1. Design, Implementation and Testing
of a Graphical Interface to Support
Interactions in Online Discussion Forums
Farshid Marbouti & Alyssa Friend Wise
fmarbout@purdue.edu afw3@sfu.ca
AERA 2013
San Francisco, CA

2. Overview
• Typical linear, text-based online
discussions are often “fractured”
with limited interactivity
• We designed a new graphical
interface to support more
productive interactions
• Initial testing had positive user
response and showed students
were more active in selecting
which threads to visit

3. Typical Online Discussion Forum
Text-based
Threaded
Linear

4. Shortcomings in Discussion Activity
• Discussions do not converge to a conclusion
(Hewitt, 2001)
• Fractured and incoherent conversations
(Herring, 1999; Reyes & Tchounikine, 2003)
• Low levels of interactivity among learners
(Thomas, 2002)
• Student difficulties in deciding which posts to read
and reply to in a highly branched discussion
(Hewitt, 2003)
• Reading only new posts and reply to recent ones
(Hewitt, 2003; 2005)

5. Design Challenge
• A cause of discussion problems: Linear presentation
of threads and posts (Hewitt, 2003; Swan, 2004)
• A possible solution: Highlight discussion structure via
graphical interface (Kear, 2001; Hewitt, 2005)
• What is an appropriate way to:
1. Present the structure of the discussion?
2. Illustrate posts as read or unread?

6. 1. Presenting Discussion Structure
• Tree structure
– An acyclic network of connected nodes (no loops)
– Each node my have multiple children but only one
parent
• Match between tree and discussion structures
– Node  Post
– Link  Reply
• Used extensively in prior discussion analysis work
– Hara, Bonk & Angeli, 2000; Aviv, Erlich, Ravid, &
Geva, 2003; Scardamalia, 2004; Teplovs, 2008;
Wise & Padmanabhan, 2009

7. 1. Presenting Discussion Structure

8. 2. Illustrating Posts as New/Read

9. The Designed Graphical Forum

10. The Graphical Forum

11. Testing the Graphical Interface
Research Questions
• How do students interact with an online
discussion using the graphical forum?
• Does this differ from how they interact with it
using a traditional forum?
Focus on Reading Patterns
• Which threads to visit
• Which posts to read

12. Methodology
• Authentic Task, Hybrid Design (Forde, 2008)
– Students had previously participated in an online
discussion via a text-based forum for a course
– Were asked to participate in the same discussion via
the new graphical forum
– Record click-stream, think-aloud and usability survey
– Click-stream from original discussion extracted
– Comparative case studies

13. Context & Participants
• Context
– Masters-level course ran two years prior to study
– 10 week-long discussions based on readings
– Participation was 30% of course grade
• Participants
– 7 of 15 students, (4 female, 3 male)
– 1 had graduated, 6 were at end of their program

14. Task / Data Collection
Total time ~75 min
1.Read summary of selected week’s reading
2.First Participation Session
– “Midway” through the discussion
– 24 posts (out of 39) presented, ~15 min
1.10-min break
2.Second Participation Session
– “End” of the discussion
– All 39 posts presented, ~25 min
1.Usability Survey

15. Results - Survey
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree

16. Results - Survey
• Useful features
– Visual design and layout
– Integrated read and reply box
– Reset button
• Downsides
– Movement (its was hard to follow/find a post)
– Not displaying full posts’ subjects
– Missing authors’ names

17. Reading Patterns: Visiting Threads
Text-based
Forum
Visual Forum
Let the
interface decide
5 students
Linear Pattern
2 students
Clockwise Pattern
Actively
selected
threads
2 students 5 students

18. Text-based Interface: Linear Pattern

19. Text-based Interface: Active Selection

20. Visual Interface: Clockwise Pattern

21. Visual Interface: Actively Selective Threads

22. Reading Patterns: Reading Posts
Text-based
Forum
Visual Forum
Read higher-
level to lower-
level posts
4 students
(Linear Pattern)
5 students
(Radial Pattern)
Decided based
on other factors
3 students
(No Pattern)
2 students
(Mixed Patterns)

23. Text-based Interface: Linear Pattern

24. Visual Interface: Radial Pattern

25. Conclusions
• Overall student feedback was positive
• In the graphical forum students were more
active in selecting which threads to visit
• In both forums, students did not purposefully
choose which posts to read inside a thread

26. Implications for Practice
• Students rely on forum/interface in deciding
which posts to read
• Instructors should purposefully choose a forum
that pedagogically supports the assigned task
• Other design factors (task design, explicit
participation expectations, role assignment) can
also help support productive interaction

27. Thank you!
Design, Implementation and Testing of a
Graphical Interface to Support Interactions in
Online Discussion Forums
Farshid Marbouti & Alyssa Friend Wise
fmarbout@purdue.edu afw3@sfu.ca
AERA 2013 - San Francisco, CA