Signal Large-Scale Analysis of Discussions by CS Educators Across the Stack Exchange Network

Summary

Farhad Hossain, Natasha Grech, and Omar Alam published a paper on arXiv (cs.CY) on August 5, 2026, analyzing 79,854,463 Stack Exchange posts, comprising 32,187,805 questions and 47,666,658 answers, with a particular focus on English-language posts contributed by Computer Science Educators Stack Exchange participants. Using topic modeling, the researchers identified, manually labeled, and hierarchically organized underlying discussion topics, then examined their distribution and complexity. The findings reveal evolving discussion patterns spanning both technical (IT) and non-technical (non-IT) domains: within the IT category, programming and software development were the most prominent topics, while mathematics, education, and the humanities received substantial attention within the non-IT category. The results highlight the broad range of interests and expertise shared by CS educators and are intended to inform future efforts to better support their professional and educational needs.