Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Enhancing Online Discussion Forums with Topic-Driven Content Search and Assisted Posting

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Knowledge Discovery, Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management (IC3K 2014)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 553))

Abstract

Online forums represent nowadays one of the most popular and rich repository of user generated information over the Internet. Searching information of interest in an online forum may be substantially improved by a proper organization of the forum content. With this aim, in this paper we propose an approach that enhances an existing forum by introducing a navigation structure that enables searching and navigating the forum content by topics of discussion. Topics and hierarchical relations between them are semi-automatically extracted from the forum content by applying Information Retrieval techniques, specifically Topic Models and Formal Concept Analysis. Then, forum posts and discussion threads are associated to discussion topics on a similarity score basis. Moreover, to support automatic moderation in websites that host several forums, we propose a strategy to assist a user writing a new post in choosing the most appropriate forum into which it should be added. An implementation of the topic-driven content search and navigation and assisted posting forum enhancement approaches for the Moodle learning management system is also presented in the paper, opening to the application of these approaches to several real distance learning contexts. Finally, we also report on two case studies that we have conducted to validate the two approaches and evaluate their benefits.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    An example of such forum is the Microsoft MSDN Developer Network forum. http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/categories/.

  2. 2.

    https://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=5.

  3. 3.

    https://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?f=365.

  4. 4.

    https://moodle.org/course/.

  5. 5.

    http://stackexchange.com.

  6. 6.

    www.moodle.org.

  7. 7.

    A rich and up-to-date list of Moodle plugins can be found in the Moodle Plugins Directory at http://www.moodle.org/plugins.

  8. 8.

    http://philogb.github.io/jit/.

  9. 9.

    http://cran.r-project.org/.

  10. 10.

    http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/topicmodels/.

  11. 11.

    http://fcastone.sourceforge.net/.

  12. 12.

    https://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=41.

  13. 13.

    https://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=732.

  14. 14.

    http://webapps.stackexchange.com.

  15. 15.

    http://webmasters.stackexchange.com.

  16. 16.

    http://beer.stackexchange.com.

  17. 17.

    http://aviation.stackexchange.com.

  18. 18.

    http://politics.stackexchange.com.

  19. 19.

    http://space.stackexchange.com.

References

  1. Baeza-Yates, R.A., Ribeiro-Neto, B.: Modern Information Retrieval. Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Bakalov, A., McCallum, A., Wallach, H.M., Mimno, D.M.: Topic models for taxonomies. In: Proceedings of the 12th ACM/IEEE-CS Joint Conference on Digital Libraries, JCDL 2012, Washington, D.C., USA, 10–14 June 2012, pp. 237–240 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Birkhoff, G. (ed.): Lattice Theory, vol. 25, 3rd edn. American Mathematical Society Colloquium Publications, Providence (1967)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  4. Blei, D.M.: Introduction to probabilistic topic models. Commun. ACM 55, 77–84 (2011). http://www.cs.princeton.edu/blei/papers/Blei2011.pdf

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Castro, F., Nebot, A., Mugica, F.: Extraction of logical rules to describe students’ learning behavior. In: Proceedings of the Sixth Conference on IASTED International Conference Web-Based Education, WBED 2007, vol. 2, pp. 164–169. ACTA Press, Anaheim (2007). http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1323159.1323189

  6. Castro, F., Vellido, A., Nebot, A., Mugica, F.: Applying data mining techniques to e-learning problems. In: Jain, L., Tedman, R., Tedman, D. (eds.) Evolution of Teaching and Learning Paradigms in Intelligent Environment. Studies in Computational Intelligence, vol. 62, pp. 183–221. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  7. Cerulo, L., Distante, D.: Topic-driven semi-automatic reorganization of online discussion forums: a case study in an e-learning context. In: Proceedings of IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON 2013), pp. 303–310, March 2013

    Google Scholar 

  8. Dicheva, D., Dichev, C.: Tm4l: Creating and browsing educational topic maps. Br. J. Educ. Technol. 37(3), 391–404 (2006). http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2006.00612.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Distante, D., Cerulo, L., Visaggio, C.A., Leone, M.: Enhancing online discussion forums with a topic-driven navigational paradigm: a plugin for the moodle learning management system. In: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Information Retrieval, KDIR 2014, pp. 97–106. Scitepress (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Ganter, B., Wille, R.: Formal Concept Analysis: Mathematical Foundations. Springer, Heidelberg (1999)

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  11. Ghenname, M., Ajhoun, R., Gravier, C., Subercaze, J.: Combining the semantic and the social web for intelligent learning systems. In: Proceedings of IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON 2012), pp. 1–6, April 2012

    Google Scholar 

  12. Gruen, T.W., Osmonbekov, T., Czaplewski, A.J.: eWOM: the impact of customer-to-customer online know-how exchange on customer value and loyalty. J. Bus. Res. 59, 449–456 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Hanna, M.: Data mining in the e-learning domain. Campus-Wide Inf. Syst. 21(1), 29–34 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Hogo, M.A.: Evaluation of e-learning systems based on fuzzy clustering models and statistical tools. Expert Syst. Appl. 37(10), 6891–6903 (2010). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2010.03.032

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Hrastinski, S.: What is online learner participation? A literature review. Comput. Educ. 51(4), 1755–1765 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Jakobsone, A., Kulmane, V., Cakula, S.: Structurization of information for group work in an online environment. In: Proceedings of IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON 2012), pp. 1–7, April 2012

