Applying social network analysis to understand the knowledge sharing behaviour of practitioners in a clinical online discussion forum.

Science.gov (United States)

Stewart, Samuel Alan; Abidi, Syed Sibte Raza

2012-12-04

Knowledge Translation (KT) plays a vital role in the modern health care community, facilitating the incorporation of new evidence into practice. Web 2.0 tools provide a useful mechanism for establishing an online KT environment in which health practitioners share their practice-related knowledge and experiences with an online community of practice. We have implemented a Web 2.0 based KT environment--an online discussion forum--for pediatric pain practitioners across seven different hospitals in Thailand. The online discussion forum enabled the pediatric pain practitioners to share and translate their experiential knowledge to help improve the management of pediatric pain in hospitals. The goal of this research is to investigate the knowledge sharing dynamics of a community of practice through an online discussion forum. We evaluated the communication patterns of the community members using statistical and social network analysis methods in order to better understand how the online community engages to share experiential knowledge. Statistical analyses and visualizations provide a broad overview of the communication patterns within the discussion forum. Social network analysis provides the tools to delve deeper into the social network, identifying the most active members of the community, reporting the overall health of the social network, isolating the potential core members of the social network, and exploring the inter-group relationships that exist across institutions and professions. The statistical analyses revealed a network dominated by a single institution and a single profession, and found a varied relationship between reading and posting content to the discussion forum. The social network analysis discovered a healthy network with strong communication patterns, while identifying which users are at the center of the community in terms of facilitating communication. The group-level analysis suggests that there is strong interprofessional and interregional

Mining online community data: The nature of ideas in online communities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Kasper; Liland, Kristian Hovde; Kvaal, Knut

2017-01-01

Ideas are essential for innovation and for the continuous renewal of a firm’s product offerings. Previous research has argued that online communities contain such ideas. Therefore, online communities such as forums, Facebook groups, blogs etc. are potential gold mines for innovative ideas that can...

The impact of online brand community type on consumer's community engagement behaviors: consumer-created vs. marketer-created online brand community in online social-networking web sites.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Doohwang; Kim, Hyuk Soo; Kim, Jung Kyu

2011-01-01

The current study proposed and tested a theoretical model of consumers' online brand community engagement behaviors, with particular attention given to online brand community type (consumer vs. marketer-created). By integrating attribution and social identity theories, this study investigated the causal linkages between intrinsic motives of altruism, social identification motivations, and online brand community engagement behaviors. The results showed that consumers' online brand community engagement intentions were indirectly influenced by the different types of communities through different levels of consumers' attributions to intrinsic motives of altruism. This study also found that, in the attribution processes, consumers' intrinsic motives of altruism motivated them to identify themselves socially with the online communities they join. Finally, this study demonstrated that the intrinsic motives of altruism and social identification motivations provided strong social incentives to motivate consumers to engage in subsequent online brand community behaviors.

Online personal ads: community and sex, virtually.

Science.gov (United States)

Gudelunas, David

2005-01-01

This study samples 200 personal advertisements from the online gay and lesbian global Web portal PlanetOut. This data, along with survey responses completed by advertisers included in the sample, are used to frame a discussion on the use of online gay and lesbian spaces and communities. Despite interacting in a global space, data showed that advertisers remained aware of their local identities. Differences between advertisers were most notable between gender and whether they logged on in a small or large town. Advertisers were interested in interacting locally, eager to move from online to offline communication, often-times not overly concerned with maintaining anonymity, and not interested in toying with multiple identities. Users of PlanetOut personals largely did not consider themselves part of a virtual gay and lesbian community even when they recognized the existence of a local geographically-based gay and lesbian community. However, the dynamic nature of online personal advertisements did allow for a new type of interactive advertisement that does differ from previous print forums.

Micro-blogging and Online Community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lorna-Jane Richardson

2015-05-01

Full Text Available The dominance of social media technologies on the Internet has located virtual communities around the use of proprietary social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, although the situation, location and definition of any online community are constantly evolving. Belonging to a number of these online communities, through social networking sites or forums is becoming a normal practice among Internet users. Yet much of the academic analysis of these online communities and networks takes place in isolation from the activities of the community itself in real life. This abstracts the community ties that people also hold offline with their online networks and does not consider the relationships and interactions that may also exist offline. This article will explore the experiences of archaeologists using the micro-blogging platform Twitter, and explore how the format and communication supported by Twitter creates a sense of community online and offline, and support professional and personal networking, using the concepts of weak ties and social capital.

Online Communities: researching sociability and usability in hard to reach populations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jenny Preece

2004-05-01

Full Text Available Thousands of social gatherings - online communities – occur via ICTs across the Internet. They use listservers, bulletin boards, instant messaging, blogs, social network and meeting facilitation systems and purpose-build platforms. Each community is the product of a complex set of interacting variables. Some of these variables come from usability of the software but social factors have a strong influence. Direct cause and effect relationships are often difficult to tease out and identifying criteria for successful online communities can be difficult. Furthermore several disciplines own this topic, each with its own theories, research methods, community of researchers and publication outlets. This is good for multidisciplinary research but it can be challenging. In this paper I discuss two research projects. Each focuses on community populations that are hard to reach. The first analyses why people do not actively participate in online discussions, i.e., lurk. The second is a new project to develop cross-cultural online book communities for children across the world who do not speak each other’s languages. I present the key findings from each project and suggest ways of working with these hard to reach populations.

Building online learning communities in a graduate dental hygiene program.

Science.gov (United States)

Rogo, Ellen J; Portillo, Karen M

2014-08-01

The literature abounds with research related to building online communities in a single course; however, limited evidence is available on this phenomenon from a program perspective. The intent of this qualitative case study inquiry was to explore student experiences in a graduate dental hygiene program contributing or impeding the development and sustainability of online learning communities. Approval from the IRB was received. A purposive sampling technique was used to recruit participants from a stratification of students and graduates. A total of 17 participants completed semi-structured interviews. Data analysis was completed through 2 rounds - 1 for coding responses and 1 to construct categories of experiences. The participants' collective definition of an online learning community was a complex synergistic network of interconnected people who create positive energy. The findings indicated the development of this network began during the program orientation and was beneficial for building a foundation for the community. Students felt socially connected and supported by the network. Course design was another important category for participation in weekly discussions and group activities. Instructors were viewed as active participants in the community, offering helpful feedback and being a facilitator in discussions. Experiences impeding the development of online learning communities related to the poor performance of peers and instructors. Specific categories of experiences supported and impeded the development of online learning communities related to the program itself, course design, students and faculty. These factors are important to consider in order to maximize student learning potential in this environment. Copyright © 2014 The American Dental Hygienists’ Association.

Micro-blogging and Online Community

OpenAIRE

Richardson, L-J

2015-01-01

The dominance of social media technologies on the Internet has located virtual communities around the use of proprietary social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, although the situation, location and definition of any online community are constantly evolving. Belonging to a number of these online communities, through social networking sites or forums is becoming a normal practice among Internet users. Yet much of the academic analysis of these online communities and...

Children’s Civic Engagement in the Scratch Online Community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ricarose Roque

2016-09-01

Full Text Available In public discourse, and in the governance of online communities, young people are often denied agency. Children are frequently considered objects to protect, safeguard, and manage. Yet as children go online from very early ages, they develop emergent forms of civic and political engagement. Children appropriate the affordances of digital platforms in order to discuss, connect, and act with their peers and in their communities. In this paper, we analyze civic engagement in Scratch Online, a creative community where children from around the world learn programming by designing and sharing interactive media projects. We explore the ways that young Scratch community members connect with issues of global importance, as well as with local topics and questions of community governance. We develop a typology of the strategies they use to express themselves, engage with their peers, and call for action. We then analyze the reaction of the community, including other Scratch members and adult moderators, and draw key lessons from these examples in order to describe guidelines for educators and designers who would like to support children’s rights to civic engagement in online learning environments.

Ethnomethodology and the study of online communities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

1998-01-01

Full Text Available Drawing from the authors’ current research programs, this essay explores the basic dimensions of online communities and the concomitant need for scholars to rethink the assumptions that undergrid historic paradigms about the nature of social interaction, social bonding, and empirical experience (Cerulo, 1997. In so doing, we argue that online communities are far from the “imagined” or pseudo communities explicated by Calhoun (1991; that they are, in fact, “real” in the very way in which they reflect the changing nature of human relations and human interaction. Finally this paper discusses the epistemological and methodological implications of studying cyber communities. We will discuss how computer-mediated interaction, or telelogic communication, as it has been characterized by a number of theorists (Ogan, 1993; Ball-Rokeach & Reardon, 1988, can be analyzed to contribute to phenomenological or ethnographic understandings of what it means to be a member of a cyber-community. We suggest that one of the best approaches to taking such a phenomenological snapshot is through a multi-method triangulation, employing qualitative interviews and descriptive and inferential analyses of message content. We also will address limitations and restrictions for using the Internet to do ethnomethodology.

Online Education in the Community College

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Steven G.; Berge, Zane

2012-01-01

This paper looks at three areas impacting online education at the community college level. Community colleges account for more than half of all online students in the United States as of 2006. This makes the success of online learning at the community college level a critical part of the growing online learning movement. Using data for…

Social support and responsiveness in online patient communities: impact on service quality perceptions.

Science.gov (United States)

Nambisan, Priya; Gustafson, David H; Hawkins, Robert; Pingree, Suzanne

2016-02-01

Hospitals frequently evaluate their service quality based on the care and services provided to patients by their clinical and non-clinical staff.(1,2) However, such evaluations do not take into consideration the many interactions that patients have in online patient communities with the health-care organization (HCO) as well as with peer patients. Patients' interactions in these online communities could impact their perceptions regarding the HCO's service quality. The objective of this pilot study was to evaluate the impact of social support and responsiveness that patients experience in an HCO's online community on patients' perceptions regarding the HCO's service quality. The study data are collected from CHESS, a health-care programme (Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System) run by the Centre for Health Enhancement System Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Findings show that the social support and the responsiveness received from peer patients in the online patient communities will impact patients' perceptions regarding the service quality of the HCO even when the organizational members themselves do not participate in the online discussions. The results indicate that interactions in such HCO-provided online patient communities should not be ignored as they could translate into patients' perceptions regarding HCOs' service quality. Ways to improve responsiveness and social support in an HCO's online patient community are discussed. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Mentoring Alternative Certification Teachers: Implementing an Online Collaborative Consultation Community

Science.gov (United States)

Dukes, Lyman, III; Jones, Brett D.

2007-01-01

Online discussion boards have the potential to provide significant support to beginning teachers; thus, we designed an online collaborative consultation community to provide mentor support to university students enrolled in an alternative certification program. The results suggest that although students in alternative certification programs will…

Learning Online at Rio Hondo Community College.

Science.gov (United States)

Balch, David E.; Patino, I. F.

1999-01-01

Recounts Rio Hondo Community College's decision to "go online" in anticipation of reduced funding, needed expansion, increased inservice training, changing student demographics, and the movement into computer technology. Summarizes the changes faced by the college and discusses how its Public Service Department involved administrators…

Open source learning streams in online discussions in e-learning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kjærgaard, Thomas; Sorensen, Elsebeth Korsgaard

2014-01-01

The wish for a more engaging e-learning design and better utilization of the technology at hand has led to the pedagogic design in this study. We wanted to make a strong alternative to face-to-face teaching that was just as likely to facilitate learning as face to face teacher presentations...... and class discussions. The study investigates how online discussions in connection with teacher produced video presentations can generate an ‘open source learning stream’ in an e-learning course for teachers. We look at how an ‘open source learning stream’ can encourage students to give and receive peer...... feedback. We propose the idea that if learning in an online community is set up to follow the lines of identity building in social media (Larsen 2007) then we might get a natural momentum in the ‘open source learning stream’. We try to identify demographic factors that could influence the success...

Questioning as Facilitating Strategies in Online Discussion

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yu-Mei

2014-01-01

Facilitation of online discussions presents a challenge to online learning instructors. Unlike in face-to-face courses, students in online learning do not have physical contacts with instructors. They might view instructors as authoritarian figures and perceive instructor's comments as impersonal. This article details the author's personal…

Online Community Interaction - Revolution or Revulsion?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Justin Thorne

2008-02-01

Full Text Available Marketing writers' assertion that online communities are the future for organisations may be misguided, although peer-to-peer networks are certainly the future for consumers. Brands have experienced 'consumer revulsion' at their poorly-planned attempts to enter online communities to interact with customers. The Internet has facilitated a revolution amongst consumers, providing a medium for online communities to thrive. Source credibility is paramount and Internet users are being selective with exactly whose message they are willing to accept, absorb and ultimately, allow to influence their buying decisions. The primary objective of this research is to undertake an exploratory investigation into the dynamics of online communities and how membership influences the buying decision for consumers of genre novels. Through the process of online focus groups and the completion of online questionnaires, data on the dynamics of online relationships between consumers and authors, the buying habits of consumers and the acceptance of online word-of-mouth (WOM were extracted and analysed. This research demonstrates that the dynamics of online communities are highly complex and in no way inferior or less fulfilling than real-life relationships and that the influence of online relationships on our buying decisions have no less impact than real-life encounters.

Website Sharing in Online Health Communities: A Descriptive Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Nath, Chinmoy; Huh, Jina; Adupa, Abhishek Kalyan; Jonnalagadda, Siddhartha R

2016-01-13

An increasing number of people visit online health communities to seek health information. In these communities, people share experiences and information with others, often complemented with links to different websites. Understanding how people share websites can help us understand patients' needs in online health communities and improve how peer patients share health information online. Our goal was to understand (1) what kinds of websites are shared, (2) information quality of the shared websites, (3) who shares websites, (4) community differences in website-sharing behavior, and (5) the contexts in which patients share websites. We aimed to find practical applications and implications of website-sharing practices in online health communities. We used regular expressions to extract URLs from 10 WebMD online health communities. We then categorized the URLs based on their top-level domains. We counted the number of trust codes (eg, accredited agencies' formal evaluation and PubMed authors' institutions) for each website to assess information quality. We used descriptive statistics to determine website-sharing activities. To understand the context of the URL being discussed, we conducted a simple random selection of 5 threads that contained at least one post with URLs from each community. Gathering all other posts in these threads resulted in 387 posts for open coding analysis with the goal of understanding motivations and situations in which website sharing occurred. We extracted a total of 25,448 websites. The majority of the shared websites were .com (59.16%, 15,056/25,448) and WebMD internal (23.2%, 5905/25,448) websites; the least shared websites were social media websites (0.15%, 39/25,448). High-posting community members and moderators posted more websites with trust codes than low-posting community members did. The heart disease community had the highest percentage of websites containing trust codes compared to other communities. Members used websites to

Incorporating profile information in community detection for online social networks

Science.gov (United States)

Fan, W.; Yeung, K. H.

2014-07-01

Community structure is an important feature in the study of complex networks. It is because nodes of the same community may have similar properties. In this paper we extend two popular community detection methods to partition online social networks. In our extended methods, the profile information of users is used for partitioning. We apply the extended methods in several sample networks of Facebook. Compared with the original methods, the community structures we obtain have higher modularity. Our results indicate that users' profile information is consistent with the community structure of their friendship network to some extent. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to discuss how profile information can be used to improve community detection in online social networks.

