICAL awareness - Abstract
Abstract Informal learning in online knowledge building communities (OKBCs) often starts with online academic help seeking, and with visitor inquiries on specific topics. In such a context, learning presupposes adequate OKBC response. Employing a social learning analytics approach based on natural language processing and Bakhtin's theory of dialogism, this study aims to predict blogger OKBC response. Manipulating the blog topic (well-defined vs. ill-defined) and the visitor inquiry format (off-topic vs. on-topic), a field experiment with a 2 × 2 factorial design was conducted on a sample of N = 68 blogger communities with a total of 25,303 members. For the entire sample, the community response was influenced only by the inquiry format. In a separate examination of the experimental groups, however, this remained true only for the well-defined topic, whereas for the ill-defined topic the community response only depended on the previously established dialog quality. The findings suggest identification criteria for responsive communities, which can support newcomer integration in OKBCs and, from a larger perspective, the use of OKBCs as components of formal learning environments. Highlights • We examined collaborative dialog in online knowledge building communities. • Community response is an essential prerequisite of informal learning. • Automated dialog analysis based on Bakhtin's dialogism was employed. • For all and well-defined topics, only inquiry format influenced community response. • For ill-defined topics only dialog quality influenced community response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2018
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