Handbook of Learning Analytics

Chapter 11

Modeling Educational Discourse with Natural Language Processing

Nia Dowell & Vitomir Kovanović

Abstract

The broadening adoption of technology enhanced learning environments has substantially altered the manner in which educational communication takes place, with most people engaging in some form of online asynchronous or synchronous conversation every day. The language and discourse artifacts emerging from these technological environments is a rich source of information into learning processes and outcomes. This chapter describes the current landscape of natural language processing (NLP) tools and approaches available to researchers and practitioners to computationally discern patterns in large quantities of text-based conversations that take place across a variety of educational technology platforms. The capabilities of NLP are particularly important as, in the field of learning analytics, we desire to effectively and efficiently learn about the process of learning by observing learners, and then subsequently use that information to improve learning. We conclude the chapter with a discussion around the emerging applications (i.e., sensing technologies, breakthroughs in AI, and cloud computing) and challenges of NLP tools to educational discourse.

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