Work in Progress – iGraphs for Characterization of Online Communities

The general available tools for analyzing interactions in online discussion forums appear to be insufficient to characterize groups of medium/large dimensions, as they are limited to provide general information of participation, access statistics and message posting. Our research contributes for analyzing and characterizing asynchronous online interactions applying the Social Network Analysis methodology, by providing e-learning platforms with an interactive graph – the iGraph – that illustrates, and analyses, students’ interactions. In a graphical interface embedded in an open source learning management system we combine real-time graphs and numerical indicator to provide the educator with a more thorough understanding of relations between course participants. Preliminary results indicate that the iGraph enables an insightful characterization of the interactions between actors and their participations in discussion forums. Index Terms – Interaction Graph, Social Network Analysis, e-Learning Forums, iGraph.