Sentiment Analysis and Topic Modeling Regarding Online Classes on the Reddit Platform: Educators versus Learners

Abstract

The world is witnessing an unpredictable COVID-19 pandemic that has impacted all levels of online education, shaping future trends. However, this shift was so sudden and drastic that unrevealed puzzles exist regarding the public’s authentic opinion towards online classes, even though three years have passed. Many experts and policymakers have conducted qualitative and quantitative research to explore effective pedagogies, the satisfaction of different stakeholders, and factors influential on learners’ performance. However, scant studies have examined personal opinions and concerns toward online classes hidden behind people’s anonymous posts on social media. This research investigates the sentiments, concerns, and their variance with time regarding online classes by learners and educators on Reddit, which is a dominant social network among them. Data were collected via the official API from identified relevant subreddits and keyword search results across Reddit. Sentiment analysis was applied to reveal their emotions and their changes. Topic modeling was conducted to discover the concerns hidden in the posts. The results revealed the concerns about online classes, such as severe cheating behaviors, and showed doubts about previous strategies to solve disadvantages in online classes. In addition, the results verified the habitual difference and motivations of social media usage between educators and learners.

Impact of COVID-19 on reading behaviors and preferences: investigating high school students and parents with the 5E instructional model

“…Communications related to formal learning should be carried out through the online learning system (Yao et al. , 2023; Li et al ., 2023). Both students and teachers should turn on the camera during class (Wang et al ., 2020), and the student's microphone should remain available to foster discussions and inquiries.…”

Editorial: Advances in information and knowledge management

“…In this issue, Li et al . (2023a, b, c) evaluated teachers' information literacy based on their online information behavior data on online learning and teaching platforms (OLTPs).…”

“…Moreover, the pandemic has accelerated service transformation (Chan and Chiu, 2022; Cheng et al ., 2022; Chin and Chiu, 2023; Hsu and Lin, 2021; Khan and Ayesha, 2022; Kelner et al ., 2022; Li et al ., 2023a, b, c; Lin et al ., 2022; Lo et al ., 2020; Noh, 2022; Nwagwu and Matobako, 2022; Okunlaya et al ., 2022; Tsang and Chiu, 2022; Tse et al ., 2022; Yao et al ., 2023; Wong and Chiu, 2023a; Wu et al ., 2022a, b, 2023; Xue et al ., 2023), leading to various recent advancements in information and knowledge management. In this issue, we present 12 papers that research various contemporary issues related to information and knowledge management.…”

“…Their statistical result indicated that students' learning performance improved significantly, especially low-scoring students. Readers may also be interested in other online education aids, platforms and related issues (Cheng, 2022; Cheng et al ., 2022; Chung et al ., 2020; Dai et al ., 2023; Kabigting et al ., 2023; Li et al ., 2023a; Wang et al , 2023b).…”

Editorial: Special selection on contemporary bibliometric analytics

“…More institutions have moved to online learning mode in the past few years due to COVID-19 (Kabigting et al ., 2023; Li et al ., 2023; Tse et al ., 2022; Ye and Ho, 2022; Yi and Chiu, 2023; Yu et al ., 2023) and changed information habits of youths (Ding et al ., 2021b; Dong et al ., 2021; Yu et al ., 2022) and curricula (Ho et al ., 2023; Yew et al ., 2022; Li and Chiu, 2022; Ng et al ., 2022). Thus, a focus is on the dropout rates of massive open online courses (MOOCs).…”