What is the Effect of a Dominant Code in an Epistemic Network Analysis?

This paper investigates how different configuration of epistemic network analysis parameters influence the examination of student interactions in asynchronous discussions in online learning environments. Specifically, the paper investigates strategies for dealing by unintended consequences of a dominant node in epistemic network analysis (ENA). In particular, the paper reports on a study that explored the effects of two different strategies including (i) the use of different dimensions calculated with singular value decomposition (SVD), and (ii) exclusion of a dominant code. Our results showed that the use of different SVDs did not change the influence of a dominant code in the graph. On the other hand, the exclusion of the dominant code led to an entirely different configuration in ENA. The practical implications of the results are further discussed.

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