Beyond posting frequency: how network metrics and textual readability relate to engagement in online discussion

This study investigates how student interaction patterns and the readability of their discussion posts relate to engagement in asynchronous online discussion. Data from an undergraduate online course were analyzed using social network analysis (SNA), focusing on metrics such as indegree, outdegree, betweenness, eigenvector, closeness, and clustering coefficient. The statistical results indicate that students who received more responses from peers tended to have higher eigenvector and betweenness centralities, reflecting stronger connections to influential peers and a greater role in bridging groups. However, frequent postings and participation were not strongly associated with broader engagement. Additionally, the readability assessment of the discussion posts rated as more accessible and clearly written were often associated with broader engagement. Those posts were associated with students occupying more central positions in the network, while more complex or dense writing corresponded to peripheral network positions and fewer responses. These findings suggest that both interaction structure and communication clarity are associated with patterns of engagement in online learning discussions. The study demonstrates the usefulness of combining network analytics and textual assessment for informing instructional practices and learning platform design and points to opportunities for further research using longitudinal approaches.