Learning with Comments: An Analysis of Comments and Community on Stack Overflow

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dc.contributor.authorSengupta, Subhasree
dc.contributor.authorHaythornthwaite, Caroline
dc.date.accessioned2020-01-04T07:45:18Z
dc.date.available2020-01-04T07:45:18Z
dc.date.issued2020-01-07
dc.description.abstractStack Overflow (SO) has become a primary source for learning how to code, with community features supporting asking and answering questions, upvoting to signify approval of content, and comments to extend questions and answers. While past research has considered the value of posts, often based on upvoting, little has examined the role of comments. Beyond value in explaining code, comments may offer new ways of looking at problems, clarifications of questions or answers, and socially supportive community interactions. To understand the role of comments, a content analysis was conducted to evaluate the key purposes of comments. A coding schema of nine comment categories was developed from open coding on a set of 40 posts and used to classify comments in a larger dataset of 2323 comments from 50 threads over a 6-month period. Results provide insight into the way the comments support learning, knowledge development, and the SO community, and the use and usefulness of the comment feature.
dc.format.extent10 pages
dc.identifier.doi10.24251/HICSS.2020.354
dc.identifier.isbn978-0-9981331-3-3
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10125/64096
dc.language.isoeng
dc.relation.ispartofProceedings of the 53rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
dc.rightsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subjectSocial Networking and Communities
dc.subjectcomments
dc.subjectcommunity support
dc.subjectlearning
dc.subjectq&a sites
dc.subjectvirtual communities
dc.titleLearning with Comments: An Analysis of Comments and Community on Stack Overflow
dc.typeConference Paper
dc.type.dcmiText

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