Online discussions with pregnant and parenting adolescents: perspectives and possibilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Valaitis, Ruta K; Sword, Wendy A

2005-10-01

The Internet is an innovative strategy to increase public participation. It is important to include pregnant and parenting teens' perspectives when planning programs to meet their needs. This qualitative study explored online discussions as a strategy to enhance participation by this population. Findings showed that online communication was preferred over face-to-face group discussions. Being anonymous online encouraged open and honest feedback. Participants experienced various forms of social support, however, there was an overall lack of teen involvement online. Strategies to engage adolescents in online discussions and reduce barriers are discussed. Strategies included the use of teen moderators, home computer access, technical support, and engagement in naturally flowing online discussions to meet social support needs. Blending researchers' with teens' needs for social support in an online environment is encouraged. With careful planning and design, online communications can result in mutual benefits for researchers, service providers, and pregnant and parenting adolescents.

Using Scholarly Online Communities to Empower Students

Science.gov (United States)

Bach, Dorothe J.

2011-01-01

This article seeks to inspire humanities and social science faculty to explore ways of utilizing existing scholarly online communities to engage students in the process of academic inquiry. The author discusses her own experience using a discipline-specific listserv, shares successful assignments, examples of student postings and a grading rubric.…

Towards a Conceptualization of Online Community Health

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wagner, David; Richter, Alexander; Trier, Matthias

2014-01-01

Along with the increasing popularity of social media and online communities in many business settings, the notion of online community health has become a common means by which community managers judge the condition or state of their communities. It has also been introduced to the literature, yet...... the concept remains underspecified and fragmented. In this paper, we work toward a construct conceptualization of online community health. Through a review of extant literature and dialogue with specialists in the field, we develop a multi-dimensional construct of online community health, consisting of seven...... elements. In writing this paper, we attempt to foster theory development around new organizational forms by advancing a new and important construct. The paper further provides guidance to the managers of social media and online communities by taking a systematic look at the well-being of their communities....

Compliance or patient empowerment in online communities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wentzer, Helle; Bygholm, Ann

2010-01-01

New technologies enable a different organization of the public’s admission to health care services. The article discusses whether online support groups in patient treatment are to be understood in the light of patient empowerment or within the tradition of compliance. The back-ground material...... of opening up health care to the critical voice of the public, the quantitative and qualitative studies surprisingly point to a synthesis of the otherwise opposite positions of empowerment and compliance in patient care. Thereby the critical potential of online communities in health care services seems...

English Proficiency and Participation in Online Discussion for Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Leung, Steve

2013-01-01

Does English proficiency affect participation in online discussion? This study polled 14 students from a postgraduate online course that require online discussion. The students are divided into groups according to their home language spoken and self-assessed English proficiency, and measure against their participation level in the required…

Increasing Student Participation in Online Group Discussions via Facebook

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Scott T.

2013-01-01

A comparison study between two different methods of conducting online discussions in an introductory astronomy course was performed to determine if the use of Facebook as an online discussion tool has an impact on student participation as well as student response time. This study shows that students using Facebook for their online discussions…

Trust Discovery in Online Communities

Science.gov (United States)

Piorkowski, John

2014-01-01

This research aims to discover interpersonal trust in online communities. Two novel trust models are built to explain interpersonal trust in online communities drawing theories and models from multiple relevant areas, including organizational trust models, trust in virtual settings, speech act theory, identity theory, and common bond theory. In…

Exploring user-producer interaction in an online community : The case of Habbo Hotel

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Slot, M.

2009-01-01

This article attempts to explore the user-producer interaction in the online community of Habbo Hotel. Based on desk research, interviews, an online survey among more than 3000 Habbo Hotel users in The Netherlands and online discussion groups with 45 Habbos, three specific issues that illustrate the

Online Education in Community Colleges

Science.gov (United States)

Cejda, Brent

2010-01-01

This chapter explores the tremendous growth in the use of the Internet to deliver distance education at community colleges. The author examines various definitions of online education, including the types of courses, programs, and degrees available and the types of community colleges that offer greater amounts of online programming. Considerations…

Life span in online communities

Science.gov (United States)

Grabowski, A.; Kosiński, R. A.

2010-12-01

Recently online communities have attracted great interest and have become an important medium of information exchange between users. The aim of this work is to introduce a simple model of the evolution of online communities. This model describes (a) the time evolution of users’ activity in a web service, e.g., the time evolution of the number of online friends or written posts, (b) the time evolution of the degree distribution of a social network, and (c) the time evolution of the number of active users of a web service. In the second part of the paper we investigate the influence of the users’ lifespan (i.e., the total time in which they are active in an online community) on the process of rumor propagation in evolving social networks. Viral marketing is an important application of such method of information propagation.

Distributed Leadership And The Visibility/invisibility Paradox In On-line Communities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jill Jameson

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This paper analyzes the role of distributed leadership in three on-line communities, reflecting on an observed visibility/invisibility paradox in leadership within these communities. Leaders who downplay their seniority and assume a degree of invisibility, allocating discretionary powers to subordinate levels in an organizational hierarchy, may facilitate the emergence of distributed leadership. Yet, simultaneously, leader-led relations are enabled by high leadership visibility. This paradox—that leaders need to be both highly visible and also invisible, or hands-off, when the occasion requires it—was derived from prior research into e-learning communities and tested in the analysis of discussions from on-line communities using a case study pattern-matching process. The operation of both visibility and invisibility in leadership is a key issue for enabling effective collaborations in distributed leadership situations based on trust. Such collaboration fosters positive group interaction and participative decision making in a consensus facilitated through leadership distribution amongst on-line community members.

How Consumers Persuade Each Other: Rhetorical Strategies of Interpersonal Influence in Online Communities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daiane Scaraboto

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Persuasive messages are central to interpersonal influence in online communities, where consumers interact mainly through text. We employed a combination of netnography and computer-mediated discourse analysis to investigate how consumers exchange information related to products and brands in an online community. We identified a set of rhetorical strategies used by community members, including setting expectations, claiming expertise, prescribing, and celebrating acquiescence. Consumers employ these rhetorical strategies to influence each other's consumption decisions, report consumption decisions back to the community, and to gauge their influence on each other's choices. We compare this process to traditional types of interpersonal influence and discuss how our findings contribute to advancing the burgeoning literature on interpersonal influence in online contexts.

Online Communities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Henrik; Lassen, Astrid Heidemann; Gorm Hansen, Katrine

”Online Communities” er et medie for brugere og fagfolk, hvor de kan mødes digitalt for at dele erfaringer, og dette kan anvendes som inspiration indenfor Brugerdreven Innovation. Via ”desk research” kan virksomheder opnå adgang til varierende mængder af brugere på en forholdsvist enkelt måde. I...... denne rapport beskrives eksperimentets opbygning, resultater og mulige værdi. Vi håber hermed på at kunne give praktisk indsigt i, hvorledes virksomheder fra byggematerialeindustrien kan agere i online communities....

Factors Associated With Weight Change in Online Weight Management Communities: A Case Study in the LoseIt Reddit Community.

Science.gov (United States)

Pappa, Gisele Lobo; Cunha, Tiago Oliveira; Bicalho, Paulo Viana; Ribeiro, Antonio; Couto Silva, Ana Paula; Meira, Wagner; Beleigoli, Alline Maria Rezende

2017-01-16

Recent research has shown that of the 72% of American Internet users who have looked for health information online, 22% have searched for help to lose or control weight. This demand for information has given rise to many online weight management communities, where users support one another throughout their weight loss process. Whether and how user engagement in online communities relates to weight change is not totally understood. We investigated the activity behavior and analyze the semantic content of the messages of active users in LoseIt (r/loseit), a weight management community of the online social network Reddit. We then explored whether these features are associated with weight loss in this online social network. A data collection tool was used to collect English posts, comments, and other public metadata of active users (ie, users with at least one post or comment) on LoseIt from August 2010 to November 2014. Analyses of frequency and intensity of user interaction in the community were performed together with a semantic analysis of the messages, done by a latent Dirichlet allocation method. The association between weight loss and online user activity patterns, the semantics of the messages, and real-world variables was found by a linear regression model using 30-day weight change as the dependent variable. We collected posts and comments of 107,886 unique users. Among these, 101,003 (93.62%) wrote at least one comment and 38,981 (36.13%) wrote at least one post. Median percentage of days online was 3.81 (IQR 9.51). The 10 most-discussed semantic topics on posts were related to healthy food, clothing, calorie counting, workouts, looks, habits, support, and unhealthy food. In the subset of 754 users who had gender, age, and 30-day weight change data available, women were predominant and 92.9% (701/754) lost weight. Female gender, body mass index (BMI) at baseline, high levels of online activity, the number of upvotes received per post, and topics discussed

Engaging in Online Group Discussions Using Facebook to Enhance Social Presence

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, S. T.

2012-08-01

A comparison study between two different methods of conducting online discussions in an introductory astronomy course was performed to determine if the use of Facebook as an online discussion tool has an impact on student participation as well as student response time. This study shows that students using Facebook for their online discussions participated more frequently and responded more quickly than students using a traditional online discussion forum.

Creating a 'Born Digital' Introductory Online Geology Course with a Community of Inquiry that Supports Discussion of Societal Challenges

Science.gov (United States)

d'Alessio, M. A.; Schwartz, J. J.

2014-12-01

With earth science relevant to so many societal challenges, we created an introductory geology course as a forum for students to explore the interplay between geoscience and society. With new media and digital tools enabling such rich collaboration, we designed the course as a fully online lecture and laboratory experience that meets the natural science general education requirements of our university. We hook students by using popular Hollywood blockbusters paired with documentary films that address related science content. Student ask questions using an online question ranking tool (Google Moderator) to guide the direction of further content delivery using the slide sharing/collaboration tool 'VoiceThread.' It allows instructors to post slides, add video narration, and invite students to comment or answer specific questions using video, voice, or text. Students report that VoiceThread makes an asynchronous class feel like a face-to-face experience. Student also collect data using online tools and pool their data in Google Spreadsheets. They discuss their collective findings in VoiceThread. With these tools in place, each content unit culminates with a challenge scenario. Students work in teams to come to a consensus about a real-world decision that requires them to apply their geologic knowledge. Examples include whether or not to evacuate a town in light of volcanic activity, which house to purchase in an earthquake prone area, which industry was polluting local groundwater, and whether or not to sell mineral rights for hydraulic fracturing. While many of these activities are widely utilized, our approach using them in an integrated online lecture/lab environment is unique. A survey of student attitudes towards the course revealed that students felt a stronger personal connection to the course instructor and one another than typical face-to-face GE classes, including those from our own department. Students' self-report of how much they learned was strongly

Online participation: a content analysis of differences in utilization of two online cancer communities by men and women, patients and family members.

Science.gov (United States)

Ginossar, Tamar

2008-01-01

The Internet provides a new modality for health communication by facilitating the creation of virtual communities. These communities have the potential to influence health behavior beyond traditional FTF support groups. This study utilized content analysis of 1,424 e-mail messages posted to 2 online cancer communities to examine uses of these groups. Findings revealed (a) similarities in the content of communication in the 2 virtual communities, (b) gender differences in participation, and (c) differences in utilization of these online groups between patients and family members. These results are discussed in light of the diverse uses of online cancer communities that they reveal, the role of family members in support seeking and provision, and gender communication styles in health computer-mediated communication.

A Constructivist Model of Mentoring, Coaching, and Facilitating Online Discussions

Science.gov (United States)

Murphy, Karen L.; Mahoney, Sue E.; Chen, Chun-Ying; Mendoza-Diaz, Noemi V.; Yang, Xiaobing

2005-01-01

This case study of an online graduate course determines the message characteristics of the instructor, volunteer teaching assistants, and students in online discussions, and proposes a mentoring, coaching, and facilitating model for online discussions. The researchers developed a coding system based on the literature of mentoring, coaching, and…

Moving health promotion communities online: a review of the literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Sunderland, Naomi; Beekhuyzen, Jenine; Kendall, Elizabeth; Wolski, Malcom

There is a need to enhance the effectiveness and reach of complex health promotion initiatives by providing opportunities for diverse health promotion practitioners and others to interact in online settings. This paper reviews the existing literature on how to take health promotion communities and networks into online settings. A scoping review of relevant bodies of literature and empirical evidence was undertaken to provide an interpretive synthesis of existing knowledge on the topic. Sixteen studies were identified between 1986 and 2007. Relatively little research has been conducted on the process of taking existing offline communities and networks into online settings. However, more research has focused on offline (i.e. not mediated via computer networks); 'virtual' (purely online with no offline interpersonal contact); and 'multiplex' communities (i.e. those that interact across both online and offline settings). Results are summarised under three themes: characteristics of communities in online and offline settings; issues in moving offline communities online, and designing online communities to match community needs. Existing health promotion initiatives can benefit from online platforms that promote community building and knowledge sharing. Online e-health promotion settings and communities can successfully integrate with existing offline settings and communities to form 'multiplex' communities (i.e. communities that operate fluently across both online and offline settings).

Structural Changes in Online Discussion Networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yang, Yang; Medaglia, Rony

2014-01-01

Social networking platforms in China provide a hugely interesting and relevant source for understanding dynamics of online discussions in a unique socio-cultural and institutional environment. This paper investigates the evolution of patterns of similar-minded and different-minded interactions ov...

Analyzing online political discussions: Methodological considerations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vergeer, M.R.M.; Hermans, E.A.H.M.

2008-01-01

Online political discussions are thought to lead to more political engagement and empowerment of peripheral groups in society and thereby contributing to deliberative citizenship. Because people have increased opportunities to voice their political opinions and publish these for a potentially large

Investigating electronic word-of-mouth effects on online discussion forums: the role of perceived positive electronic word-of-mouth review credibility.

Science.gov (United States)

Chih, Wen-Hai; Wang, Kai-Yu; Hsu, Li-Chun; Huang, Su-Chen

2013-09-01

Electronic word of mouth (eWOM) has been an important factor influencing consumer purchase decisions. Using the ABC model of attitude, this study proposes a model to explain how eWOM affects online discussion forums. Specifically, we propose that platform (Web site reputation and source credibility) and customer (obtaining buying-related information and social orientation through information) factors influence purchase intentions via perceived positive eWOM review credibility, as well as product and Web site attitudes in an online community context. A total of 353 online discussion forum users in an online community (Fashion Guide) in Taiwan were recruited, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the research hypotheses. The results indicate that Web site reputation, source credibility, obtaining buying-related information, and social orientation through information positively influence perceived positive eWOM review credibility. In turn, perceived positive eWOM review credibility directly influences purchase intentions and also indirectly influences purchase intentions via product and Web site attitudes. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings.

The fun culture in seniors' online communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Nimrod, Galit

2011-04-01

Previous research found that "fun on line" is the most dominant content in seniors' online communities. The present study aimed to further explore the fun culture in these communities and to discover its unique qualities. The study applied an online ethnography (netnography) approach, utilizing a full year's data from 6 leading seniors' online communities. The final database included about 50,000 posts. The majority of posts were part of online social games, including cognitive, associative, and creative games. The main subjects in all contents were sex, gender differences, aging, grandparenting, politics, faith, and alcohol. Main participatory behaviors were selective timing, using expressive style, and personalization of the online character. Although most participants were "lurkers," the active participants nurtured community norms and relationships, as reflected in the written dialogues. In a reality of limited alternatives for digital games that meet older adults' needs and interests, seniors found an independent system to satisfy their need for play. Seniors' online communities provided a unique form of casual leisure, whose nature varied among different groups of participants. The fun culture seemed to offer participants many desired benefits, including meaningful play, liminality and communitas, opportunity to practice and demonstrate their abilities, and means for coping with aging. Therefore, it may have positive impact on seniors' well-being and successful aging.

