I'm Sure! Automatic Detection of Metacognition in Online Course Discussion Forums

Eddie Huang, Hannah Valdiviejas, Nigel Bosch

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Metacognition is a valuable tool for learning, since it is closely related to self-regulation and awareness of one's own affect. However, methods for automatically detecting and studying metacognition are scarce. Thus, in this paper we describe an algorithm for automatic detection of metacognitive language in writing. We analyzed text from the forums of two online, university-level science courses, which revealed common patterns of phrases that we used for automatic metacognition detection. The algorithm we developed exhibited high accuracy on expert-labeled metacognitive phrases (Spearman's rho = 0.878 and Cohen's kappa = 0.792), and provides a reliable, fast method for automatically annotating text corpora that are too large for manual annotation. We applied this algorithm to analyze relationships between students' metacognitive language and their academic performance, finding small correlations with course grade and medium-sized differences in metacognition across courses. We discuss how our algorithm can be used to advance metacognitive studies and online educational systems.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication2019 8th International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction, ACII 2019
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages241-247
Number of pages7
ISBN (Electronic)9781728138886
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2019
Event8th International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction, ACII 2019 - Cambridge, United Kingdom
Duration: Sep 3 2019Sep 6 2019

Publication series

Name2019 8th International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction, ACII 2019

Conference

Conference8th International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction, ACII 2019
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityCambridge
Period9/3/199/6/19

Keywords

  • Learning analytics
  • Metacognition
  • Natural language processing

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Behavioral Neuroscience
  • Social Psychology

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