Knowledge Forum KF theoretical underpinnings of buildin features

Knowledge Forum® (KF): theoretical underpinnings of build-in features Johnny Yuen

Knowledge Building Discourses • The 12 KB Principles (Scardamalia, 2002)

12 KB principles (con’t)

Knowledge Forum® (KF) • Online Collaborative Knowledge Building Platform (http: //www. knowledgeforum. com) • Current version: 4. 8 • Database format: Zoo. Lib Tuplebase (http: //analysis. ikit. org/kfcoders/inde x. php/The_Tuplebase) • Java (enhanced, lite) & html interfaces

Knowledge Forum: A user designed view Singletons Discussion Threads

Knowledge Forum: A user designed view Attachments Threads Singletons

Knowledge Forum: A Note

Knowledge Forum: A Note Problem of Investigation Scaffold Supports Note Content User defined keywords Selected Scaffold Supports

Analytic Toolkit for KF (ATK) • Developed by OISE, IKIT. Stats appeared in KB related literatures. • Individual Student/Class Statistics. • Almost instant reports • Welcome by teachers. Easy to understand & generate by average users.

Analytic Toolkit for KF (ATK) User Level View/Class Level Inter-personal No. of Notes Created/Contributed Average no. of Notes contributed Who’s-Read-who No. of Notes Read Average no. of notes read Who’s-Buildon-who No. of Build-ons Average no. of build-ons Who’s-Referenced-who Use of Scaffold Supports Average no. of scaffolds used Who’s-Annotated-who No. of Keywords Average no. of keywords used …… ……

Pitfalls of relying solely on participatory stats. for assessment • Limited to note or view level statistics, lacking thread level analysis, time distribution • Pitfalls of using participatory stats for assessing individual or overall KB discourse: – High quantity not equals high quality (e. g. large number of “I agree” notes without progression in knowledge) – Students may be hinted to act according to the assessment rules (e. g. open notes for the sake of higher read statistics, not really comprehending the notes)

KF Build-in Analysis Applets

Stats generated through exporting KF database into My. SQL Database • KF Zoo. Lib Tuplebase KF Exporter My. SQL Re-build Thread Structure Queries for flat table with participatory statistics , & add coding results from e. g. VINCA, like argumentative markers, question markers and so on… build secondary level tables, e. g. by Pivot Table in Excel or PASW(SPSS) • Takes time! • Requires technical skills, not open to all users • More structured & meaningful data for generating feedbacks to pedagogical design, e. g….

Stats generated through exporting KF database into My. SQL Database Individual Level Characteristics of usage of discourse markers* by students of different activity levels Thread Level Activity/Class Level Characteristics of long vs. Characteristics of discussion short threads, singletons in terms of discourse markers* per teaching unit markers* Other forms of visualizations, e. g. Bobbinette Diagrams Characteristics of discussion between teaching units, e. g. between classes, teachers, year… *Discourse Markers: Question markers, Argumentative markers, Content markers, Scaffolds

Visualization of KF discussion made possible through My. SQL: Bobinette in Platform CALICO

Summary • Interpreting discourse participatory statistics alone might not be getting the whole picture • Discourse participatory statistics PLUS other qualitative indicators may reveal more in-depth scenario • KF® My. SQL has made great progress in terms of KF® data manipulation • Our goal: an online analysis platform that even teachers with no technical background are able use to evaluate their KB classes • Starts from sketch, has lots to build (the platform, plug-in modules) before teachers can use it on their own