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.
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