Detecting cognitive engagement in online course forums: A review of frameworks and methodologies

A key aspect of online learning in higher education involves the utilization of course discussion forums. Assessing the quality of posts, such as cognitive engagement, within online course discussion forums, and determining students’ interest and participation is challenging yet beneficial. This research investigates existing literature on identifying the cognitive engagement of online learners through the analysis of course discussion forums. Essentially, this review examines three educational frameworks - Van Der Meijden's Knowledge Construction in Synchronous and Asynchronous Discussion Posts (KCSA), Community of Inquiry (CoI), and Interactive, Constructive, Active, and Passive (ICAP), which have been widely used for students’ cognitive engagement detection analyzing their posts in course discussion forums. This study also examines the natural language processing and deep learning approaches employed and integrated with the above three educational frameworks in the existing literature concerning the detection of cognitive engagement in the context of online learning. The article provides recommendations for enhancing instructional design and fostering student engagement by leveraging cognitive engagement detection. This research underscores the significance of automating the identification of cognitive engagement in online learning and puts forth suggestions for future research directions.