Date of Publication
2013
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science
Subject Categories
Computer Sciences
College
College of Computer Studies
Department/Unit
Computer Science
Thesis Adviser
Raymund Sison
Defense Panel Chair
Rachel Edita Roxas
Defense Panel Member
Remedios Bulos
Merlin Teodosia Suarez
Raymund Sison
Nelson Marcos
Abstract/Summary
Although Asynchronous Online Discussions (AOD) offer many features that benefit the learners (e.g. asynchronism, anonymity, time and space independence), some problems still remain due to the lack of effective support towards the instructors task of monitoring and assessing the students interaction. This work outlines the theoretical underpinnings, experiments, results, and implications for the design of a novel and alternative computational method that can be used to analyze educational AOD messages. The method implements a hypothetical approach where representations of the manifest and latent features of text are combined to form a lexical network structure called LexNet. We argue that the structure of LexNet provides a natural mechanism to represent dependencies between concepts or words that describe the topic of text documents. The proposed method is intended to be used for developing discussion support tools that can provide evaluative feedback to instructors with regards the topical progress of online discussions, along with estimated measures of the students understanding of specific concepts relative to the domain and/or topic of discourse. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method, a web-based prototype discussion support tool called ReLATED (Resource-Lean Analyzer of Transcripts of Educational Discourse) is presented. The evaluation of ReLATED using actual educational discourse transcripts has shown that the design of LexNet facilitates comparisons between the topical contexts of words and is potentially useful in monitoring the topic focus and assessing the appropriacy of concepts embedded in forum messages. Initial analysis and projections also showed that the time and memory requirements of the prototype system can be supported in an AOD environment without causing considerable delay in the students interaction. Finally, the designs incorporated into the proposed method exemplify how quality software attributes (e.g., usability, topic portability, and scrutability and adaptability) in future discussion support tools can be achieved with minimal tension, these attributes offer an extra value that can potentially encourage widespread and successful use of the system among teachers.
Abstract Format
html
Language
English
Format
Accession Number
CDTG005460
Shelf Location
Archives, The Learning Commons, 12F Henry Sy Sr. Hall
Keywords
Computer-aided transcription systems
Recommended Citation
Raga, R. C. (2013). An alternative computational method for processing transcripts of educational asynchronous online discussion. Retrieved from https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/359
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