Conclusions
The use of content analysis in this study has been shown to be beneficial as a
way of evaluating the educational effectiveness of an online discussion. The
content analysis of the online seminar provided us with an understanding of
what issues students were talking about, how they were using the course
materials to further their learning and the extent to which their activities were
collaborative. This also provided evidence of learning processes occurring in the
online seminars in this graduate course. We were able to label messages that
contribute to group task by providing knowledge, references, examples,
questions and explanations.