    Google Scholar 

  17. Jalbert, N., Weimer, W.: Automated duplicate detection for bug tracking systems. In: IEEE International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks with FTCS and DCC, 2008, DSN 2008, pp. 52–61, June 2008

    Google Scholar 

  18. Li, Q., Wang, J., Chen, Y.P., Lin, Z.: User comments for news recommendation in forum-based social media. Inf. Sci. 180, 4929–4939 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Martin, A., Leon, C.: An intelligent e-learning scenario for knowledge retrieval. In: Proceedings of IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON 2012), pp. 1–6, April 2012

    Google Scholar 

  20. Meilă, M.: Comparing clusterings by the variation of information. In: Schölkopf, B., Warmuth, M.K. (eds.) COLT/Kernel 2003. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 2777, pp. 173–187. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  21. Nguyen, A.T., Nguyen, T.T., Nguyen, T.N., Lo, D., Sun, C.: Duplicate bug report detection with a combination of information retrieval and topic modeling. In: Proceedings of the 27th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, ASE 2012, pp. 70–79. ACM, New York (2012). http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2351676.2351687

  22. Otterbacher, J.: Searching for product experience attributes in online information sources. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2008). Association for Information Systems, December 2008

    Google Scholar 

  23. Romero, C., Ventura, S., Bra, P.D.: Knowledge discovery with genetic programming for providing feedback to courseware authors. User Model. User-Adap. Inter. 14(5), 425–464 (2005). http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11257-004-7961-2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Salton, G., Wong, A., Yang, C.S.: A vector space model for automatic indexing. Commun. ACM 18(11), 613–620 (1975). http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/361219.361220

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  25. Machado, L.D.S., Becker, K.: Distance education: a web usage mining case study for the evaluation of learning sites. In: 2003 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT 2003), Athens, Greece, 9–11 July 2003, pp. 360–361. IEEE Computer Society (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Stefan, H.: A theory of online learning as online participation. Comput. Educ. 52(1), 78–82 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Sudau, F., Friede, T., Grabowski, J., Koschack, J., Makedonski, P., Himmel, W.: Sources of information and behavioral patterns in online health forums: qualitative study. J. Med. Internet Res. 16, e10 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Sung, H.H., Sung, M,B., Sang, C.P.: Web mining for distance education. In: Proceedings of the 2000 IEEE International Conference on Management of Innovation and Technology (ICMIT 2000), vol. 2, pp. 715–719. IEEE (2000). http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICMIT.2000.916789

  29. Tang, T., McCalla, G.: Smart recommendation for an evolving e-learning system: architecture and experiment. Int. J. e-Learning 4(1), 105–129 (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Tsai, C.-J., Tseng, S.S., Lin, C.-Y.: A two-phase fuzzy mining and learning algorithm for adaptive learning environment. In: Alexandrov, V.N., Dongarra, J., Juliano, B.A., Renner, R.S., Tan, C.J.K. (eds.) ICCS-ComputSci 2001. LNCS, vol. 2074, pp. 429–438. Springer, Heidelberg (2001)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  31. Wallach, H.M., Mimno, D.M., McCallum, A.: Rethinking LDA: why priors matter. In: 23rd Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems 2009. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, vol. 22, pp. 1973–1981 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Yang, Q., Sun, J., Wang, J., Jin, Z.: Semantic web-based personalized recommendation system of courses knowledge research. In: Proceedings of the 2010 International Conference on Intelligent Computing and Cognitive Informatics, ICICCI 2010, pp. 214–217. IEEE Computer Society, Washington, D.C. (2010). http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICICCI.2010.54

  33. Zaíane, O.R.: Building a recommender agent for e-learning systems. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Computers in Education, ICCE 2002, pp. 55–59. IEEE Computer Society, Washington, D.C. (2002). http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=838238.839230

  34. Zhang, K., Peck, K.: The effects of peer-controlled or moderated online collaboration on group problem solving and related attitudes. Can. J. Learn. Technol./La revue canadienne de l’apprentissage et de la technologie 29(3), 93–112 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  35. Zhou, Y., Cong, G., Cui, B., Jensen, C.S., Yao, J.: Routing questions to the right users in online communities. In: Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE International Conference on Data Engineering, ICDE 2009, pp. 700–711. , IEEE Computer Society, Washington, D.C. (2009). http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICDE.2009.44

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unitelma Sapienza University, Rome, Italy

    Damiano Distante

  2. LIFIA, CIC/F.I., National University of La Plata, La Plata, Argentina

    Alejandro Fernandez

  3. University of Sannio, Benevento, Italy

    Luigi Cerulo & Aaron Visaggio

Authors
  1. Damiano Distante
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Alejandro Fernandez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Luigi Cerulo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Aaron Visaggio
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Damiano Distante .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Telecomunicações, Lisboa, Portugal

    Ana Fred

  2. Delft University of Technology, Delft, Zuid-Holland, The Netherlands

    Jan L. G. Dietz

  3. University of Madeira, Funchal, Portugal

    David Aveiro

  4. Henley Business School, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom

    Kecheng Liu

  5. INSTICC, Setubal, Portugal

    Joaquim Filipe

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this paper

Cite this paper

Distante, D., Fernandez, A., Cerulo, L., Visaggio, A. (2015). Enhancing Online Discussion Forums with Topic-Driven Content Search and Assisted Posting. In: Fred, A., Dietz, J., Aveiro, D., Liu, K., Filipe, J. (eds) Knowledge Discovery, Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management. IC3K 2014. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 553. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25840-9_11

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25840-9_11

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-25839-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-25840-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation