Using collaborative filtering to support college students’ use of online forum for English learning

Pei-Yu Wang

Reporter：黃詩哲

Outline

1.Introduction

2.Method

3.Conclusion

Introduction(1/4) Collaborative filtering

1. Books2. Movies3. News articles

Introduction(2/4) Proliferation of information Information overload

Introduction(3/4) Does the recommender improve students’

use of online forums for English learning?1. Is there any difference in online behaviors

between students who use a traditional forum and students who use a forum with a recommender?

Introduction(4/4)

2. Is there any difference in learning motivation between students who use a traditional forum and students who use a forum with a recommender?

3. Is there any difference in learning achievement between students who use a traditional forum and students who use a forum with a recommender?

Method(1/15) Open-source software Drupal

1. PHP2. Account registration3. Maintenance4. Menu management5. RSS6. Page layout

Method(2/15) Top-N nearest neighbors

1. Users who browsed this node also browsed.

2. Recommended for you.

Method(3/15)

Method(4/15) Participants

• One hundred and forty-two freshman(n=142) Experimental group(n=72) Control group(n=70)

Method(5/15) Data collection

1. Pre-test2. Midterm exam3. Final exam4. Online survey5. Weblog data

Method(6/15) Comparison of mean posting frequency for each

student

Method(7/15)

Comparison of mean replying frequency for each student.

Method(8/15)

Comparison of mean reading frequency for each post.

Method(9/15)

p

Midterm receptive skills test scores Control group .59

Experimental group

Midterm productive skills test scores Control group .52

Experimental group

Final receptive skills test scores Control group .06

Experimental group

Final productive skills test scores Control group .04*

Experimental group

Comparison of student achievement performance.

Method(10/15)

1. Question statement N Mean

2. I was willing to read recommended postings on the forum. 54 2.70

3. The recommender system prompts me to read postings on the forum.

55 2.73

4. The recommender system prompts me to write on the forum. 55 2.73

5. The recommender system helps me to read more effectively. 55 2.75

6. The postings filtered by the recommender were exactly what I wanted to read.

55 2.53

7. When reading postings on the forum, I am willing to rate the level of my enjoyment of the postings so that they can be used as a part of the recommendation guidelines.

55 2.67

Descriptive statistics for student perception to the recommender.

Method(11/15)

Question statement Student response Percentage

I hope the users on the forum may offer recommendation for postings that are. (N = 55)

most interesting 41 (75.6%)

most unique 39 (70.9%)

of highest quality 32 (58.2%)

written by my friends 13 (23.6%)

similar to my postings in terms of the content

12 (21.8%)

written by my classmates who had similar viewpoints

3 (5.5%)

thought-provoking 1 (1.8%)

Open-ended response for student perception to the recommender.

Method(12/15)

Open-ended response for student perception to the recommender.

Question statement Student response Percentage

The reason why I read recommended online postings was because.(N = 55)

I was curious 33 (60.0%)

I would like to broaden my horizon by reading others’ work

32 (58.2%)

I needed to refer to others’ postings so that I could complete my homework assignments

28 (50.9%)

I was free at the moment 12 (21.8%)

Method(13/15)

1. The recommender can be more personalized. For example, the recommender can let users set up their own criteria to rate articles.

2. The rating system could use stars (from one to five) or thumb-up icons to display the recommended posts.

Method(14/15)

3. Creating an explicit rating function to each post would improve utility. For example, students or instructors can vote or mark articles good in their opinion.

4. Connecting the recommended posts to Facebook was also suggested.

Method(15/15)

5. The instructor should present or discuss recommended articles in class to enhance student use of the forum.

Conclusion Significantly enhance students’ reading

frequency of forum articles. Improve students’ summary writing

ability. This research was conducted in a short

eight week period.