Communities of Practice Transition Online - Lessons learned from NASA's EPO Online Workspace

Science.gov (United States)

Davey, B.

2012-12-01

The Earth Forum Education and Public Outreach (EP/O) community has long interacted to better their practice as a community as well as individually. Working together to share knowledge and grow, they function as a community of practice. In 2009, NASA designed and implemented an online workspace in hopes of promoting the communities continued interactions. This study examines the role of an online workspace component of a community in the work of a community of practice. Much has been studied revealing the importance of communities of practice to organizations, project success, and knowledge management and some of these same successes hold true for virtual communities of practice. Study participants were 75 Education and Public Outreach community members of NASA's Science Mission Directorate Earth Forum. In this mixed methods study, online workspace metrics were used to track participation and a survey completed by 21 members was used to quantify participation. For a more detailed analysis, 15 community members (five highly active users, five average users, and five infrequent users) selected based on survey responses, were interviewed. Finally, survey data was gathered from seven online facilitators to understand their role in the community. Data collected from these 21 community members and five facilitating members suggest that highly active users (logging into the workspace daily), were more likely to have transformative experiences, co-create knowledge, feel ownership of community knowledge, have extended opportunities for community exchange, and find new forms of evaluation. Average users shared some similar characteristics with both the highly active members and infrequent users, representing a group in transition as they become more engaged and active in the online workspace. Inactive users viewed the workspace as having little value, being difficult to navigate, being mainly for gaining basic information about events and community news, and as another demand

Sport Management Taught On-Line: A Discussion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

William F. Stier Jr

2009-01-01

Full Text Available An introduction to the world of on-line courses (distance education/learning is presented. In addition, the world of on-line learning, as it pertains to sport management, is examined within the framework of (a pedagogy, (b finances,(c assessment, and (d choosing to transition from the traditional classroom to on-line learning. Pertinent points relative to each of the four categories are presented from the literature. In an effort to stimulate thought and discussion to the subject of on-line learning for sport management programs/courses the authors provide their reactions to the literature points by presenting their comments/reactions from a sport management perspective. Sport management professors and administrators are encouraged to critically examine the feasibility of such on-line courses (distance education/learning within their own curricula while maintaining an appropriate framework revolving around sound theoretical instructional strategies, methods as well as appropriate use of instructional tools, including but not limited to, computersand the WWW.

Assessing Online Discussions: A Holistic Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yu-mei; Chen, Der-Thanq

2017-01-01

This article reports a holistic approach to assessing online discussions. This holistic approach integrates three assessment methods: assessment of learning, assessment for learning, and assessment as learning. Assessment of learning directly examines students' learning products to decide whether they have achieved the expected learning through…

Stimulating Collaboration and Discussion in Online Learning Environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Clark, Jim

2001-01-01

Discussion of the advantages of online learning environments (OLEs) for distance education focuses on the importance of collaboration and discussion to make the students feel more central to the learning process. Presents methods to stimulate collaboration and discussion in OLEs. (Author/LRW)

Addressing the challenges of diagnostics demand and supply: insights from an online global health discussion platform

OpenAIRE

Engel, Nora; Wachter, Keri; Pai, Madhukar; Gallarda, Jim; Boehme, Catharina; Celentano, Isabelle; Weintraub, Rebecca

2016-01-01

Several barriers challenge development, adoption and scale-up of diagnostics in low and middle income countries. An innovative global health discussion platform allows capturing insights from the global health community on factors driving demand and supply for diagnostics. We conducted a qualitative content analysis of the online discussion ?Advancing Care Delivery: Driving Demand and Supply of Diagnostics? organised by the Global Health Delivery Project (GHD) (http://www.ghdonline.org/) at H...

Emotions under discussion: gender, status and communication in online collaboration.

Science.gov (United States)

Iosub, Daniela; Laniado, David; Castillo, Carlos; Fuster Morell, Mayo; Kaltenbrunner, Andreas

2014-01-01

Despite the undisputed role of emotions in teamwork, not much is known about the make-up of emotions in online collaboration. Publicly available repositories of collaboration data, such as Wikipedia editor discussions, now enable the large-scale study of affect and dialogue in peer production. We investigate the established Wikipedia community and focus on how emotion and dialogue differ depending on the status, gender, and the communication network of the [Formula: see text] editors who have written at least 100 comments on the English Wikipedia's article talk pages. Emotions are quantified using a word-based approach comparing the results of two predefined lexicon-based methods: LIWC and SentiStrength. We find that administrators maintain a rather neutral, impersonal tone, while regular editors are more emotional and relationship-oriented, that is, they use language to form and maintain connections to other editors. A persistent gender difference is that female contributors communicate in a manner that promotes social affiliation and emotional connection more than male editors, irrespective of their status in the community. Female regular editors are the most relationship-oriented, whereas male administrators are the least relationship-focused. Finally, emotional and linguistic homophily is prevalent: editors tend to interact with other editors having similar emotional styles (e.g., editors expressing more anger connect more with one another). Emotional expression and linguistic style in online collaboration differ substantially depending on the contributors' gender and status, and on the communication network. This should be taken into account when analyzing collaborative success, and may prove insightful to communities facing gender gap and stagnation in contributor acquisition and participation levels.

Designscholar: Examining Creative Thinking in an Online Learning Community for Interior Design Graduate Students

Science.gov (United States)

Ransdell, Marlo Evelyn

2009-01-01

This study examined the creative thinking of interior design graduate students in an online learning community. This study considered potential changes in creative thinking (fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration) about design research resulting from peer-led online discussions. It further studied the learner characteristics of…

Longitudinal Changes in Psychological States in Online Health Community Members: Understanding the Long-Term Effects of Participating in an Online Depression Community.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Albert; Conway, Mike

2017-03-20

Major depression is a serious challenge at both the individual and population levels. Although online health communities have shown the potential to reduce the symptoms of depression, emotional contagion theory suggests that negative emotion can spread within a community, and prolonged interactions with other depressed individuals has potential to worsen the symptoms of depression. The goals of our study were to investigate longitudinal changes in psychological states that are manifested through linguistic changes in depression community members who are interacting with other depressed individuals. We examined emotion-related language usages using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) program for each member of a depression community from Reddit. To measure the changes, we applied linear least-squares regression to the LIWC scores against the interaction sequence for each member. We measured the differences in linguistic changes against three online health communities focusing on positive emotion, diabetes, and irritable bowel syndrome. On average, members of an online depression community showed improvement in 9 of 10 prespecified linguistic dimensions: "positive emotion," "negative emotion," "anxiety," "anger," "sadness," "first person singular," "negation," "swear words," and "death." Moreover, these members improved either significantly or at least as much as members of other online health communities. We provide new insights into the impact of prolonged participation in an online depression community and highlight the positive emotion change in members. The findings of this study should be interpreted with caution, because participating in an online depression community is not the sole factor for improvement or worsening of depressive symptoms. Still, the consistent statistical results including comparative analyses with different communities could indicate that the emotion-related language usage of depression community members are improving either

Cooking up an Online Community

Science.gov (United States)

Valone, Lauren

2011-01-01

As museum professionals conceptualize community building, they must now consider the virtual realm. Websites in and of themselves will not generate a community, as it takes sustained communication and interaction by staff to encourage growth. Online communities are complex forces that bring about systematic dualities that in turn stimulate…

Online CTE in the Community College

Science.gov (United States)

Garza Mitchell, Regina L.; Etshim, Rachal; Dietz, Brian T.

2016-01-01

This single-site case study explored how one community college integrated online education into CTE courses and programs. Through semi-structured interviews and document analysis, the study explores how one college integrated online education (fully online, hybrid, and web-enhanced) into areas typically considered "hands-on".…

Students' Use of Self-Regulatory Tool and Critical Inquiry in Online Discussions

Science.gov (United States)

Bai, Hua

2012-01-01

Facilitating students' critical thinking in asynchronous discussions is important in online learning environments. Since students need to be self-regulated in online learning, the instructors are expected to scaffold students by providing structure and guidance. This paper discusses critical inquiry in two groups of students' online discussions.…

Value Creation in Online Communities for Educators

Science.gov (United States)

Booth, Sharon E.; Kellogg, Shaun B.

2015-01-01

The popularity and pervasiveness of online communities have led researchers and practitioners alike to closely examine the utility of online communities for supporting and facilitating professional learning. As economic constraints leave fewer resources available for professional development, educators in particular are examining the potential of…

Developing Online Communities for Librarian Researchers: A Case Study

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Lili; Kennedy, Marie; Brancolini, Kristine; Stephens, Michael

2017-01-01

This study examines the role of online communities in connecting and supporting librarian researchers, through the analysis of member activities in the online community for academic librarians that attended the 2014 Institute for Research Design in Librarianship (IRDL). The 2014 IRDL cohort members participated in the online community via Twitter…

Tacit Knowledge in Online Learning: Community, Identity, and Social Capital

Science.gov (United States)

Oztok, Murat

2013-01-01

This article discusses the possibilities that tacit knowledge could provide for social constructivist pedagogies; in particular, pedagogies for online learning. Arguing that the tacit dimension of knowledge is critical for meaning making in situated learning practices and for a community of practice to function, the article considers whether…

Males Are Not as Active as Females in Online Discussion: Gender Differences in Face-to-Face and Online Discussion Strategies

Science.gov (United States)

Tsai, Meng-Jung; Liang, Jyh-Chong; Hou, Huei-Tse; Tsai, Chin-Chung

2015-01-01

This study examined the gender difference in students' perceived discussion strategies in face-to-face and online asynchronous contexts. A survey of 363 university students and follow-up interviews of 20 participants was conducted to examine any gender differences within each context and between the two contexts. The Discussion Strategies Scale…

The Effect of Online Collaboration on Adolescent Sense of Community in Eighth-Grade Physical Science

Science.gov (United States)

Wendt, Jillian L.; Rockinson-Szapkiw, Amanda J.

2015-10-01

Using a quasi-experimental, nonequivalent pretest/posttest control group design, the researchers examined the effects of online collaborative learning on eighth-grade student's sense of community in a physical science class. For a 9-week period, students in the control group participated in collaborative activities in a face-to-face learning environment, whereas students in the experimental group participated in online collaborative activities using the Edmodo educational platform in a hybrid learning environment. Students completed the Classroom Community Scale survey as a pretest and posttest. Results indicated that the students who participated in the face-to-face classroom had higher overall sense of community and learning community than students who participated in collaborative activities in the online environment. Results and implications are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.

Elluminate Article: Content Analysis of Online Asynchronous Discussions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elizabeth Murphy

2005-07-01

Full Text Available The publisher of IRRODL, The Canadian Institute of Distance Education Research (CIDER, is pleased to link here to a series of eight online seminars that took place over Spring 2005, using Elluminate live e-learning and collaborative solutions. These interactive CIDER Sessions disseminate research emanating from Canada's vibrant DE research community, and we feel these archived recordings are highly relevant to many in the international distance education research community. To access these sessions, you must first download FREE software. Visit http://www.elluminate.com/support/ to download this software.

Student-Moderated Discussion Boards in a Graduate Online Course

Science.gov (United States)

McRay, Jeni; Goertzen, Brent; Klaus, Kaley

2016-01-01

This application brief describes a "Module Discussant" activity assigned in an online graduate-level leadership theory course. The assignment was designed to stimulate higher-level thinking, apply leadership theory to practice, and foster extensive communication among students in the online learning environment using a common learning…

Using Text Mining to Characterize Online Discussion Facilitation

Science.gov (United States)

Ming, Norma; Baumer, Eric

2011-01-01

Facilitating class discussions effectively is a critical yet challenging component of instruction, particularly in online environments where student and faculty interaction is limited. Our goals in this research were to identify facilitation strategies that encourage productive discussion, and to explore text mining techniques that can help…

The Interplay Between Online and Offline Community Culture

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kornum, Niels; Gyrd-Jones, Richard; Al Zagir, Nadia

This study examines the interplay between online and offline community cultures based on identifying the distinct features of both. Studying this interaction explicitly and in empirical analysis is new to community literature and brands can through this better know the communities to which...... they relate. The findings reveal that without a thorough understanding of both online and offline cultures and their interaction, companies or brands may get a misleading picture of these cultures. For instance, if only looking at the culture online and not core values offline, the company might intervene...

Online, directed journaling in community health advanced practice nursing clinical education.

Science.gov (United States)

Daroszewski, Ellen Beth; Kinser, Anita G; Lloyd, Susan L

2004-04-01

The sharing of experiences in advanced practice nursing clinical courses allows for application of core principals to different facets of practice, with the potential to promote discussions beyond the course objectives, create opportunities for mentoring, foster critical thinking, and facilitate change and socialization into advanced practice. A pilot test of online, directed journaling, an innovative sharing and reflection strategy, was incorporated in a two-quarter community health advanced practice nursing clinical course in an attempt to enhance clinical learning. Six female graduate nursing students completed the journaling. A 10-item evaluation measure demonstrated that the online journaling strategy was highly effective and valuable for the students. An assessment of the journaling entries found multiple examples of discussion, mentoring, critical thinking, and socialization. Innovative online strategies should become the standard for sharing in advanced practice nursing education.

Expanding the Possibilities of Discussion: A Strategic Approach to Using Online Discussion Boards in the Middle and High School English Classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Ruday, Sean

2011-01-01

This paper focused on whether the use of online discussion boards can enhance the quality of interaction in the middle and high school English classroom, covering both the characteristics of online discussion boards and potential negative effects of their features. The features of online discussion boards, their effects, and how these boards…

Examining Thematic Similarity, Difference, and Membership in Three Online Mental Health Communities from Reddit: A Text Mining and Visualization Approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Albert; Conway, Mike; Chen, Annie T

2018-01-01

Social media, including online health communities, have become popular platforms for individuals to discuss health challenges and exchange social support with others. These platforms can provide support for individuals who are concerned about social stigma and discrimination associated with their illness. Although mental health conditions can share similar symptoms and even co-occur, the extent to which discussion topics in online mental health communities are similar, different, or overlapping is unknown. Discovering the topical similarities and differences could potentially inform the design of related mental health communities and patient education programs. This study employs text mining, qualitative analysis, and visualization techniques to compare discussion topics in publicly accessible online mental health communities for three conditions: Anxiety, Depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. First, online discussion content for the three conditions was collected from three Reddit communities (r/Anxiety, r/Depression, and r/PTSD). Second, content was pre-processed, and then clustered using the k -means algorithm to identify themes that were commonly discussed by members. Third, we qualitatively examined the common themes to better understand them, as well as their similarities and differences. Fourth, we employed multiple visualization techniques to form a deeper understanding of the relationships among the identified themes for the three mental health conditions. The three mental health communities shared four themes: sharing of positive emotion, gratitude for receiving emotional support, and sleep- and work-related issues. Depression clusters tended to focus on self-expressed contextual aspects of depression, whereas the Anxiety Disorders and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder clusters addressed more treatment- and medication-related issues. Visualizations showed that discussion topics from the Anxiety Disorders and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder subreddits

Creative Research Methods - a reflective online discussion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ruth Leary

2014-03-01

Full Text Available In November 2013, the Institute of Advanced Studies (University of Warwick hosted a meeting of interdisciplinary colleagues interested in Creative Research Methods. The aspirations were to kick-start the debate at Warwick and create a platform from which researchers can develop projects that embrace new forms of intellectual enquiry and knowledge production. Following the meeting, several of the attendees agreed to develop some of the discussion points and briefly responded to a number of questions in an online document over a period of a few weeks. This paper is the result of that real space and online collaboration.

