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Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education, Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 2(37), p. 81-95, 2021

DOI: 10.14742/ajet.6749

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Sentiment evolution with interaction levels in blended learning environments: Using learning analytics and epistemic network analysis

Journal article published in 2021 by Changqin Huang, Zhongmei Han, Ming Li ORCID, Xizhe Wang, Wenzhu Zhao
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Sentiment evolution is a key component of interactions in blended learning. Although interactions have attracted considerable attention in online learning contexts, there is scant research on examining sentiment evolution over different interactions in blended learning environments. Thus, in this study, sentiment evolution at different interaction levels was investigated from the longitudinal data of five learning stages of 38 postgraduate students in a blended learning course. Specifically, text mining techniques were employed to mine the sentiments in different interactions, and then epistemic network analysis (ENA) was used to uncover sentiment changes in the five learning stages of blended learning. The findings suggested that negative sentiments were moderately associated with several other sentiments such as joking, confused, and neutral sentiments in blended learning contexts. Particularly in relation to deep interactions, student sentiments might change from negative to insightful ones. In contrast, the sentiment network built from social-emotion interactions shows stronger connections in joking-positive and joking-negative sentiments than the other two interaction levels. Most notably, the changes of co-occurrence sentiment reveal the three periods in a blended learning process, namely initial, collision and sublimation, and stable periods. The results in this study revealed that students’ sentiments evolved from positive to confused/negative to insightful.