An Analysis of Online Discussion Platforms for Academic Deliberation Support

摘要

Asynchronous online discussions are relevant for supporting and promoting debates among people. Nevertheless, achieving beneficial discussion requires adequate software applications with specific features to support people's participation, e.g., mechanisms for structured pros and cons arguments. Although literature is vast in discussing online forums usage, requirements for the design of platforms for academic deliberation has not been addressed in the same proportion. In this paper, we analyze three online discussion platforms for deliberation. We conduct a structural analysis regarding their interaction concepts and, based on activities of graduate students attending a Human-Computer Interaction discipline, this study conducts a usage analysis of the platforms. Results reveal the level of participants' engagement in academic discussions and the effects on their learning perception. Moreover, results expose the impact of software design choices in the deliberation outcome.