Message responsiveness during online discussions

Abstract

Students are increasingly learning via online academic discussions, posting messages in an attempt to discuss their learning problems. However, many messages often do not receive responses. This paper aims to understand the relationship between the characteristics of message content and the corresponding message responsiveness. We randomly sampled 140 topics from a high school mathematics online discussion forum and analysed 1,559 reply messages using multilevel logistic regressions at the topic and message level. It was found that a message that either expressed a disagreement, a correct idea or a wrong idea or asked a question was more likely to receive a response. Time was another significant predictor of a message’s responsiveness, in that messages posted earlier in a discussion or users that responded more promptly were more likely to receive a response. The findings contribute to the understanding of the discourse processes and students’ learning behaviour in online academic discussions.