A Synthesized Coding Framework for Asynchronous Online Discussion Research

Science.gov (United States)

Weltzer-Ward, Lisa Michelle

2014-01-01

Online classroom discussion is ubiquitous in higher education today, with both online and hybrid courses. As a result, tools need to be created that enable an in-depth assessment of this medium, thereby facilitating the establishment and support of best practices in education. Such an assessment requires tools for consistent, efficient analysis of…

Understanding on-line community: the affordances of virtual space

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karen Ruhleder

2002-01-01

Full Text Available Increasing numbers of on-line venues for learning are emerging as virtual communities become more accessible and commonplace. This paper looks at one particular virtual community, an on-line degree programme at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, which offers an M.S. in Library and Information Science (called LEEP. It draws on a framework presented by Mynatt, et al. (1998, which provides a lens for talking about on-line community as a set of affordances. This framework is applied to illustrate the interactions, artefacts, and expectations that shape this community.

Discussion on allowed outage time at online maintenance in Japan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kobayashi, Masahide

2009-01-01

The purpose of this report is clarification of the handling of online maintenance in important system for nuclear safety of nuclear power plant in Japan, and discusses future tasks of online maintenance in Japan. Now, online maintenance is limited few cases in Japan. But, the needs and importance of online maintenance will be increase near future. It is necessary to evaluate safety at the online maintenance, and if necessary PSA results were used. It will be safety to do online maintenance within AOT, but safety of repetition of online maintenance must be evaluated. And, it is necessary to evaluate the influence to which the man-power during year is leveled by OLM. (author)

Analyzing the Learning Process of an Online Role-Playing Discussion Activity

Science.gov (United States)

Hou, Huei-Tse

2012-01-01

Instructional activities based on online discussion strategies have gained prevalence in recent years. Within this context, a crucial research topic is to design innovative and appropriate online discussion strategies that assist learners in attaining a deeper level of interaction and higher cognitive skills. By analyzing the process of online…

Using Discussions to Promote Critical Thinking in an Online Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nega Debela

2008-06-01

Full Text Available This paper examines how the discussion tool is used to promote critical thinking in an online environment at Marshall University. The significance of critical thinking in higher education has been brought to attention at both national and local levels. The paper studies the use of discussions as an approach to promote critical thinking in a number of English as a Second Language (ESL courses offered by Marshall University's Graduate School of Education and Professional Development (GSEPD program. At the end of the semester, a qualitative survey was developed to identify the effectiveness of such discussions, and the opportunities for improvement. The survey was sent to all students in these three classes. These students were all full time teachers in Elementary and Secondary schools in West Virginia. Out of 21 students, 15 of them have responded to the three questions asked in the survey. Almost all the respondents have found discussion helpful in enhancing learning and critical thinking. Most students support the involvement of an online instructor in the online discussion, and faculty members involved in these discussions function as helpers in the development of critical thinking skills.

Exploring the Therapeutic Affordances of Self-Harm Online Support Communities: An Online Survey of Members

Science.gov (United States)

Bullock, Emma

2017-01-01

Background A growing number of online communities have been established to support those who self-harm. However, little is known about the therapeutic affordances arising from engagement with these communities and resulting outcomes. Objective The aim of this study was to explore the presence of therapeutic affordances as reported by members of self-harm online support communities. Methods In total, 94 respondents (aged 13-63 years, mean=23.5 years; 94% female) completed an online survey exploring their experiences of engaging with a self-harm online support community. Respondents varied in terms of how long they had been accessing an online community, with 22% (21/94) accessing less than 1 year, 39% (37/94) 1 to 2 years, 14% (13/94) 2 to 3 years, and 24.5% (23/94) more than 3 years. Responses were analyzed using deductive thematic analysis. Results The results of our analysis describe each of the five therapeutic affordances that were present in the data, namely (1) connection, the ability to make contact with others who self-harm for the purposes of mutual support and in so doing reduce feelings of loneliness and isolation; (2) adaptation, that is, how use of online support varies in relation to the personal circumstances of the individual user; (3) exploration, that is, the ability to learn about self-harm and learn about strategies to reduce or stop self-harming behavior; (4) narration, that is, the ability to share experiences, as well as read about the experiences of others; and (5) self-presentation, that is, how and what users present about themselves to others in the online community. Conclusions Our findings suggest that engagement with self-harm online support communities may confer a range of therapeutic benefits for some users, which may serve to minimize the psychosocial burden of self-harm and promote positive coping strategies. In addition, the online nature of the support available may be helpful to those who are unable to access face

Teaching Business Cases Online through Discussion Boards: Strategies and Best Practices

Science.gov (United States)

Rollag, Keith

2010-01-01

What are the most effective and efficient ways to teach business cases online, specifically in asynchronous electronic discussion boards? This article describes several design strategies and approaches used by instructors at Babson College to structure and facilitate online case discussions in our blended Fast Track MBA program. (Contains 3 notes,…

Bridging Social Capital in Online Communities: Heterogeneity and Social Tolerance of Online Game Players in Japan

Science.gov (United States)

Kobayashi, Tetsuro

2010-01-01

This article examines the democratic potential of online communities by investigating the influence of network heterogeneity on social tolerance in an online gaming environment. Online game communities are potential sources of bridging social capital because they tend to be relatively heterogeneous. Causal analyses are conducted using structural…

Personas in online health communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Huh, Jina; Kwon, Bum Chul; Kim, Sung-Hee; Lee, Sukwon; Choo, Jaegul; Kim, Jihoon; Choi, Min-Je; Yi, Ji Soo

2016-10-01

Many researchers and practitioners use online health communities (OHCs) to influence health behavior and provide patients with social support. One of the biggest challenges in this approach, however, is the rate of attrition. OHCs face similar problems as other social media platforms where user migration happens unless tailored content and appropriate socialization is supported. To provide tailored support for each OHC user, we developed personas in OHCs illustrating users' needs and requirements in OHC use. To develop OHC personas, we first interviewed 16 OHC users and administrators to qualitatively understand varying user needs in OHC. Based on their responses, we developed an online survey to systematically investigate OHC personas. We received 184 survey responses from OHC users, which informed their values and their OHC use patterns. We performed open coding analysis with the interview data and cluster analysis with the survey data and consolidated the analyses of the two datasets. Four personas emerged-Caretakers, Opportunists, Scientists, and Adventurers. The results inform users' interaction behavior and attitude patterns with OHCs. We discuss implications for how these personas inform OHCs in delivering personalized informational and emotional support. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Use of an online smoking cessation community promotes abstinence: Results of propensity score weighting.

Science.gov (United States)

Graham, Amanda L; Papandonatos, George D; Erar, Bahar; Stanton, Cassandra A

2015-12-01

We estimated the causal effects of use of an online smoking cessation community on 30-day point prevalence abstinence at 3 months. Participants (N = 492) were adult current smokers in the enhanced Internet arm of The iQUITT Study, a randomized trial of Internet and telephone treatment for smoking cessation. All participants accessed a Web-based smoking-cessation program that included a large, established online community. Automated tracking metrics of passive (e.g., reading forum posts, viewing member profiles) and active (e.g., writing forum posts, sending private messages) community use were extracted from the site at 3 months. Self-selected community use defines the groups of interest: "None," "Passive," and "Both" (passive + active). Inverse probability of treatment weighting corrected for baseline imbalances on demographic, smoking, psychosocial, and medical history variables. Propensity weights estimated via generalized boosted models were used to calculate Average Treatment Effects (ATE) and Average Treatment effects on the Treated (ATT). Patterns of community use were: None = 198 (40.2%), Passive = 110 (22.4%), and Both = 184 (37.4%). ATE-weighted abstinence rates were: None = 4.2% (95% CI = 1.5-6.9); Passive = 15.1% (95% CI = 8.4-21.9); Both = 20.4% (95% CI = 13.9-26.8). ATT-weighted abstinence rates indicated even greater benefits of community use. Community users were more likely to quit smoking at 3 months than nonusers. The estimated benefit from use of online community resources was even larger among subjects with high propensity to use them. No differences in abstinence emerged between passive and passive/active users. Results suggest that lurking in online communities confers specific abstinence benefits. Implications of these findings for online cessation communities are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Learning about the Literacy Development of English Language Learners in Asynchronous Online Discussions

Science.gov (United States)

De Oliveira, Luciana C.; Olesova, Larisa

2013-01-01

This study examined asynchronous online discussions in the online course "English Language Development" to identify themes related to participants' learning about the language and literacy development of English Language Learners when they facilitated online discussions to determine whether the participants developed sufficient…

Online Discussion about Sexuality Education in Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Broadbear, James T.; Broadbear, Barbara C.

2012-01-01

Sexuality education in schools continues to be a controversial issue although public debate has seemingly calmed in recent years. Dialogue about the value and purpose of sexuality education for adolescents can provide health education specialists a better understanding of public opinion and online discussion may be a potentially ideal way to…

Contesting Community Online: Virtual Imagery among Dutch Orthodox Protestant Homosexuals

NARCIS (Netherlands)

W. de Koster (Willem)

2010-01-01

textabstractAbstract Whereas substantial scholarly attention has been paid to the online presentation of self, symbolic interactionist approaches are largely absent in the literature on virtual communities. Instead, recurrent questions are whether communities can exist online and if specific online

Research on gender differences in online health communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Xuan; Sun, Min; Li, Jia

2018-03-01

With the growing concern about health issues and the emergence of online communities based on user-generated content (UGC), more and more people are participating in online health communities (OHCs) to exchange opinions and health information. This paper aims to examine whether and how male and female users behave differently in OHCs. Using data from a leading diabetes community in China (Tianmijiayuan), we incorporate three different techniques: topic modeling analysis, sentiment analysis and friendship network analysis to investigate gender differences in chronic online health communities. The results indicated that (1) Male users' posting content was usually more professional and included more medical terms. Comparatively speaking, female users were more inclined to seek emotional support in the health communities. (2) Female users expressed more negative emotions than male users did, especially anxiety and sadness. (3) In addition, male users were more centered and influential in the friendship network than were women. Through these analyses, our research revealed the behavioral characteristics and needs for different gender users in online health communities. Gaining a deeper understanding of gender differences in OHCs can serve as guidance to better meet the information needs, emotional needs and relationship needs of male and female patients. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Online Community Transition Detection

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tan, Biying; Zhu, Feida; Qu, Qiang

2014-01-01

communities over time. How to automatically detect the online community transitions of individual users is a research problem of immense practical value yet with great technical challenges. In this paper, we propose an algorithm based on the Minimum Description Length (MDL) principle to trace the evolution......Mining user behavior patterns in social networks is of great importance in user behavior analysis, targeted marketing, churn prediction and other applications. However, less effort has been made to study the evolution of user behavior in social communities. In particular, users join and leave...... of community transition of individual users, adaptive to the noisy behavior. Experiments on real data sets demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of our proposed method....

Procedures and Methods for Cross-community Online Deliberation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cyril Velikanov

2010-09-01

Full Text Available In this paper we introduce our model of self-regulated mass online deliberation, and apply it to a context of cross-border deliberation involving translation of contributions between participating languages, and then to a context of cross-community online deliberation for dispute resolution, e.g. between opposing ethnic or religious communities. In such a cross-border or cross-community context, online deliberation should preferably progress as a sequence of segmented phases each followed by a combining phase. In a segmented phase, each community deliberates separately, and selects their best contributions for being presented to all other communities. Selection is made by using our proposed mechanism of mutual moderation and appraisal of contributions by participants themselves. In the subsequent combining phase, the selected contributions are translated (by volunteering or randomly selected participants among those who have specified appropriate language skills and presented to target segments for further appraisal and commenting. Our arguments in support of the proposed mutual moderation and appraisal procedures remain mostly speculative, as the whole subject of mass online self-regulatory deliberation still remains largely unexplored, and there exist no practical realisation of it .

Disseminating online tools for building capacity among community practitioners.

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Holt, Christina M; Fawcett, Stephen B; Schultz, Jerry A; Jones, Jami A; Berkowitz, Bill; Wolff, Thomas J; Francisco, Vincent T; Rabinowitz, Philip W

2013-01-01

To prepare the workforce for building healthier communities, we need to assure capabilities of a diverse and geographically distributed community of practitioners. Although the Internet is used extensively to disseminate practice information, less is known about the relative impact of various strategies for promoting its use. This empirical case study examines implementation of dissemination strategies and their association with increased user sessions in the online Community Tool Box (CTB), a widely used resource for community building. Dissemination activities included social media efforts, eNewsletters, search engine optimization efforts, partnering with other Web sites, and implementing a global Out of the Box Prize. Results suggest that increased user sessions were associated with search optimization and "mashups" delivering CTB content through partners' Web sites. The report concludes with a discussion of challenges and opportunities in promoting widespread use of capacity-building tools among those working to improve their communities.

Evaluating the Quality of Interaction in Asynchronous Discussion Forums in Fully Online Courses

Science.gov (United States)

Nandi, Dip; Hamilton, Margaret; Harland, James

2012-01-01

Fully online courses are becoming progressively more popular because of their "anytime anywhere" learning flexibility. One of the ways students interact with each other and with the instructors within fully online learning environments is via asynchronous discussion forums. However, student engagement in online discussion forums does not…

Brand Resonance Behavior among Online Brand Community

OpenAIRE

Shaari, Hasnizam; Ahmad, Intan Shafinaz

2017-01-01

Brand commitment studies had gained considerable attention in today’s marketing practices. Sustaining the brand competitive advantages become challenging especially in the context of digital marketing. Development of Web 2.0 that enables interactive communication had offered a new mechanism for owner of the brand to strengthen the bond among their admirers and users via online brand community. Attitude and behavior of online brand community members can be crucial to overall brand competitive...

Further Classification and Methodological Considerations of Evaluations for Online Discussion in Instructional Settings

Science.gov (United States)

Spatariu, Alexandru; Winsor, Denise L.; Simpson, Cynthia; Hosman, Eric

2016-01-01

With the rapid advancements of technology, online communication in both K-12 and post-secondary instruction has been widely implemented. Instructors as well as researchers have used various frameworks to evaluate different aspects of online discussions' quality. The online discussions take place synchronously or asynchronously in chat rooms,…

Exploring the Therapeutic Affordances of Self-Harm Online Support Communities: An Online Survey of Members.

