How social interactions kindle productive online problem-based learning: An exploratory study of the temporal dynamics

Abstract

Online computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) has risen in popularity in knowledge sharing and problem-solving. This research explored students’ online activity in online problem-based learning (PBL) using process and sequence mining approaches. Process mining modeled students’ time-stamped activities and links between them. Sequence mining provided an overview of the flow and frequencies of students’ activities through sequential process maps. Our finding showed that the most frequent students’ activities were non-argument discussions followed by sharing knowledge and social interactions. The process model of the students’ discussion started with sharing knowledge most of the time and then students either evaluate or argue others’ messages to end discussions through social interactions. The sequence mining model showed that social interaction and non-argument discussion are the most common starting activities by students. It is concluded that process and sequence mining allowed us to identify different stages of online forum discussion in PBL. © 2022 Copyright for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org)