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Constructive Chaos. Edition No. 1
VDM Publishing House, Sep 2008, Pages: 192
Numerous studies have affirmed the value of
asynchronous online communication. Some researchers,
however, have suggested that asynchronous
discussions are too often neither interactive nor
coherent. This research explores interactional
coherence in asynchronous learning environments
using Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST). Findings
include that asynchronous discussions are
structurally dynamic, that the prevalence of
argumentation varies considerably from group to
group, and that topic drift, so common in
asynchronous discussions, does not occur as a matter
of chance. Participants use topic drift in order to
adapt discussion to a topic of preference. As such,
topics do not drift so much as they are pushed and
pulled. The application of rhetorical networks as a
directed graph theory for representing the semantics
of asynchronous interaction has interesting
implications for online pedagogy, as well as for
future technology development.
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