Student Performance Evaluation Based on Online Discussion

Abstract

Nowadays, it is no longer appropriate to evaluate students’ performance just only using the final exam scores, the learning procedure should be taken into account as the compensation. Online discussion is widely employed and is one important component in blend learning. Combining participation and the depth of thinking, we propose a model to evaluate students’ performance in online discussion as a compensation for the final evaluation. Further on, we examine the key factors that affect the discussion performance. The result reveals that with/without the instructor’s participation, the questions level and the form to initial a question affect the students’ behavior pattern and discussion performance, and more, besides of instructors, those “Discussion Leader” who are active in discussion and always give deep level posts have the same effect as the instructors on the discussion.