The development of a facet analysis system to identify and measure the dimensions of interaction in online learning

(verbal), coding procedures, and formulae (notational) for quantitative analysis of logs of chat sessions and postings to discussion boards for eight master's level courses taught online during the fall 2000 semester. Focus group interviews were subsequently held with student participants to confirm that results of the facet analysis reflected their experiences with the courses. The system was developed through a process of emergent coding. The researchers have been unable to identify any prior use of facet analysis for the analysis of research data as in this study. Identifying the facet analysis system was a major breakthrough in the research process, which, in turn, provided the researchers with a lens through which to analyze and interpret the data. In addition, identification of the faceted nature of the system opens up new possibilities for automation of the coding process. In this article, we discuss the development of a facet analysis system used to code and analyze data in a mixed-method study. A review of the literature indicates that this represents the first use of facet analysis to analyze research data. The goal of the study was to identify the dimensions of interaction that contribute to student satisfaction in online Web-supported courses. Student success was not employed as a measure in this study for reasons discussed below. The study was conducted between 2000 and 2002 at the Florida State School of Information Studies in Tallahassee, FL (now the College of Information). The researchers developed a facet analysis system that meets the requirements of S. R. Ranganathan, known for his highly influential work in library classification, for articulation on three planes (idea, verbal, and notational) as described in his Prolegomena to Library Classification (Ranganathan, 1967). This system includes facets derived from the abstraction of the content and participants of chat sessions via time-stamped log files (idea), a codebook (verbal), coding procedures, and formu-lae (notational) for quantitative analysis of logs of chat sessions and postings to discussion boards for eight master's level courses taught online during the fall 2000 semester. Focus group interviews were subsequently held with student participants to confirm that results of the facet analysis reflected their experiences with the courses. positively to student satisfaction in online, Web-supported master's courses in library and information studies. Student satisfaction, for which course evaluation and focus group data were available to the researchers, was used in this study rather than student success. Identification of these dimensions …