Meaningful Learning in Discussion Forums: Towards Discourse Analysis

This document presents the analysis of a discussion forum used as a learning component in a ‘management information systems’ university course. By reporting on two macro level measures namely, participation and interaction, we seek to understand the occurrence of any collaborative knowledge-building activities/processes and at the same time work towards discourse analysis. Our analysis is based on the qualitative case study approach. Participation and interaction analysis from student usage of the discussion forum provide some insight into their learning and behavior in a virtual environment. Students spent time on reading forum discussions, reflecting and planning their contribution before posting it in the forum. Moreover, their participation behavior throughout the semester follows an s-curve, interestingly, typical in adoption theory studies.