thought_chains: Trees of Thought reply links, augmented by simulation

In Dynet: Tidy Temporal Network Analysis

Trees of Thought reply links, augmented by simulation

Description

A table of reply links between the codes of messages in coded asynchronous discussions, based on the Trees of Thought study. Each row is one link from the code of a message to the code of the message it replies to. About 20 percent of the study's records were removed, dates and rates were changed and anonymised, and the data were augmented by simulation, so the table is not the study's data, and the participant, group, course and time values do not identify anyone.

Thursdays and Fridays do not occur. Some rows repeat exactly (8,122 duplicates); aggregating the log counts them as weight. A code answering itself is a self-link (9,452 rows); dynet() drops these unless loops = TRUE. The course column is recognised as the session column, so the five courses become sessions unless ⁠session = ⁠ says otherwise.

Usage

thought_chains

Format

A data.frame with 23,017 rows and 7 columns:

from

Character. Code of the replying message, one of the nine codes Approving, Arguing, Coordinating, Drafting, Inquiring, Objecting, Resourcing, Socialising, Tutoring.

to

Character. Code of the message replied to, same set.

time

POSIXct (UTC) time of the replying message, 2006-09-23 to 2011-11-02; changed and anonymised, not the study's dates.

participant

Character. Author label, P001 to P240.

discussion

Integer discussion (thread) id, 1 to 1169, all present.

group

Character. Course group, A_01 style; 29 groups.

course

Character. Course, A to E.

Source

Based on the Trees of Thought study of coded asynchronous discussions, with about 20 percent of the records removed, dates and rates changed and anonymised, and the data augmented by simulation: Saqr, M., López-Pernas, S. and Törmänen, T. (2026). A temporal network approach to reveal the longitudinal dynamics of CSCL group regulation and productive collaboration. International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, 21, 237-270. \Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.1007/s11412-025-09464-5")}

Examples

dynet(thought_chains, time = "time", loops = TRUE)
dynet(thought_chains, thread = "discussion")

Dynet documentation built on Oct. 7, 2026, 5:08 p.m.