Denise C. Nacu

Analyzing educators’ online interactions: a framework of online learning support roles

While the potential benefits of participating in online learning communities are documented, so too are inequities in terms of how different populations access and use them. We present the online learning support roles (OLSR) framework, an approach using both automated analytics and qualitative interpretation to identify and explore online teaching roles. We analyze the OLSR using data logs of iRemix, the online component of the Digital Youth Network, a face-to-face and online program for urban youth in underserved communities. In three middle-school classrooms, six educators used iRemix most to interact with individual students, especially as a window into their work. Although many roles were documented, few were played regularly, raising questions about design and intentionality. To address participation inequities, our results suggest that the OLSR and related data can be used to support productive practice improvement conversations among educators and to inform the design of online social learning networks.

Beyond Traditional Metrics: Using Automated Log Coding to Understand 21st Century Learning Online

While log analysis in massively open online courses and other online learning environments has mainly focused on traditional measures, such as completion rates and views of course content, research is responding to calls for analytic frameworks that are more reflective of social learning models. We introduce a generalizable approach to automatically code log data that highlights educator support roles and student actions that are consistent with recent conceptualizations of 21st century learning, such as creative production, self-directed learning, and social learning. Here, we describe details of a log-coding framework that builds from prior mixed method studies of the use of iRemix, an online social learning network, by middle school youth and adult educators in blended learning contexts.

Reflections on Design Methods for Underserved Communities

The goal of this workshop is to facilitate a discussion around the ways in which research and design methods can be better tailored to support and engage underserved communities. We aim to create a publicly accessible repository of tools to support research and design efforts with underserved communities and to facilitate critical conversations about appropriate methods and solutions in this space. At the workshop, participants will collaborate with one another to explore their own as well as past, present, and future research and design initiatives with underserved communities; discuss challenges and lessons learned from using methods to facilitate technological development and creation among such populations; and brainstorm methods and solutions to address these challenges. Discussion and ideas generated from this workshop will be archived online and made available to the larger research community.

Encouraging online contributions in underrepresented populations

Research has revealed how actively contributing to online communities can advance technical skills, knowledge, and confidence, and ideas for sustaining and evolving participation. However, recent studies have also shown that contributors of online content are a small subset of the population using technical systems, and that this subset is not representative of the larger population. This trend is concerning both in terms of who takes advantage of opportunities to develop technological competencies necessary for participation in the 21st century, and in terms of who is authoring content that informs public opinion and knowledge. In this paper, we consider how Latino youth interact around online digital artifacts and how we can design features to better support their contributions of communication and critique. This work specifically attends to documented trends in formal learning environments in Latino communities, including emphasis on good behavior and respect for adult authority and less emphasis on individual autonomy. We focus on a collaboration with a seventh grade teacher using an online platform in a predominantly Latino middle school. We first describe student online communication and contribution, using qualitative ethnographic case studies and quantitative log data. We then share the collaborative design of reactions, a feature encouraging student contributions in the form of communication and critique. Findings suggest important cultural and pedagogical design considerations for online social learning network interfaces aiming to build learning community and engage diverse youth populations to contribute.

A framework for developing metrics of youth engagement in informal learning environments

This paper proposes a framework which aims to leverage data from informal learning environments to provide insights about youth engagement for various stakeholders. To explore the framework, we created metrics to examine the engagement of 98 middle school-aged girls during a 20-week STEM program using attendance records and log data from an online learning platform coded to reflect 21st century learning activities. We present preliminary analyses using the metrics, focusing on how they can help stakeholders understand engagement and equity of participation.

Recommender System to Support Brokering of Youth Learning Opportunities

Recent research examining learning in informal environments reflects a growing recognition of the important role adults play as learning brokers by identifying and orchestrating connections to learning opportunities such as access to people, spaces, programs, and information sources. In order to broker learning, educators need to have knowledge about youth as well as potential opportunities. This position paper argues for the design and development of a recommender system to support educators in brokering learning that makes use of log data from an online social learning network.