This presentation showcases how a corpus analysis can reveal both the general pattern and specific case of users' URL posting behaviour in online discussions for learning

1. A corpus-assisted discourse analysis of
the use and discursive construction of
URLs in MOOC discussions
Shi Min Chua, PhD Researcher
@shiminchua
shiminc@open.ac.uk
The 10th International Corpus Linguistics Conference

2. MOOCs
CoursesOpen OnlineMassive
Large number of learners
-registered learners: up to 40000
-learners who take part in the
discussion: up to 5000
-Free
-No pre-requisite
-No face-to-face
-Asynchronous
-various subjects
-evolving learning
design

4. Post
Reply

5. Types of Posts
Initiating Post
Single Post
Reply
Number of Posts Number of Tokens
117863 6162230
32080 2401795
54172 2642195
Thread

6. Why URL posting practice?
●Discursive practices in the conversation threads
●Corpus-driven approach – Keyword Analysis
Replies
Initiating
Posts
Single
Posts
59
keywords
69
192

7. link: 1 of the 59 keywords in replies
Learners Replies Initiating Posts Single Posts Relative Risk
Frequency per
100,000 words
53.96 22.46 15.28
Raw Frequency 1393 539 941
Expected
Frequency
1001 930 2.40
Expected
Frequency
689 1644 3.53

8. URL-posting
● Hyperlinking functions in online space
● blogs (Myers, 2009), health forum (Sudau et al., 2014; Wikgren, 2013), public
consultation forum (Polletta, Chen, & Anderson, 2008), social media (Cao et al., 2015)
● information sharing
● evidence for arguments (Savolainen, 2014)
● Different types of sources are posted (Wikgren, 2001)
● Colaric and Jonassen (2001) critiqued the use of URL in learning is not necessarily
thoughtful unless learners are “assessing their relevance to the intention and
dissecting the sites for evidence of credibility”

9. Previous Research:
● Gallagher & Savage (2016)
● “Of the 1471 comments containing URLs, 49% (n=734) were within multi-
comment threads. In comparison with non-URL comments, only 27%
(n=26,599) were contained within multi-comment threads……

10. Previous Research:
● Gallagher & Savage (2016)
● “Of the 1471 comments containing URLs, 49% (n=734) were within multi-
comment threads. In comparison with non-URL comments, only 27%
(n=26,599) were contained within multi-comment threads…..
http.*|www.* in my corpus
Replies Initiating Posts Single Posts
Raw Frequency 3068 2332 3438
Frequency per
100,000 words
118.84 97.17 55.82

11. Previous Research:
● Gallagher & Savage (2016)
● “Of the 1471 comments containing URLs, 49% (n=734) were within multi-
comment threads. In comparison with non-URL comments, only 27%
(n=26,599) were contained within multi-comment threads. This could suggest
that the act of sharing a URL is either encouraging discussion or is being
provided in response to a comment.”
http.*|www.*
Replies Initiating Posts Single Posts
Raw Frequency 3068 2332 3438
Frequency per
100,000 words
118.84 97.17 55.82

12. Research Questions
●How learners use URLs in their discursive practices in the
discussion space?
●What are their attitudes towards the URLs posted?
Corpus-Assisted Discourse Analysis

13. Corpus-assisted discourse analysis
link: keyword in replies
● Collocation analysis/concordancing
● Discourse analysis of selected conversational threads containing most number
of link, links, or http.*|www.*

14. Collocation Analysis within replies
link (N= 1193) links (N =412)
Collocates
Collocate
Frequency
MI3
Collocates
Collocate
Frequency
MI3
thanks 306 23.49 for 109 4.88
the 777 22.93 thanks 63 6.46
for 454 22.83 the 181 3.39
. 385 19.96 . 101 2.61
thank 111 19.67 thank 27 5.80
this 174 19.37 you 48 3.77
you 190 19.14 and 63 2.93
a 245 19.06 of 58 2.89
here 67 17.88 these 21 5.49
interesting 61 17.31 follow 10 7.19

15. ● The Japanese, known for their longevity.[...] Both these and other historical permutations of the
pyramid are shown here http://discovermagazine.com/galleries/zen-photo/f/food-guides
and it's interesting to compare the slight differences between cultures and eras. I wonder do
people from different countries need different portions when you think about differences in body
sizes and food tolerances (many Japanese cannot tolerate lactose for example). […]
● Thank you, very good link.
● it is a great link, thanks.
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/nutrition-wellbeing/4/comments/18971576
Appreciation and Positive Attitudes

16. Discourse analysis:
Selected conversational threads (posts and
replies) containing most number of link, links
Frequency of link, links within a thread Number of threads
15 2
9 1
7 3
6 5
5 8
4 40
3 128
2 503
1 3270
19
threads

17. Discourse analysis:
Selected conversational threads (posts and replies)
containing most number of link, links, or http.*|www.*
Frequency of link, links, http.*|www.* within a thread Number of threads
26 1
20 1
19 1
15 2
14 2
13 2
12 4
11 1
10 6
9 13
8 27
33
threads

18. Discourse analysis of 45 threads
Broad categorization of the threads on
link(s)
Frequency
Sharing links and thanking 26
Mixed attitudes towards links 2
Link accessibility 7
Link war 4
Credibility 3
Content-related to accessibility course 3
Function of additional links 1
Connection 2

19. An mixed attitude towards link(s)
● I liked the link 'coat of hydrocarbon ice' in the 'short article 'which lead to even more interesting
links - the problem is you could just spend the day following the links.
● I keep getting side tracked too - makes the course even more interesting but takes up a lot of
time.
● Totally agree. Fascinating links. How do you all find them? Google I suppose.
● Agree, I have over 40 pages of notes for this week alone - this course has produced one of the
largest Word Documents I've ever done :-)
● Am onto my third folder of notes for this fascinating course. Three hours a week study, I think, is
a gross underestimate if you take advantage of all the great links other students are finding.
Luckily I can get printer ink at a reasonable price locally!!
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/moons/1/comments/769923

20. Discourse analysis of 45 threads
Broad categorization of the threads on
link(s)
Frequency
Sharing links and thanking 26
Mixed attitudes towards links 2
Link accessibility 7
Link war 4
Credibility (Evaluation) 4
Content-related to accessibility course 3
Function of additional links 1
Connection 2

21. Additional Analysis of threads
● 10 longest threads from each of the 12 courses

22. Link War: Analysis of 2 threads
Thread A Thread B
Course Moons Ancient Health and Well-being
Collection Longest Threads URL-link Threads
Length 17 42
Number of Learners 7 8
Contentious Topic Climate Change Homeopathy
A
(not provides links)
7 (against global warming) 17 (for homeopathy)
B
(asks for links)
4 (for global warming) 17 (against homeopathy)
Disagreement drifts to ideological crash on link

23. Thread A – Back up with links
● A (against global warming) (reply 12):
I would draw your attention to many of my other posts in which I have said that temperatures
were actually higher than they are now. The jury is out because the claims of the IPCC and other
groups with similar agendas are not borne out in fact. For example, even the Met Office states
that there has been no warming over the last 15 years or so, despite the rise in CO2. I personally
used to believe the propaganda, until I began to look deeper into the subject, did a lot of courses
in subjects such as meteorology and solar science and saw (as have done a great many highly
esteemed scientists) that there are many anomalies among the claims of the GW proponents.
Claims about melting polar ice, rising sea levels, and increases in hurricane activity, etc, are often
simply not true. You don't have to be a genius to figure it out - you only have to look at the data
compiled by NOAA, and the like. The info is right there for those who care to take an objective
look at it.
● B (for global warming) (reply 13):
[A], please provide some names of those highly esteemed scientists.
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/moons/1/comments/703441

24. ● A (against global warming) (reply 14):
Why don't you go and look them up for yourself? Like I said, the info is out there for those who
truly want to seek it. If all you're going to do is simply go into attack mode, then it probably won't
do you much good and you'd be better off sticking with received opinions and what the media
feeds you!
● B (for global warming) (reply 15):
[A], it seems to me you're the one who is in attack mode and are making statements you won't
back up. I actually have also spent a lot of time and effort investigating the climate change/ global
warming question and have come to the opposite conclusion to you. Like you, I am quite highly
qualified in relevant areas. Unlike you, I'm willing to give a link to enable others to start
investigating:
http://www.ipcc.ch
Alternatively, these make interesting reading:
http://energyblog.nationalgeographic.com/2010/12/21/climate-change-myth/
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/?source=NavEnvGlobal
…….

25. Thread B- “No links, here, on the forums to back up what you say”
-----Link as Expert Knowledge
● B (against homeopathy)
● Reply 7:
.…..[another learner], thanks for your link - it is worth quoting “……”
● Reply 13:
This article is by a homeopath, a Professor of Complementary Medicine, who says “……”
● Reply 18:
……'The World Health Organisation (WHO) says there is no scientific evidence they are effective
against HIV infection. But the ALF website says it uses homeopathic medicine as "the primary
therapy" to boost patients' auto-immune responses'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/an-alternative-for-kenyas-hiv-patients-ndash-or-
a-health-scandal-2278049.html
Dr Peter Fisher (the Queen's homeopath) when he found out that homeopaths in the UK thought
they could prevent malaria “……of homeopathy so people will get malaria, people may even die
of malaria if they follow this advice."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/5178122.stm
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/ancient-health/1/comments/20147989

26. ● B (against homeopathy)
● Reply 20:
…… I'm not interested in reading 93 pages of links, and I don't expect the full articles will be
available online. It's a waste of my time. The reason is that people much more expert than me
have already done that. In the same way, I accept that the world is round, and even 93 pages of
links from the flat earth society wouldn't persuade me otherwise.
……A nice overview of homeopathy here
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/reference/homeopathy/
Reply 22:
…... See Professor David Colquhoun, a pharmacologist at University College London
http://www.dcscience.net/2007/12/01/aids-more-homeopathic-killing/
……your argument seems to consist of telling me I don't know what I am talking about or sending
me away to spend hours (days?) reading 93 pages of references. No links, here, on the forums,
as I have done, to back up what you say. Sadly, your argument comes across as all bluster and is
not convincing.

27. ● B (against homeopathy)
● Reply 24:
…... So you see, it isn't just my opinion. Not only that, but we have provided links and all this
evidence is immediately available to anyone who reads this thread. I hope that has helped other
students.
● Reply 29:
……The problem is [Interlocutor B]- while I and others have been presenting actual, real,
available links to evidence that backs up what we say, you have not. You have told me to go
away and find an obscure book, or read pages of links that you can't be bothered to put on here.
Maybe they don't exist. You are safe in making that claim and then making out it is my fault for
not taking you up on the offer, but you know you can't actually send them to me as we are not
supposed to put our contact details on here…….

28. ● A (for homeopathy)
● Reply 1:
Homeopathy debunked? Really? Please take the time to read the book "The Emerging Science
of Homeopathy" by Bellavite and Signori, 400 pages of real scientific research and
publications...the BBC is definitely NOT a source of objective scientific information, rather
sensationalism is the motto...
● Reply 15:
I suggest you have a look at what Jeremy Sherr does in Africa (google it, I do not have the link
handy) and what the Abha Light Foundation does also in Africa. Serious life threatening
diseases, no "peddling" of little globules (and that is really insulting BTW). The links given come
from people and organisations that are certainly not known for their objectivity, but one thing is
flagrant: conventional practitioners would rather accept their diagnoses were wrong
…….Recently in NZ we had a patient dying from septicemia in ICU; the proposed "alternative"
treatment was high dose vitamin C (not homeopathy indeed) yet it needed the threat of a court
case to have it done despite the fact the patient was dying...he walked out on his feet to the
shame of the hospital.
Hippocratic oath???

29. ● A(for homeopathy)
● Reply 16:
I have seen and keep seeing the results of homeopathy and all the other non-conventional
techniques I practice. Can you say the same? I do not think there is any use to continue arguing
or discussing...once again "there is no worse blind that he who does not want to see..."
● Reply 23:
Well, it is your opinion...I am going back to my vocation which is to treat sick people and cure
them as best as I can, not pontify and refusing to even look at evidence. Colquhoun, yes, a "real
trustworthy reference"...thanks for the good laugh...
● Reply 27:
…….We, practitioners, see results on a daily basis, we see cures, we see people ditching their
drugs, etc....to the surprise and anger of their GPs and specialists who would not even bother
investigating how this is possible...how is that being a caring health practitioner? You want
links...I gave you books and articles but that is too much for you, you clearly mentioned you have
no time for that. Instead of using your own brain, you prefer to blindly follow the opinions of a
group bend not on helping patients and society to get better but on having their opinion, their cult
remain predominant. ……

30. Contentious issue
Link War
(Metapragmatics)
Epistemological
differences
Idealize link as
- Needed in online
discussions
- Evidence of epistemic
authority
v.s.
- Received wisdom
- Look for credible and
objective links

31. Contentious issue
Link War
(Metapragmatics)
Epistemological
differences
Evidencing practices:
-Expert knowledge
-Situated knowledge

32. Research Questions
●How learners use URLs in their discursive practices in the
discussion space?
Link war
Evidence
●What are their attitudes towards the URLs posted?
Positive

33. Corpus-assisted Discourse Analysis
URL- posting
practices
linkKeyword
Analysis
Collocation
Analysis
thank
thanks
interesting
Learners engage
in and value links

34. Corpus-assisted Discourse Analysis
Collection of threads containing
link, links, http.* or www.*
Mixed
attitudes
Problems
accessing links
Link war ……

35. Acknowledgement
● Dr Caroline Tagg, Prof Mike Sharples, Prof Bart Rienties
● Leverhulme Trust
● Course Providers
● Lots of experts in corpus linguistics whom I have bombarded
with emails
● shimin.chua@open.ac.uk