Content Analysis of Wiki Discussions for Knowledge Construction: Opportunities and Challenges

Content Analysis And Asynchronous Communication

The text-based, non-verbal medium in asynchronous learning environments as opposed to oral communication in face-to-face classrooms has been termed lean medium by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000) who asserted that this medium provides time for reflection and facilitates deep and meaningful learning. The asynchronous nature of the medium extends wait times for learners to process information and reflect on learning materials, promoting deep learning and providing learner-centered instruction (Hara, Bonk, & Angeli, 2000; Havard, Du, & Olinzock, 2005). A successful method that has been used to analyze online discussion transcripts for deep learning, high-level thinking, critical thinking, and cognitive skills is content analysis. Content analysis is a “technique used to extract desired information from a body of material (usually verbal) by systematically and objectively identifying specified characteristics of the material” (Smith, 2000, p. 314). In computer-mediated communication (CMC), researchers infer meaning from text using a set of procedures to discern and define a target variable, to collect samples of representative text, and to devise reliable and valid rules to categorize segments of the text (Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, & Archer, 2001).