CZTalk: Applying information visualization techniques to analyze online discussions

The widespread use of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) applications has meant that almost anyone can communicate using, and benefit from, online discussions. However, research reveals that heavily text-based interfaces provide limited support for users wishing to understand such spaces more. This indicates a need for a new tool which will address this concern. This study is an investigation of CMC usage problems and solutions. Our goal is to apply information visualization techniques to help users, particularly post-secondary instructors, to better understand structured, course-based discussions to facilitate discussion evaluation. The solution we present is CZTalk, a multi-view visualization tool. CZTalk provides a network display of discussion messages which helps instructors understand individual messages, the context in which they occur, and various quantitative and qualitative measures of student performance in discussions. The results of our user study suggest CZTalk is more usehl in evaluating course-based online discussions than traditional text-based discussion environments.