Science.gov (United States)

Coulson, Neil S; Bullock, Emma; Rodham, Karen

2017-10-13

A growing number of online communities have been established to support those who self-harm. However, little is known about the therapeutic affordances arising from engagement with these communities and resulting outcomes. The aim of this study was to explore the presence of therapeutic affordances as reported by members of self-harm online support communities. In total, 94 respondents (aged 13-63 years, mean=23.5 years; 94% female) completed an online survey exploring their experiences of engaging with a self-harm online support community. Respondents varied in terms of how long they had been accessing an online community, with 22% (21/94) accessing less than 1 year, 39% (37/94) 1 to 2 years, 14% (13/94) 2 to 3 years, and 24.5% (23/94) more than 3 years. Responses were analyzed using deductive thematic analysis. The results of our analysis describe each of the five therapeutic affordances that were present in the data, namely (1) connection, the ability to make contact with others who self-harm for the purposes of mutual support and in so doing reduce feelings of loneliness and isolation; (2) adaptation, that is, how use of online support varies in relation to the personal circumstances of the individual user; (3) exploration, that is, the ability to learn about self-harm and learn about strategies to reduce or stop self-harming behavior; (4) narration, that is, the ability to share experiences, as well as read about the experiences of others; and (5) self-presentation, that is, how and what users present about themselves to others in the online community. Our findings suggest that engagement with self-harm online support communities may confer a range of therapeutic benefits for some users, which may serve to minimize the psychosocial burden of self-harm and promote positive coping strategies. In addition, the online nature of the support available may be helpful to those who are unable to access face-to-face support. ©Neil S Coulson, Emma Bullock, Karen Rodham

The Influences of Online Brand Communities, Social Media and Member Relationship on Purchase Intention for Luxury Goods: Focus on Taiwan Market

OpenAIRE

Chen, PAi-Yuan

2011-01-01

In the latest decade, Brand Community has been widely discussed and considered as one of the best ways that the business and customers co-create value to enhance the brand loyalty and purchase intention. In recent years, with the development of Internet, the concept of social media and online brand community is thriving. However, while it is a trend for the business to build an online community through social media, luxury brand companies hesitate to embrace social media and online brand c...

Online written consultation, telephone consultation and offline appointment: An examination of the channel effect in online health communities.

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Wu, Hong; Lu, Naiji

2017-11-01

The emergence of online health communities broadens and diversifies channels for patient-doctor interaction. Given limited medical resources, online health communities aim to provide better treatment by decreasing medical costs, making full use of available resources and providing more diverse channels for patients. This research examines how online channel usage affects offline channels, i.e., "Online Booking, Service in Hospitals" (OBSH), and how the channel effects change with doctors' online and offline reputation. The study uses data of 4254 doctors from a Chinese online health community. Our findings demonstrate a strong relationship between online health communities and offline hospital communication with an important moderating role for reputation. There are significant channel effects, wherein written consultation complements OBSH (β=3.320, ponline and offline reputations can attract more patients to use the OBSH (β online =0.433, ponline and offline reputations: doctors with higher online reputations mitigate substitution effects between telephone consultation and OBSH (β=0.064, ponline services, especially for these physicians who do not have enough patients. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Pros and Cons of Getting Engaged in an Online Social Community Embedded Within Digital Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia: Survey Among Users.

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Coulson, Neil S; Smedley, Richard; Bostock, Sophie; Kyle, Simon D; Gollancz, Rosie; Luik, Annemarie I; Hames, Peter; Espie, Colin A

2016-04-25

Sleepio is a proven digital sleep improvement program based on cognitive behavioral therapy techniques. Users have the option to join an online community that includes weekly expert discussions, peer-to-peer discussion forums, and personal message walls. The aim of this study was to conduct an online survey to (1) explore the reasons for deciding to engage with the Sleepio online community, (2) explore the potential benefits arising from engagement with the online community, and (3) identify and describe any problematic issues related to use of the online community. We developed an online survey and posted an invitation to the community discussion forum inviting users to participate. In addition, we sent an email invitation to 970 individuals who had previously or were currently working through the Sleepio program to participate in this study. In total, 100 respondents (70/100, 70% female; mean age 51 years, range 26-82 years) completed the online survey. Most respondents had started Sleepio with chronic sleep problems (59/100, 59% up to 10 years; 35/100, 35% >10 years) and had actively engaged with the online community (85/100, 85%) had made a discussion or wall post). At the time of the survey, respondents had used Sleepio for a median of 12 weeks (range from 3 weeks to 2 years). We analyzed responses to the open-ended questions using thematic analysis. This analysis revealed 5 initial drivers for engagement: (1) the desire to connect with people facing similar issues, (2) seeking personalized advice, (3) curiosity, (4) being invited by other members, and (5) wanting to use all available sleep improvement tools. Advantages of engagement included access to continuous support, a reduced sense of isolation, being part of a nonjudgmental community, personalized advice, positive comparisons with others, encouragement to keep going, and altruism. We found 5 potential disadvantages: design and navigation issues, uncertain quality of user-generated content, negative

Similarity between community structures of different online social networks and its impact on underlying community detection

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Fan, W.; Yeung, K. H.

2015-03-01

As social networking services are popular, many people may register in more than one online social network. In this paper we study a set of users who have accounts of three online social networks: namely Foursquare, Facebook and Twitter. Community structure of this set of users may be reflected in these three online social networks. Therefore, high correlation between these reflections and the underlying community structure may be observed. In this work, community structures are detected in all three online social networks. Also, we investigate the similarity level of community structures across different networks. It is found that they show strong correlation with each other. The similarity between different networks may be helpful to find a community structure close to the underlying one. To verify this, we propose a method to increase the weights of some connections in networks. With this method, new networks are generated to assist community detection. By doing this, value of modularity can be improved and the new community structure match network's natural structure better. In this paper we also show that the detected community structures of online social networks are correlated with users' locations which are identified on Foursquare. This information may also be useful for underlying community detection.

Collaborative distance learning: Developing an online learning community

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Stoytcheva, Maria

2017-12-01

The method of collaborative distance learning has been applied for years in a number of distance learning courses, but they are relatively few in foreign language learning. The context of this research is a hybrid distance learning of French for specific purposes, delivered through the platform UNIV-RcT (Strasbourg University), which combines collaborative activities for the realization of a common problem-solving task online. The study focuses on a couple of aspects: on-line interactions carried out in small, tutored groups and the process of community building online. By analyzing the learner's perceptions of community and collaborative learning, we have tried to understand the process of building and maintenance of online learning community and to see to what extent the collaborative distance learning contribute to the development of the competence expectations at the end of the course. The analysis of the results allows us to distinguish the advantages and limitations of this type of e-learning and thus evaluate their pertinence.

Student Satisfaction with Using Online Discussion Forums at Saudi Universities

Science.gov (United States)

Alzahrani, Majed Gharmallah

2017-01-01

This study aims to investigate student satisfaction with using online discussion forums (ODFs). It also aims to examine the relationships between student satisfaction with using ODFs and student demographics as well as with their experience with ICT and online education. Data are collected from 2171 students from four leading universities at Saudi…

COPD360social Online Community: A Social Media Review.

Science.gov (United States)

Stellefson, Michael; Paige, Samantha R; Alber, Julia M; Stewart, Margaret

2018-06-01

People living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) commonly report feelings of loneliness and social isolation due to lack of support from family, friends, and health care providers. COPD360social is an interactive and disease-specific online community and social network dedicated to connecting people living with COPD to evidence-based resources. Through free access to collaborative forums, members can explore, engage, and discuss an array of disease-related topics, such as symptom management. This social media review provides an overview of COPD360social, specifically its features that practitioners can leverage to facilitate patient-provider communication, knowledge translation, and community building. The potential of COPD360social for chronic disease self-management is maximized through community recognition programming and interactive friend-finding tools that encourage members to share their own stories through blogs and multimedia (e.g., images, videos). The platform also fosters collaborative knowledge dissemination and helping relationships among patients, family members, friends, and health care providers. Successful implementation of COPD360social has dramatically expanded patient education and self-management support resources for people affected by COPD. Practitioners should refer patients and their families to online social networks such as COPD360social to increase knowledge and awareness of evidence-based chronic disease management practices.

Nursing and Twitter: creating an online community using hashtags.

Science.gov (United States)

Moorley, Calvin R; Chinn, Teresa

2014-01-01

Social media is becoming a facet of our lives and a tool for connecting, uniting and supporting people. Its use is growing in nursing, medical and health settings. This article describes the process, development and growth of an online community to connect nurses via Twitter using hashtags. Data was analysed to identify the benefits, barriers and enablers for the creation of an online nursing community. Methods consisted of key word searches in Twitter relevant to nursing, visits to the WeNurses website and tracking the number of followers on the website. A social media monitoring tool (SM2) was used to monitor visibility to establish baseline data and identify trends. WeNurses was launched in July 2012 and has over 7000 followers. Visits to the website are between 500 and 1500 each day. The use of a systematic nursing approach including the key principles of both nursing and social media (honesty, transparency, listening and reacting) helped to create and develop an online nursing community. It was found that WeNurses provides a platform for nurses to discuss issues in nursing, or complain about reforms. Nurses are free to question on how they can improve skills and contemplate their understanding of changes in the health service. Enablers included a committed group who openly discussed their thoughts, opinions and practices, a shared identity, an understanding each other's perspective and ownership by members. Using a nursing framework in a digital space added a unique dimension that resonated with members and provided a structured approach to the project. Nurses have begun to not only embrace social media but also use it for their own development. Health employers also need to encourage use of social media to help develop expertise, experience and knowledge in nurses and nursing practice. Social media can provide a social and professional space for nurses, and has potential to influence the health and wellness of different population groups involved in both

The effect of computer-mediated social support in online communities on patient empowerment and doctor-patient communication.

Science.gov (United States)

Oh, Hyun Jung; Lee, Byoungkwan

2012-01-01

In the context of diabetes, this study tested a mechanism through which Korean diabetes patients' exchange of computer-mediated social support (CMSS) in diabetes online communities influences their sense of empowerment and intention to actively communicate with the doctor. Analysis of data from 464 Korean diabetes patients indicates significant relationships among diabetes patients' online community activities, perceived CMSS, sense of empowerment, and their intention to actively communicate with the doctor. Diabetes patients who have engaged more in online community activities perceived greater social support from other members of the community. Perceived CMSS significantly predicted their intention to actively communicate with the doctor through sense of empowerment. Sense of empowerment was a valid underlying mechanism that explains how patients' perceived CMSS influences their intention to actively communicate with the doctor. The implications for health communication research and practice are discussed.

Views of Community Managers on Knowledge Co-creation in Online Communities for People With Disabilities: Qualitative Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Amann, Julia; Rubinelli, Sara

2017-10-10

The use of online communities to promote end user involvement and co-creation in the product and service innovation process is well documented in the marketing and management literature. Whereas online communities are widely used for health care service provision and peer-to-peer support, only little is known about how they could be integrated into the health care innovation process. The overall objective of this qualitative study was to explore community managers' views on and experiences with knowledge co-creation in online communities for people with disabilities. A descriptive qualitative research design was used. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with nine community managers. To complement the interview data, additional information was retrieved from the communities in the form of structural information (number of registered users, number and names of topic areas covered by the forum) and administrative information (terms and conditions and privacy statements, forum rules). Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Our results highlight two main aspects: peer-to-peer knowledge co-creation and types of collaboration with external actors. Although community managers strongly encouraged peer-to-peer knowledge co-creation, our findings indicated that these activities were not common practice in the communities under investigation. In fact, much of what related to co-creation, prototyping, and product development was still perceived to be directed by professionals and experts. Community managers described the role of their respective communities as informing this process rather than a driving force. The role of community members as advisors to researchers, health care professionals, and businesses was discussed in the context of types of collaboration with external actors. According to the community managers, most of the external inquiries related to research projects of students or health care professionals in training, who often joined a

Aggregate-then-Curate: how digital learning champions help communities nurture online content

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrew Whitworth

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Informational resources are essential for communities, rooting them in their own history, helping them learn and solve problems, giving them a voice in decision-making and so on. For digital inclusion – and inclusion in the informational and democratic processes of society more generally – it is essential that communities retain the skills, awareness and motivation to create and manage their own informational resources.This article explores a model for the creation of online content that incorporates the different ways in which the quality and relevance of information can be assured. This model, “Aggregate-then-Curate” (A/C, was developed from earlier work concerning digital inclusion in UK online centres, models of informal e-learning and ecologies of resources. A/C shows how creating online content can be viewed as a 7-step process, initiated by individuals but bringing in “digital learning champions”, other community members and formal educational institutions at different stages. A/C can be used to design training to help build the capacity to manage community informational resources in an inclusive way. The article then discusses and evaluates MOSI-ALONG, a Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC funded project founded on these ideas, which illustrates how A/C can be used to design training to help build the capacity to manage community informational resources in an inclusive way. This conclusion is supported by evaluations of the work done so far in MOSI-ALONG.

A transition process from information systems acceptance to infusion behaviour in online brand communities: A socialization process perspective

OpenAIRE

Lim, Jaehoon

2012-01-01

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University. Social media such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, and online communities plays an important role for knowledge production and diffusion as well as discussions among people. Among social media, online brand communities (OBCs) have recently received attention from both academics and practitioners due to the practical benefits of OBCs for consumers and companies. For consumers, knowledge sharing ...

Online discussion forums with embedded streamed videos on distance courses

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vicenc Fernandez

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Existing literature on education and technology has frequently highlighted the usefulness of online discussion forums for distance courses; however, the majority of such investigations have focused their attention only on text-based forums. The objective of this paper is to determine if the embedding of streamed videos in online discussion forums generates educational dialogue and consequently the feedback that students need in a Management Accounting Course. The findings suggest some interesting issues, such as: students prefer text answers except in complex questions, and videos never replace text commentaries and explanations, but rather complement them.

Influence of Nursing Faculty Discussion Presence on Student Learning and Satisfaction in Online Courses.

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Claywell, Lora; Wallace, Cara; Price, Jill; Reneau, Margaret; Carlson, Kathleen

2016-01-01

This study determined the relationships between faculty participation in online discussions with student satisfaction and perceived learning in online RN-BSN and MSN courses. Analysis of faculty participation in online courses (n = 280) demonstrated a relationship between faculty participation and student satisfaction and perceived learning. The results of this study offer guidance on the minimal faculty participation necessary in online discussions in nursing courses.

Reconceptualising Moderation in Asynchronous Online Discussions Using Grounded Theory

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Vlachopoulos, Panos; Cowan, John

2010-01-01

This article reports a grounded theory study of the moderation of asynchronous online discussions, to explore the processes by which tutors in higher education decide when and how to moderate. It aims to construct a theory of e-moderation based on some key factors which appear to influence e-moderation. It discusses previous research on the…

Navigating cancer using online communities: a grounded theory of survivor and family experiences.

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Harkin, Lydia Jo; Beaver, Kinta; Dey, Paola; Choong, Kartina

2017-12-01

People affected by cancer often have unmet emotional and social support needs. Online cancer communities are a convenient channel for connecting cancer survivors, allowing them to support one another. However, it is unclear whether online community use makes a meaningful contribution to cancer survivorship, as little previous research has examined the experience of using contemporary cancer communities. We aimed to explore the experiences of visitors to online cancer communities. Twenty-three in-depth interviews were conducted with online cancer community visitors, including cancer survivors (n = 18), family members (n = 2), and individuals who were both a survivor and family member (n = 3). Interviews were analysed using a grounded theory approach. A theory developed explaining how individuals 'navigated' the experience of cancer using online cancer communities. Online advice and information led participants on a 'journey to become informed'. Online friendships normalised survivorship and cast participants on a 'journey to recreate identity'. Participants navigated a 'journey through different worlds' as they discovered relevant and hidden communities. This theory highlights virtual paths people affected by cancer can take to self-manage their experience of the disease. Online community experiences can be improved by promoting online evaluation skills and signposting visitors to bereavement support. Cancer survivors can benefit through both lurking and posting in online communities. However, individuals risk becoming distressed when they befriend individuals who may soon die. Additionally, people affected by rarer cancers can struggle to find shared experiences online and may need to look elsewhere for support.

