Internet Learning Volume 3, Number 2, Fall 2014 | Page 83

Internet Learning Figure 4. Comparative Corpus Diagram. • How they interact: Timing and response tree depth of contributions, behavioral patterns, conversational moves and strategies, and individual influence • With whom they interact: Which threads they contribute to, to whom they respond, who responds to them, and the identity, number, and variety of their co-discussants Not surprisingly, multiple passes through the data revealed many insights and avenues for exploration that were not apparent during earlier readings. While it may seem straightforward to see how conversational and participatory elements manifest at an individual comment or thread level, it is much more difficult to understand the historical context of a contribution, or to consistently apply a discussion rubric over a large amount of conversational data. We approached the problem of modeling and differentiating individuals using a construct we term a ‘comparative corpus diagram,’ an example of which is shown in Figure 4. An individual’s corpus is a collection of all responses they have authored in some context or time period. A comparative corpus diagram is a graphical and statistical representation of multiple individual response corpora, with responses sized and colored for various attributes and arranged for easy comparison among individuals. When we analyzed corpora coded for attributes from our SKN model, we found them to be a compelling supplement to the digital-ethnographic narratives of individuals and conversations in our data set. 82