Analyzing Collaboration in Online Communications

Abstract

Elsewhere (Hathorn & Ingram, 2002b; Ingram & Hathorn, 2004; Ingram & Hathorn, 2005), the authors have argued that collaboration in a small group can be seen to consist of three major elements: interdependence, synthesis of information, and independence. These three factors can be found in the transcripts of online discussions by looking at such things as roughly equal participation among the group members, the interactions that occur, and the product that the group constructs. Here we demonstrate how these concepts can be applied to a specific set of online discussions to determine the amount of collaboration that has taken place in different groups. Specifically, we present a coding scheme that can be used to analyze online collaborative discussions. This scheme has potential utility for education and research.