Does Feedback Influence Student Postings to Online Discussions?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katrina A. Meyer, Ph.D.

2007-07-01

Full Text Available Feedback theory proposes that feedback influences the behavior of a system and its parts and that is governed by rules. This exploratory study attempts to test this theory in a graduate-level class on leadership theory. Twelve students were asked to participate in five online discussions, each lasting one week. The questions for each discussion were selected to be provocative and rich, without having any correct answer. At the end of the discussion, students were asked to indicate which posting and poster they felt was “best” or most valuable and why they felt the posting was “best.” There is mixed evidence that the voting influenced subsequent postings; some individuals did improve while others were consistently good or poor posters. Students selected postings that were (in declining frequency of occurrence: thoughtful or thought-provoking, well written or justified, uplifting, presented new information, same as their own opinions, changed me, or complex. These reasons are similar to those of the instructor, although the students’ difficulty in choosing and rationalizing a choice and the frequency at which students chose posts that captured their own thoughts and opinions are of some concern. This study provides some evidence that these graduate students could evaluate their own discussions without the instructor intruding or dictating an evaluation scheme, although this may not be true for other groups of online students.

Anonymity versus privacy: Selective information sharing in online cancer communities

OpenAIRE

Frost, J.H.; Vermeulen, I.E.; Beekers, N.

2014-01-01

Background Active sharing in online cancer communities benefits patients. However, many patients refrain from sharing health information online due to privacy concerns. Existing research on privacy emphasizes data security and confidentiality, largely focusing on electronic medical records. Patient preferences around information sharing in online communities remain poorly understood. Consistent with the privacy calculus perspective adopted from e-commerce research, we suggest that patients ap...

From Help-Seekers to Influential Users: A Systematic Review of Participation Styles in Online Health Communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Carron-Arthur, Bradley; Ali, Kathina; Cunningham, John Alastair; Griffiths, Kathleen Margaret

2015-12-01

Understanding how people participate in and contribute to online health communities (OHCs) is useful knowledge in multiple domains. It is helpful for community managers in developing strategies for building community, for organizations in disseminating information about health interventions, and for researchers in understanding the social dynamics of peer support. We sought to determine if any patterns were apparent in the nature of user participation across online health communities. The current study involved a systematic review of all studies that have investigated the nature of participation in an online health community and have provided a quantifiable method for categorizing a person based on their participation style. A systematic search yielded 20 papers. Participatory styles were classified as either multidimensional (based on multiple metrics) or unidimensional (based on one metric). With respect to the multidimensional category, a total of 41 different participation styles were identified ranging from Influential Users who were leaders on the board to Topic-Focused Responders who focused on a specific topic and tended to respond to rather than initiate posts. However, there was little overlap in participation styles identified both across OHCs for different health conditions and within OHCs for specific health conditions. Five of the 41 styles emerged in more than one study (Hubs, Authorities, Facilitators, Prime Givers, and Discussants), but the remainder were reported in only one study. The focus of the unidimensional studies was on level of engagement and particularly on high-engaged users. Eight different metrics were used to evaluate level of engagement with the greatest focus on frequency of posts. With the exception of high-engaged users based on high post frequency, the current review found little evidence for consistent participatory styles across different health communities. However, this area of research is in its infancy, with most of the

Personality Interactions and Scaffolding in On-Line Discussions

Science.gov (United States)

Nussbaum, E. Michael; Hartley, Kendall; Sinatra, Gale M.; Reynolds, Ralph E.; Bendixen, Lisa D.

2004-01-01

The potential of on-line discussions to prompt greater reflection of course material is often stymied by a tendency of students to agree with one another rather than to formulate counter-arguments. This article describes an experiment using note starters and elaborated cases to encourage counter-argumentation and examines interactions with…

Design of an online health-promoting community: negotiating user community needs with public health goals and service capabilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Ekberg, Joakim; Timpka, Toomas; Angbratt, Marianne; Frank, Linda; Norén, Anna-Maria; Hedin, Lena; Andersen, Emelie; Gursky, Elin A; Gäre, Boel Andersson

2013-07-04

An online health-promoting community (OHPC) has the potential to promote health and advance new means of dialogue between public health representatives and the general public. The aim of this study was to examine what aspects of an OHPC that are critical for satisfying the needs of the user community and public health goals and service capabilities. Community-based participatory research methods were used for data collection and analysis, and participatory design principles to develop a case study OHPC for adolescents. Qualitative data from adolescents on health appraisals and perspectives on health information were collected in a Swedish health service region and classified into categories of user health information exchange needs. A composite design rationale for the OHPC was completed by linking the identified user needs, user-derived requirements, and technical and organizational systems solutions. Conflicts between end-user requirements and organizational goals and resources were identified. The most prominent health information needs were associated to food, exercise, and well-being. The assessment of the design rationale document and prototype in light of the regional public health goals and service capabilities showed that compromises were needed to resolve conflicts involving the management of organizational resources and responsibilities. The users wanted to discuss health issues with health experts having little time to set aside to the OHPC and it was unclear who should set the norms for the online discussions. OHPCs can be designed to satisfy both the needs of user communities and public health goals and service capabilities. Compromises are needed to resolve conflicts between users' needs to discuss health issues with domain experts and the management of resources and responsibilities in public health organizations.

Using Netnography to Explore the Culture of Online Language Teaching Communities

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Kulavuz-Onal, Derya

2015-01-01

Netnography (Kozinets, 2010) is an ethnographic approach to study communities that exist primarily online. Engaging in online participant observation, the netnographer connects to the online community through a computer screen, and the field is located inside the screen. Although it has been used in marketing research extensively, netnography is a…

Examining Sense of Community among Medical Professionals in an Online Graduate Program

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kadriye O. Lewis

2015-01-01

Full Text Available As the number of online degree programs continues to grow, one of the greatest challenges is developing a sense of community among learners who do not convene at the same time and place. This study examined the sense of community among medical professionals in an online graduate program for healthcare professionals. We took the sample from a fully online program delivered jointly by a state university and a local children's hospital in the Midwest. We administered Rovai's Classroom Community Survey with 11 additional demographic questions. We also utilized online interviews to further explore students’ understanding of sense of community. A bi-factor model was fitted to the online sense of community survey data. Using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA and univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA we identified potential group differences. The qualitative data were analyzed thematically in a recursive and iterative process. Study results suggested that a dominant factor existed: sense of community with two sub-domain factors including sense of learning and sense of connectedness. No significant differences in sense of community with regard to gender, native language, or area of medical practice were detected. However, results showed a difference in sense of community between the three courses examined. This study is the first to examine the sense of community among online medical professionals. Since our findings are in contrast to those of previous studies, this opens the door to additional studies around the possible differences between the community characteristics and needs of medical professionals as online students.

Are online communities on par with experts in the evaluation of new movies?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ponnamma Divakaran, Pradeep Kumar; Nørskov, Sladjana

2016-01-01

Purpose This paper investigates two questions. First, are movie-based online community evaluations on par with film expert evaluations of new movies? Second, which group makes more reliable and accurate predictions of movie box office revenues: film reviewers or an online community? Design....../methodology/approach Data were collected from a movie-based online community Fandango for a 16-month period and included all movies released during this time (373 movies). We compared film reviewers’ evaluations with the online community evaluations during the first eight weeks of the movie’s release. Findings The study...... finds that community members evaluate movies differently than film reviewers. The results also reveal that community evaluations have more predictive power than film reviewers’ evaluations, especially during the opening week of a movie. Research limitations/implications The investigated online community...

Content Analysis Coding Schemes for Online Asynchronous Discussion

Science.gov (United States)

Weltzer-Ward, Lisa

2011-01-01

Purpose: Researchers commonly utilize coding-based analysis of classroom asynchronous discussion contributions as part of studies of online learning and instruction. However, this analysis is inconsistent from study to study with over 50 coding schemes and procedures applied in the last eight years. The aim of this article is to provide a basis…

E-Model for Online Learning Communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Rogo, Ellen J; Portillo, Karen M

2015-10-01

The purpose of this study was to explore the students' perspectives on the phenomenon of online learning communities while enrolled in a graduate dental hygiene program. A qualitative case study method was designed to investigate the learners' experiences with communities in an online environment. A cross-sectional purposive sampling method was used. Interviews were the data collection method. As the original data were being analyzed, the researchers noted a pattern evolved indicating the phenomenon developed in stages. The data were re-analyzed and validated by 2 member checks. The participants' experiences revealed an e-model consisting of 3 stages of formal learning community development as core courses in the curriculum were completed and 1 stage related to transmuting the community to an informal entity as students experienced the independent coursework in the program. The development of the formal learning communities followed 3 stages: Building a Foundation for the Learning Community, Building a Supportive Network within the Learning Community and Investing in the Community to Enhance Learning. The last stage, Transforming the Learning Community, signaled a transition to an informal network of learners. The e-model was represented by 3 key elements: metamorphosis of relationships, metamorphosis through the affective domain and metamorphosis through the cognitive domain, with the most influential element being the affective development. The e-model describes a 4 stage process through which learners experience a metamorphosis in their affective, relationship and cognitive development. Synergistic learning was possible based on the interaction between synergistic relationships and affective actions. Copyright © 2015 The American Dental Hygienists’ Association.

Effortless consumption : The 'Anthropologie' of a brand-focused online shopping community

OpenAIRE

Downing Peters, Lauren; Kurennaya, Anya

2014-01-01

This article examines the dynamics of the brand-focused online community blog Effortless Anthropologie, devoted to the popular retailer Anthropologie, with particular emphasis on how brand values are created, espoused and disputed by its members in a dynamic and interactive online forum. Using relevant literature on the concept of brand community, the net is expanded to capture the activities of a community that exists primarily online. We use examples of posts and commenting activity to demo...

Online Discussion as a Mechanism of Conceptual Change among Mathematics and Science Teachers

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Luebeck, Jennifer L.; Bice, Lawrence R.

2005-01-01

This study examines the extent to which conceptual change is stimulated and achieved through online discussion in the context of an online graduate course. Transcripts of discussions among 15 graduate students studying assessment issues in mathematics and science education were analyzed using an interaction analysis model developed to assess…

Britishness and Community Cohesion in Muslim News Online

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Hassen ZRIBA

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The issues of British national identity and social cohesion have become pressing concerns within the multicultural fabric of contemporary British society. The increasing number of immigrants and their offspring, along with the maintenance of their cultural roots, seem to represent a serious defiance to social cohesion and the alleged “purity” of Britishness. A number of race related reports were produced by the official authorities to churn out the necessary steps to be followed by the British (immigrants and host community in order to keep social stability and community cohesion. Thus, the politics of community cohesion came to the fore as the neologism of contemporary British political discourse. Such new discourse of governance has been digested and processed differently by different mass media. It has been decoded, for instance, preferably by mainstream news agencies like BBC News Online. However, arguably, it is read appositionally or at best negotiatedly by ethnicity-related news agencies such as Muslim News Online. In this article, attempt has been made to adopt media discourse analysis tools to decipher the ways Muslim News Online decoded and then encoded the hegemonic official discourses of Britishness and community cohesion. A critical and interpretative approach is used to accomplish such study. The corpus of this study is primarily extracted from the website of the Muslim News Online.

Example Postings' Effects on Online Discussion and Cognitive Load

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Jin, Li

2012-01-01

This study investigated the effects of example-postings on students' cognitive load and performance in online discussions. Cognitive overload was assumed had caused the problem of the lack of reflective and thoughtful contributions in student discussions. The theoretical foundation supporting the use of example-postings aiming at reduce…

Building addiction recovery capital through online participation in a recovery community.

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Bliuc, Ana-Maria; Best, David; Iqbal, Muhammad; Upton, Katie

2017-11-01

This study examines how online participation in a community of recovery contributes to personal journeys of recovery. It investigates whether recovery capital building - as indicated by increased levels and quality of online social interactions - and markers of positive identity development predict retention in a recovery program designed around fostering community involvement for early stage recovery addicts. It was predicted that online participation on the group's Facebook page and positive identity development are associated to retention in the program. To map how participants interact online, social network analysis (SNA) based on naturally occurring online data (N = 609) on the Facebook page of a recovery community was conducted. Computerised linguistic analyses evaluated sentiment of the textual data (capturing social identity markers). Linear regression analyses evaluated whether indicators of recovery capital predict program retention. To illustrate the findings in the context of the specific recovery community, presented are two case studies of key participants who moved from the periphery to the centre of the social network. By conducting in-depth interviews with these participants, personal experiences of engagement in the online community of group members who have undergone the most significant changes since joining the community are explored. Retention in the program was determined by a) the number of comment 'likes' and all 'likes' received on the Facebook page; b) position in the social network (degree of centrality); and c) linguistic content around group identity and achievement. Positive online interactions between members of recovery communities support the recovery process through helping participants to develop recovery capital that binds them to groups supportive of positive change. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Links between real and virtual networks: a comparative study of online communities in Japan and Korea.

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Ishii, Kenichi; Ogasahara, Morihiro

2007-04-01

The present study explores how online communities affect real-world personal relations based on a cross-cultural survey conducted in Japan and Korea. Findings indicate that the gratifications of online communities moderate the effects of online communities on social participation. Online communities are categorized into a real-group-based community and a virtual-network-based community. The membership of real-group-based online community is positively correlated with social bonding gratification and negatively correlated with information- seeking gratification. Japanese users prefer more virtual-network-based online communities, while their Korean counterparts prefer real-group-based online communities. Korean users are more active in online communities and seek a higher level of socializing gratifications, such as social bonding and making new friends, when compared with their Japanese counterparts. These results indicate that in Korea, personal relations via the online community are closely associated with the real-world personal relations, but this is not the case in Japan. This study suggests that the effects of the Internet are culture-specific and that the online community can serve a different function in different cultural environments.

Online Knowledge Communities: Meeting places for continuing professional development.

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de Vries, Sjoerd A.; van Weert, Tom J.; Munro, Robert K.

2003-01-01

This paper describes the concept of Online Knowledge Communities (okc) as meeting places for continuing professional development (cpd). An okc is defined as a social network of members, who are online and are organized by making use of an online knowledge center. The okc has a particular group

Parents' online discussions about children's dental caries: A critical content analysis.

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Milne, Avery; Weijs, Cynthia A; Haines-Saah, Rebecca J; McLaren, Lindsay

2017-09-14

Through an analysis of postings to an online parenting forum, we aimed to explore the many ways in which parents orient to (i.e., take up, challenge, re-articulate) information about child dental health in the context of their online interactions. Our analysis is anchored in Nettleton's theoretical work on dental authority and power, which we apply in a digital context. We examined discussion threads from the public online forums on BabyCenter Canada. We identified relevant threads using the site search function and keywords related to dental health, with a focus on dental caries (tooth decay), related care behaviours (e.g., toothbrushing), and the controversial issue of fluoride. Following descriptive content coding, we applied a critical lens to unpack themes related to expert knowledge, gender and parenting online cultures. We analyzed 479 relevant threads. Our findings focus on two central themes: the tension between parents' views and those of dental health professionals; and, the gendered, cultural roles and expectations that position mothers as primarily responsible for the care of children's dental health. Though these themes are not new, our findings show that they persist in the digital context where social divisions (e.g., expert/non-expert) may be blurred. Our analysis of online discussions provides an opportunity to think critically about ways in which parents engage with public health, in digital contexts. Although some mothers express disconnect when communicating with dental professionals, they are very engaged and concerned with dental health issues for their children. A challenge for dental public health is to find ways to shift perspective towards recognizing that the target population is empowered and already engaged in discussions of research evidence and clinical encounters on their own terms, facilitated by an online context.

