A Formal Representation for Interactivity in Asynchronous Communication

Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) based on electronic bulletin board system (e-BBS) has been widely used for various educational purposes since the advent of the Internet. Instructors can achieve pedagogical goals by analyzing the contents of postings. They can be benefited from analytic information on discussion activities. To do that, we develop a formal model to represent and analyze communication activities formally. The model consists of interactivity vector providing a formal representation of discussion activities and interactivity chart providing a graphical representation of interactivity vector. The formal approach can be used as a technical assistance to analyze and compare discussion groups.