Surface characteristics of content (text) that can be objectively counted, for example, the number of messages posted, the number of messages read or the number of words in each message.
Published in Chapter:
Methodological Considerations for Quantitative Content Analysis of Online Interactions
Seng-Chee Tan (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore), Hyo-Jeong So (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore), and Ching-Sing Chai (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
Copyright: © 2011
|Pages: 20
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-040-2.ch037
Abstract
This chapter focuses on quantitative content analysis of online interactions, in particular, asynchronous online discussion. It clarifies the definitions of quantitative content analysis and provides a summary of 23 existing coding schemes, broadly categorized by the theoretical constructs under investigation: (1) (Meta) cognition, (2) knowledge construction, and (3) presence. To help interested researchers harvest the rich source of data in online communities, guidelines for using quantitative content analysis of online interactions were provided. In addition, important methodological considerations and issues were discussed, including the issues of validity, reliability, choice of unit of analysis, and latent versus manifested content.