Interpretation Issues in Monitoring and Analyzing Group Interactions in Asynchronous Discussions

DIAS is an Asynchronous Discussion Forum Software, mainly developed in order to offer extended monitoring and interaction analysis support, by providing a wide range of indicators jointly used in various situations, to all discussion forae users (individual students, groups, moderators/teachers or even researchers/observers), appropriate for their various roles in different activities. In this paper we focus on the explanatory and interpretation issues that arise when the integrated Interaction Analysis (IA) features are used by a teacher – moderator. The importance of applying additional interpretative value to seemingly simple quantitative measurements is highlighted through several implemented case studies. Our research indicates that the teachers’ tasks can be supported using such approaches. More complex diagrams, with potentially increased underlying interpretation power, provide a more insightful examination of the status and evolvement of a discussion, as well as the contribution and performance of the participants (as individuals or as groups). Students cooperate more fruitfully, by utilizing IA indicators for assessing and selfregulating their actions, thus facilitating the moderator’s tasks. It relies upon the moderator to manage this aspect of such tools to his/her benefit. Core objective of this paper is to outline the importance of appropriate Interpretation of the IA indicators. The notion of Interpretative Schemas is deployed and their potential exploitation is thoroughly explored, using examples from real teaching settings. In fact, the significance of interpreting visualization data in a combined way and from different perspectives is designated, leading to the conclusion that this issue needs to be further researched.