An e-discourse framework for the qualitative analysis of inquiry-based web forums

The online interactions of internet communications are increasingly being used to both extend learning in higher education contexts and also as a convenient yet potentially powerful means of undertaking human-centred research. Just as educators need to appreciate how new forms of language-use provide the basis for evaluating the quality of thinking and learning, so too researchers especially those interested in use of educational web forums and related online modes of interaction need to explore more effective frameworks and strategies for the qualitative evaluation of online communications and reflections beyond the existing methodological gap between content analysis and forms of interaction or conversational analysis. This dissertation represents an inquiry into the challenge of qualitatively evaluating whether an inquiry-based approach to the use and pedagogical design of educational web forums can enhance the quality of learning interactions. It uses a case study design to examine how a two-stage process of analysis might provide a sufficiently comprehensive and reliable set of indicators to reliably evaluate quality and meaning in the web forum responses analysed as part of the study. In relation to an applied distinction but also connection between surface and deep levels of language and rhetorical analysis applied to online communications and reflections (or "e-discourse"), this study has outlined a framework: (a) for evaluating quality, meaning and aspect of higher-order thinking and learning in educational web forums; and, conversely, (b) for distinguishing consistent efforts of higher order thinking and learning from merely superficial or opinionated responses. The research project and dissertation have significant implications for a range of related contexts: the particular Malaysian second language context of the study, the application of constructivist or learner-centred (especially inquiry-based) designs for enhancing learning, the general challenge of integrating ICTs and e-learning tools more specifically in higher education, and above all else the growing methodological challenge of evaluating quality and meaning in online communications faced by both educators and researchers. The convergent purposes of the research inquiry are represented by the e-Discourse Evaluation Framework which was developed, refined and applied as a basis for linking the practical concerns of the comparative case study with the larger methodological engagement with key missing links between: (a) the design and evaluation of quality learning; (b) the content and interaction analysis approaches to evaluating online interactions and communications; and (c) and the teaching and research evaluation of educational web forums.