Developing the Oral Skill in Online English Courses Framed by the Community of Inquiry

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Luz Edith Herrera Díaz

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Over the last decade, the community of inquiry framework has proved successful for online learning experiences in diverse disciplines, although studies in the teaching of English as a foreign language arena are still scarce. In this vein, this article reports a preliminary study about the development of the oral skill in a Basic English online course, uncovering the relationship between the community of inquiry framework (with its three forms of presence: teaching, cognitive, and social and some indicators of the oral skill. Findings, based on learners’ perceptions, confirmed the existence of such framework and suggest that the teaching presence fosters grammar, accuracy, and vocabulary. Discussion of findings, limitations of the study and future possible research actions conclude this report.

Promoting Numeracy in an Online College Algebra Course through Projects and Discussions

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Samuel L. Tunstall

2015-07-01

Full Text Available This research stems from efforts to infuse quantitative literacy (QL in an online version of college algebra. College algebra fulfills a QL requirement at many universities, and it is a terminal course for most who take it. In light of the course’s traditional content and teaching methods, students often leave with little gained in QL. An online platform provides a unique means of engaging students in quantitative discussions and research, yet little research exists on online courses in the context of QL. The course studied included weekly news discussions as well as “messy” projects requiring data analysis. Students in online and face-to-face sections of the course took the Quantitative Literacy and Reasoning Assessment ( QLRA; developed by members of the National Numeracy Network during the first and final weeks of the fall 2014 semester. There were significant statistical gains in the online students’ QLRA performance and mathematical affect but none for the face-to-face students. Notwithstanding limitations of the study, the results support the notion that project-based learning in an online environment is a promising strategy for promoting QL in terminal math courses.

Technology and Community Behavior in Online Environments

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Blanchard, Anita L.; Markus, M. Lynne

The literature on virtual or online communities contains two largely disjoint bodies of scholarship. One, which we call the “communities” literature, is concerned primarily with the social and psychological processes observable within groups of people that interact regularly in online environments. The other, concerned primarily with the effects of technological environments on individual and group behavior, we call the “environments” literature.

Online Group Discussion pada Mata Kuliah Teknologi Pembelajaran Fisika

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Yuberti Yuberti

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, gadged just like handphone and notebook more reachable so the quantities of the users are increase in Indonesia. It is common for us to see the students, employees, enterpreneurs until housewives using gadged anywhere and anytime. This phenomenon is spread widely along with the internet wifi and hotspot in many places start from official educational institute, government, and office centre, to the tourism object and shopping center. Also with internet café (Warnet compete tightly with offering various facilities, and services with compete price. All cellphone service is also giving internet access in order to attract users. Some phenomena show more and more people who use the Internet and make it as a lifestyle for berintaksi, socialize, learn and get information. Widespread use of the Internet can be a great potential in the development of online learning system allows learners to access the information flexibly without limitation of time and place. Discussion no longer occur face to face, but can continue even in the virtual environment. As the implementation of other virtual learning methods. Implementation of online discussion itself is basically adopting the method of learning face to face discussion Harga gadged seperti handphone dan  dan  notebook kian hari kian terjangkau sehingga jumlah penggunanya di indonesia terus meningkat. Bukan lah suatu yang asing jika kita menjumpai para siswa, mahasiswa, karyawan, pengusaha hingga ibu rumah tangga menggunakan gadged di mana saja dan kapan saja. Fenomena ini diiringi dengan meluasnya jaringan internet nirkabel seperti hotspot  dan  wifi di berbagai tempat mulai dari institusi  resmi pendidikan, pemerintahan, dan perkantoran, hingga tempat wisata,dan pusat perbelanjaan. Tidak mau ketinggalan warnet (warung internet ikut bersaing ketat dengan menawarkan berbagai macam fasilitas, dan layanan dengan harga bersaing. Seluruh layanan seluler ponsel juga terus memberikan

Antecedents of citizenship behaviour in online customer communities: An empirical investigation

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Mercy Mpinganjira

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Background: Use of online communities for knowledge generation has become a common phenomenon. In order for online communities to serve as affective spaces for knowledge generation and exchange, members need to behave in ways that are in line with good citizenship. However, because of the limited research, not much is known about citizenship behaviour in such communities and the factors that foster such conduct. Objectives: This article aims to examine the performance of citizenship behaviours by members of online customer communities, and the factors that influence this. Methodology: Data were collected from 303 contributing members of online customer communities using a structured questionnaire. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data collected. Results: The findings show moderate levels of engagement in citizenship behaviours among the respondents. Engagement in citizenship behaviours was in general found to be influenced more by the level of affective commitment towards the community than by the perceived levels of social support. Both affective commitment and perceived social support were found to have less influence on compliant citizenship behaviour when compared with altruism and personal initiative. Affective commitment was found to influence personal initiative most strongly, while social support had its strongest influence on altruism. Conclusion: The results provide insights for managers of online customer communities into factors to which they should give attention in order to enhance the performance of citizenship behaviours.

Cascade Model for Online Discussion Boards in an E-Learning Environment

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Vibha Kumar

2010-03-01

Full Text Available This report is an outcome of five years of teaching and managing groups of students in an online learning environment. Some course management software allow the user to create groups and add different links within each group. Distinct platforms, with various sections, can be formed within those links for any given project. Students, as well as instructors, can manage the project for 6 to 8 weeks, cascading one discussion board into one or multiple platforms. This provides better understanding of the project material due to the step by step layout of the given exercise, leading to increased group management and greater communication among the student group members. This report provides the step-by-step procedure for cascading one discussion board into platforms, to manage online projects and provide a more controlled online environment for students in higher education.

Community (in) Colleges: The Relationship Between Online Network Involvement and Academic Outcomes at a Community College

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Evans, Eliza D.; McFarland, Daniel A.; Rios-Aguilar, Cecilia; Deil-Amen, Regina

2016-01-01

Objective: This study explores the relationship between online social network involvement and academic outcomes among community college students. Prior theory hypothesizes that socio-academic moments are especially important for the integration of students into community colleges and that integration is related to academic outcomes. Online social…

Promoting Liberal Arts Thinking through Online Discussion: A Practical Application and its Theoretical Basis

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Dr. Dave S. Knowlton

2002-07-01

Full Text Available Addressing Carsten and Worsfold's (2000 assertion that online learning eliminates the possibility for "liberal learning," the author of this paper describes the context and guidelines for an online discussion assignment that he used as a faculty member at a liberal arts college. The purpose of this assignment was to help students engage in personal development by examining the ways course content manifested itself in their own lives. After describing the assignment guidelines, the author connects the assignment to numerous theories that are often associated with "liberal arts" learning. This theoretical explication includes connections to the need for a synthesis between the personal and professional selves, notions of constructing knowledge, and online discussion's placement within the writing process. The implication of this article is that the instructional strategies embedded in an online discussion, not the online environment itself, sustains a liberal education.

An online community of practice to support evidence-based physiotherapy practice in manual therapy.

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Evans, Cathy; Yeung, Euson; Markoulakis, Roula; Guilcher, Sara

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore how a community of practice promoted the creation and sharing of new knowledge in evidence-based manual therapy using Wenger's constructs of mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and shared repertoire as a theoretical framework. We used a qualitative approach to analyze the discussion board contributions of the 19 physiotherapists who participated in the 10-week online continuing education course in evidence-based practice (EBP) in manual therapy. The course was founded on community of practice, constructivism, social, and situated learning principles. The 1436 postings on 9 active discussion boards revealed that the community of practice was a social learning environment that supported strong participation and mutual engagement. Design features such as consistent facilitation, weekly guiding questions, and collaborative assignments promoted the creation and sharing of knowledge. Participants applied research evidence to the contexts in which they worked through reflective comparison of what they were reading to its applicability in their everyday practice. Participants' shared goals contributed to the common ground established in developing collective knowledge about different study designs, how to answer research questions, and the difficulties of conducting sound research. An online longitudinal community of practice utilized as a continuing education approach to deliver an online course based on constructivist and social learning principles allowed geographically dispersed physiotherapists to be mutually engaged in a joint enterprise in evidence-based manual therapy. Advantages included opportunity for reflection, modeling, and collaboration. Future studies should examine the impact of participation on clinical practice. © 2014 The Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions, the Society for Academic Continuing Medical Education, and the Council on Continuing Medical Education, Association for Hospital

Home Manufacture of Drugs: An Online Investigation and a Toxicological Reality Check of Online Discussions on Drug Chemistry.

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Hearne, Evelyn; Alves, Emanuele Amorim; Van Hout, Marie Claire; Grund, Jean-Paul C

2017-01-01

Emerging trends in market dynamics and the use of new psychoactive substances are both a public health concern and a complex regulatory issue. One novel area of investigation is the availability of homemade opioids, amphetamines and dissociatives, and the potential fueling of interest in clandestine home manufacture of drugs via the Internet. We illustrate here how online communal folk pharmacology of homemade drugs on drug website forums may actually inform home manufacture practices or contribute to the reduction of harms associated with this practice. Discrepancies between online information around purification and making homemade drugs safer, and the synthesis of the same substances in a proper laboratory environment, exist. Moderation and shutdown of synthesis queries and discussions online are grounded in drug websites adhering to harm-reduction principles by facilitating discussions around purification of homemade drugs only. Drug discussion forums should consider reevaluating their policies on chemistry discussions in aiming to reach people who cannot or will not refrain from cooking their own drugs with credible information that may contribute to reductions in the harms associated with this practice.

Informal Learning in Online Knowledge Communities: Predicting Community Response to Visitor Inquiries

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nistor, Nicolae; Dascalu, Mihai; Stavarache, Lucia Larise; Serafin, Yvonne; Trausan-Matu, Stefan

2016-01-01

Nistor, N., Dascalu, M., Stavarache, L.L., Serafin, Y., & Trausan-Matu, S. (2015). Informal Learning in Online Knowledge Communities: Predicting Community Response to Visitor Inquiries. In G. Conole, T. Klobucar, C. Rensing, J. Konert & É. Lavoué (Eds.), 10th European Conf. on Technology Enhanced

Community in Online Higher Education: Challenges and Opportunities

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Arasaratnam-Smith, Lily A.; Northcote, Maria

2017-01-01

Exploring the challenges and opportunities associated with the concepts of community and communication in online higher education, this paper reconsiders the intention to replicate face-to-face learning and teaching strategies in online learning environments. Rather than beginning with the assumption that face-to-face education is the prototype…

Online Communities: The Case of Immigrants in Greece

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Panaretou, Ioannis; Karousos, Nikos; Kostopoulos, Ioannis; Foteinou, Georgia-Barbara; Pavlidis, Giorgos

Immigrants in Greece are an increasing population, very often threatened by poverty and social exclusion. At the same time Greek government has no formal policy concerning their assimilation in Greek society and this situation generates multiple problems in both immigrants and native population. In this work we suggest that new technology can alleviate these effects and we present specific tools and methodologies adopted by ANCE, in order to support online communities and specifically immigrant communities in Greece. This approach has the potential to support immigrant communities' in terms of the organization of personal data, communication, and provision of a working space for dedicated use. The Information System's operational features are also presented, along with other characteristics and state-of-the-art features in order to propose a general direction to the design of online communities' mechanisms.

Identifying key hospital service quality factors in online health communities.

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Jung, Yuchul; Hur, Cinyoung; Jung, Dain; Kim, Minki

2015-04-07

The volume of health-related user-created content, especially hospital-related questions and answers in online health communities, has rapidly increased. Patients and caregivers participate in online community activities to share their experiences, exchange information, and ask about recommended or discredited hospitals. However, there is little research on how to identify hospital service quality automatically from the online communities. In the past, in-depth analysis of hospitals has used random sampling surveys. However, such surveys are becoming impractical owing to the rapidly increasing volume of online data and the diverse analysis requirements of related stakeholders. As a solution for utilizing large-scale health-related information, we propose a novel approach to identify hospital service quality factors and overtime trends automatically from online health communities, especially hospital-related questions and answers. We defined social media-based key quality factors for hospitals. In addition, we developed text mining techniques to detect such factors that frequently occur in online health communities. After detecting these factors that represent qualitative aspects of hospitals, we applied a sentiment analysis to recognize the types of recommendations in messages posted within online health communities. Korea's two biggest online portals were used to test the effectiveness of detection of social media-based key quality factors for hospitals. To evaluate the proposed text mining techniques, we performed manual evaluations on the extraction and classification results, such as hospital name, service quality factors, and recommendation types using a random sample of messages (ie, 5.44% (9450/173,748) of the total messages). Service quality factor detection and hospital name extraction achieved average F1 scores of 91% and 78%, respectively. In terms of recommendation classification, performance (ie, precision) is 78% on average. Extraction and

How a moderated online discussion forum facilitates support for young people with eating disorders.

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Kendal, Sarah; Kirk, Sue; Elvey, Rebecca; Catchpole, Roger; Pryjmachuk, Steven

2017-02-01

Young people with eating disorders are at risk of harm to their social, emotional and physical development and life chances. Although they can be reluctant to seek help, they may access social media for information, advice or support. The relationship between social media and youth well-being is an emotive subject, but not clearly understood. This qualitative study aimed to explore how young people used a youth-orientated, moderated, online, eating disorders discussion forum, run by an eating disorders charity. We applied a netnographic approach involving downloading and thematically analysing over 400 messages posted August-November 2012. Data analysis generated five themes: Taking on the role of mentor; the online discussion forum as a safe space; Friendship within the online forum; Flexible help; and Peer support for recovery and relapse prevention. Forum moderation may have influenced the forum culture. Our findings are consistent with literature about youth preferences for mental health self-care support. A young person's decision to use this discussion forum can be construed as pro-active self-care. A moderated online discussion forum can make a positive contribution to support for youth with eating disorders, countering negative media perceptions of online groups. This study adds to knowledge about how young people access support via social media. Online discussion forums can be safe and acceptable spaces for youth to access help. Further research could provide insights into the impact of forum moderation. © 2016 The Authors. Health Expectations Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Tutoring Online: Increasing Effectiveness with Best Practices

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Turrentine, Penny; MacDonald, Lucy

2006-01-01

Is tutoring online more than just email? Two yearlong studies explored tutoring online in two different modes. One, from Atlantic Community College in New Jersey, looked at asynchronous (not real time) tutoring online using a discussion board. The other, at Pima Community College in Arizona, used synchronous (real time) online software. The…

Improving the Quality of Online Discussion: The Effects of Strategies Designed Based on Cognitive Load Theory Principles

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Darabi, Aubteen; Jin, Li

2013-01-01

This article focuses on heavy cognitive load as the reason for the lack of quality associated with conventional online discussion. Using the principles of cognitive load theory, four online discussion strategies were designed specifically aiming at reducing the discussants' cognitive load and thus enhancing the quality of their online discussion.…

Patient-Oriented Design of Online Support Communities

OpenAIRE

Krcmar, Helmut;Leimeister, Jan Marco

2014-01-01

This paper focuses on the process of designing and implementing an online support community for patients. After an introduction we describe a process for translating the socio-technical needs of cancer patients into system requirements as well as the development steps towards a functioning community platform for cancer patients. We combine a generic iterative process model for systems development with a prototyping approach towards an engineering process model for community platforms for canc...

