Analyzing patterns of participation and discourse in elementary students ' online science discussion

The goal of the study was to analyze patterns of participation and quality of discussion in Virtual Web School (VWS) mediated interaction in one elementary class. To this end, we examined the density of the interaction within class, participants' participation rates, participants’ position in the VWS mediated interaction, and the quality of their discourse. The data consisted of VWS log files and students' written productions from the VWS database. Social network analysis and qualitative content analysis were used to analyze the data. The findings showed that the density of interaction among participants was rather high, and all the participants used VWS to some extent. There were, however, substantial differences in the participants' participation activity. The results also indicated that one participant occupied a central position, and another had very isolated position in the VWS mediated interaction. The study further revealed that the VWS mediated discussion was composed of a number of short discussion threads. The culture of VWS mediated discourse and collaboration can be characterized as follows; on topic, neutral, and providing information to others' comments or questions.