Addressing the challenges of diagnostics demand and supply: insights from an online global health discussion platform.

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Engel, Nora; Wachter, Keri; Pai, Madhukar; Gallarda, Jim; Boehme, Catharina; Celentano, Isabelle; Weintraub, Rebecca

2016-01-01

Several barriers challenge development, adoption and scale-up of diagnostics in low and middle income countries. An innovative global health discussion platform allows capturing insights from the global health community on factors driving demand and supply for diagnostics. We conducted a qualitative content analysis of the online discussion 'Advancing Care Delivery: Driving Demand and Supply of Diagnostics' organised by the Global Health Delivery Project (GHD) (http://www.ghdonline.org/) at Harvard University. The discussion, driven by 12 expert panellists, explored what must be done to develop delivery systems, business models, new technologies, interoperability standards, and governance mechanisms to ensure that patients receive the right diagnostic at the right time. The GHD Online (GHDonline) platform reaches over 19 000 members from 185 countries. Participants (N=99) in the diagnostics discussion included academics, non-governmental organisations, manufacturers, policymakers, and physicians. Data was coded and overarching categories analysed using qualitative data analysis software. Participants considered technical characteristics of diagnostics as smaller barriers to effective use of diagnostics compared with operational and health system challenges, such as logistics, poor fit with user needs, cost, workforce, infrastructure, access, weak regulation and political commitment. Suggested solutions included: health system strengthening with patient-centred delivery; strengthened innovation processes; improved knowledge base; harmonised guidelines and evaluation; supply chain innovations; and mechanisms for ensuring quality and capacity. Engaging and connecting different actors involved with diagnostic development and use is paramount for improving diagnostics. While the discussion participants were not representative of all actors involved, the platform enabled a discussion between globally acknowledged experts and physicians working in different countries.

The role of online community from user and firm perspective

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ponnamma Divakaran, Pradeep Kumar

for firm’s benefits. The overall objective of this doctoral dissertation is to provide insights about how online communities as a collective unit can be exploited for solving some of the problems faced by companies in their product development especially in their pre-launch period. This objective is built...... on the community itself and its characteristics, (2) research focussed on studying the off-line consumer or market behaviour using community as the field setting and (3) research focussed on investigating the various functions and roles of online communities as a collective unit. The first two studies...

Collective Emotions Online and Their Influence on Community Life

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Chmiel, Anna; Sienkiewicz, Julian; Thelwall, Mike; Paltoglou, Georgios; Buckley, Kevan; Kappas, Arvid; Hołyst, Janusz A.

2011-01-01

Background E-communities, social groups interacting online, have recently become an object of interdisciplinary research. As with face-to-face meetings, Internet exchanges may not only include factual information but also emotional information – how participants feel about the subject discussed or other group members. Emotions in turn are known to be important in affecting interaction partners in offline communication in many ways. Could emotions in Internet exchanges affect others and systematically influence quantitative and qualitative aspects of the trajectory of e-communities? The development of automatic sentiment analysis has made large scale emotion detection and analysis possible using text messages collected from the web. However, it is not clear if emotions in e-communities primarily derive from individual group members' personalities or if they result from intra-group interactions, and whether they influence group activities. Methodology/Principal Findings Here, for the first time, we show the collective character of affective phenomena on a large scale as observed in four million posts downloaded from Blogs, Digg and BBC forums. To test whether the emotions of a community member may influence the emotions of others, posts were grouped into clusters of messages with similar emotional valences. The frequency of long clusters was much higher than it would be if emotions occurred at random. Distributions for cluster lengths can be explained by preferential processes because conditional probabilities for consecutive messages grow as a power law with cluster length. For BBC forum threads, average discussion lengths were higher for larger values of absolute average emotional valence in the first ten comments and the average amount of emotion in messages fell during discussions. Conclusions/Significance Overall, our results prove that collective emotional states can be created and modulated via Internet communication and that emotional expressiveness is the

Peer Moderation of Asynchronous Online Discussions: An Exploratory Study of Peer E-Moderating Behaviour

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Ghadirian, Hajar; Ayub, Ahmad Fauzi Mohd

2017-01-01

This study explored patterns of e-moderating behaviour students performed when they were assigned as peer moderators of asynchronous online discussions in a reciprocal manner. Eighty-four students from an undergraduate blended course were observed during a 7-week-long online discussions. Using quantitative content analysis peer moderators'…

Putting the Pieces Together: Online Argumentation Vee Diagrams Enhance Thinking during Discussions

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Nussbaum, E. Michael; Winsor, Denise L.; Aqui, Yvette M.; Poliquin, Anne M.

2007-01-01

We examine the effect of online Argumentation Vee Diagrams (AVDs) on the quality of students' argumentation during asynchronous, online discussions. With AVDs, students develop arguments on both sides of a controversial issue and then develop an integrated, overall final conclusion. In this study, students used AVDs individually before composing…

Body perceptions and health behaviors in an online bodybuilding community.

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Smith, Aaron C T; Stewart, Bob

2012-07-01

In this article we explore the social constructions, body perceptions, and health experiences of a serious recreational and competitive bodybuilder and powerlifter community. Data were obtained from a discussion forum appearing within an online community dedicated to muscular development. Forum postings for a period of 36 months were transposed to QSR NVivo, in which a narrative-based analytical method employing Gee's coding approach was employed. We used a priori codes based on Bourdieu's multipronged conceptual categories of social field, habitus, and capital accumulation as a theoretical frame. Our results expose an extreme social reality held by a devoted muscle-building community with a fanatical obsession with muscular hypertrophy and any accouterment helpful in its acquisition, from nutrition and supplements to training regimes and anabolic androgenic substances. Few health costs were considered too severe in this muscular meritocracy, where the strong commanded deference and the massive dominated the social field.

Using Phatic Expressions in Introductions in Intercultural Online Discussions

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Zimmerman, Lynn W.

2011-01-01

This study examines the use of formulaic language in an intercultural communication encounter. It focuses particularly on phatic expressions used in an online discussion about gender stereotypes in English among 167 undergraduate university students in Taiwan, Israel, and the US. Content analysis methodology was used to examine whether there are…

Learning Analytics for Online Discussions: Embedded and Extracted Approaches

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Wise, Alyssa Friend; Zhao, Yuting; Hausknecht, Simone Nicole

2014-01-01

This paper describes an application of learning analytics that builds on an existing research program investigating how students contribute and attend to the messages of others in asynchronous online discussions. We first overview the E-Listening research program and then explain how this work was translated into analytics that students and…

Community College Students' Perceptions of Effective Communication in Online Learning

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Parker, Donna Alice Hill

2012-01-01

This quantitative research project analyzed the application of instructional communication tools and techniques used by community college students to determine how they perceive communication in their online classes. Online students from a community college participated in this study by completing an electronic survey. Data analysis revealed that…

Anonymity versus privacy: selective information sharing in online cancer communities.

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Frost, Jeana; Vermeulen, Ivar E; Beekers, Nienke

2014-05-14

Active sharing in online cancer communities benefits patients. However, many patients refrain from sharing health information online due to privacy concerns. Existing research on privacy emphasizes data security and confidentiality, largely focusing on electronic medical records. Patient preferences around information sharing in online communities remain poorly understood. Consistent with the privacy calculus perspective adopted from e-commerce research, we suggest that patients approach online information sharing instrumentally, weighing privacy costs against participation benefits when deciding whether to share certain information. Consequently, we argue that patients prefer sharing clinical information over daily life and identity information that potentially compromises anonymity. Furthermore, we explore whether patients' prior experiences, age, health, and gender affect perceived privacy costs and thus willingness to share information. The goal of the present study is to document patient preferences for sharing information within online health platforms. A total of 115 cancer patients reported sharing intentions for 15 different types of information, demographics, health status, prior privacy experiences, expected community utility, and privacy concerns. Factor analysis on the 15 information types revealed 3 factors coinciding with 3 proposed information categories: clinical, daily life, and identity information. A within-subject ANOVA showed a strong preference for sharing clinical information compared to daily life and identity information (F1,114=135.59, P=.001, η(2)=.93). Also, adverse online privacy experiences, age, and health status negatively affected information-sharing intentions. Female patients shared information less willingly. Respondents' information-sharing intentions depend on dispositional and situational factors. Patients share medical details more willingly than daily life or identity information. The results suggest the need to focus on

Bereaved parents’ online grief communities: de-tabooing practices or relationbuilding grief-ghettos?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sandvik, Kjetil; Christensen, Dorthe Refslund; Hård af Segerstad, Ylva

their loss as well as their ability to establish and continue their role as parents. However, with new practices on children’s graves, the growing use of memory tattoos and especially the use of online media as platform for various communities for bereaved parents, this seem to be changing and strengthen...... both the interpersonal communication and social interactions about and with the deceased child. This study presents results from case studies of both open and closed online grief communities for bereaved parents in Denmark and Sweden (Refslund Christensen & Sandvik 2013, Hård af Segerstad & Kasperowski...... media, casting online communities for bereaved parents as grief-ghettos? Studying bereaved parents’ grief work in dynamic communities online enhances our understanding of contemporary and contributes to a nuancing of theoretical understanding of parental grief. References Christensen, D. R., & Sandvik...

Can Online Forums Be Designed to Empower Local Communities?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kerill Dunne

2011-07-01

Full Text Available There has been a growing concern regarding political disengagement among citizens within western representative democracies. This concern has brought about calls for local communities to be empowered by giving citizens more control over local decision making. The objective of this paper is to examine if local political online forums can be built to empower local communities. That is to say, this paper will test if the E-Democracy.org’s Local Issues Forum Guidebook recommendations (A to do list for building successful online forums actually work and produce forums which facilitate citizens to have a greater say on local decision making and thus, induce empowerment. In order to test these recommendations a two-pronged methodological approach was taken. Firstly, using these recommendations an online forum was constructed in-conjunction with a local authority within the UK. Secondly, the recommendations were tested again except in this second approach a sample of online forums from around the world was examined. This paper argues that the E-Democracy.org’s recommendations do not always produce forums which empower local communities - Based on lessons learned from both experiments new guidelines are provided.

Video and Course Context Discussion on Massive Open Online Courses

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dubosson, Magali; Emad, Sabine; Broillet, Alexandra

2014-01-01

Video and Course Content Discussion on Massive Open Online Courses: An Exploratory Research—Magali Dubosson (HEG Fribourg), Sabine Emad (HEG Genève), Alexandra Broillet (University of Geneva and Webster University Geneva), Constance Kampf (Aarhus University, Denmark)...

Critical and Higher Order Thinking in Online Threaded Discussions in the Slovak Context

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katarina Pisutova-Gerber

2009-02-01

Full Text Available This article describes and analyzes efforts to use collaborative asynchronous discussion forums in a three semester online education program for NGO leaders and managers in Slovakia. Slovakia, as a country with autocratic styles of teacher-centered education, presents strong barriers to the implementation of collaborative learning activities. The authors used Garrison’s four stage cognitive processing categories to analyze some of the online discussions in the program. The two higher order critical thinking categories – integration and solution – appeared in student discussions only when prompted by specific instructional techniques.

Analyzing the Social Networks of High- and Low-Performing Students in Online Discussion Forums

Science.gov (United States)

Ghadirian, Hajar; Salehi, Keyvan; Ayub, Ahmad Fauzi Mohd

2018-01-01

An ego network is an individual's social network relationships with core members. In this study, the ego network parameters in online discussion spaces of high- and low-performing students were compared. The extent to which students' ego networks changed over the course were also analyzed. Participation in 7 weeks of online discussions were…

Privacy Practices of Health Social Networking Sites: Implications for Privacy and Data Security in Online Cancer Communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Charbonneau, Deborah H

2016-08-01

While online communities for social support continue to grow, little is known about the state of privacy practices of health social networking sites. This article reports on a structured content analysis of privacy policies and disclosure practices for 25 online ovarian cancer communities. All of the health social networking sites in the study sample provided privacy statements to users, yet privacy practices varied considerably across the sites. The majority of sites informed users that personal information was collected about participants and shared with third parties (96%, n = 24). Furthermore, more than half of the sites (56%, n = 14) stated that cookies technology was used to track user behaviors. Despite these disclosures, only 36% (n = 9) offered opt-out choices for sharing data with third parties. In addition, very few of the sites (28%, n = 7) allowed individuals to delete their personal information. Discussions about specific security measures used to protect personal information were largely missing. Implications for privacy, confidentiality, consumer choice, and data safety in online environments are discussed. Overall, nurses and other health professionals can utilize these findings to encourage individuals seeking online support and participating in social networking sites to build awareness of privacy risks to better protect their personal health information in the digital age.

Categorizing behavior in online communities: a look into the world of cake bakers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ganley, D.; Moser, C.; Groenewegen, P.

2012-01-01

In this article, we examine the patterns of behavior of online community members. We develop a list of measurable markers of behavior, drawing on online behavior and social network literature, and show how to construct the markers from the hidden relationship data in online communities. We then

'Keep complaining til someone listens': Exchanges of tacit healthcare knowledge in online illness communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Foster, Drew

2016-10-01

This article examines online exchanges of advice and knowledge among patients. It draws a distinction between explicit healthcare knowledge (i.e., facts about symptoms and treatments) and tacit healthcare knowledge (i.e., know-how about navigating the healthcare system). Based on analysis of message board interactions at a prominent online illness community, I find that patients routinely encourage one another to exercise agency strategically in clinical encounters by honing specific interactional skills. I isolate three major techniques that are advocated within the community (affect regulation, information management, and treatment persistence) and frame them as discrete examples of tacit healthcare knowledge. I argue that tacit healthcare knowledge constitutes a potentially potent source of empowerment for patients that can help them to receive their desired form of care from the health system and to negotiate relationships with medical professionals and institutions. I conclude by discussing how the concept of tacit healthcare knowledge further clarifies the wide variety of lay knowledge exchanged among patients online. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Patient Continued Use of Online Health Care Communities: Web Mining of Patient-Doctor Communication.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Bing

2018-04-16

In practice, online health communities have passed the adoption stage and reached the diffusion phase of development. In this phase, patients equipped with knowledge regarding the issues involved in health care are capable of switching between different communities to maximize their online health community activities. Online health communities employ doctors to answer patient questions, and high quality online health communities are more likely to be acknowledged by patients. Therefore, the factors that motivate patients to maintain ongoing relationships with online health communities must be addressed. However, this has received limited scholarly attention. The purpose of this study was to identify the factors that drive patients to continue their use of online health communities where doctor-patient communication occurs. This was achieved by integrating the information system success model with online health community features. A Web spider was used to download and extract data from one of the most authoritative Chinese online health communities in which communication occurs between doctors and patients. The time span analyzed in this study was from January 2017 to March 2017. A sample of 469 valid anonymous patients with 9667 posts was obtained (the equivalent of 469 respondents in survey research). A combination of Web mining and structural equation modeling was then conducted to test the research hypotheses. The results show that the research framework for integrating the information system success model and online health community features contributes to our understanding of the factors that drive patients' relationships with online health communities. The primary findings are as follows: (1) perceived usefulness is found to be significantly determined by three exogenous variables (ie, social support, information quality, and service quality; R 2 =0.88). These variables explain 87.6% of the variance in perceived usefulness of online health communities; (2

How Social Communications Influence Advertising Perception and Response in Online Communities?

Science.gov (United States)

Zeng, Fue; Tao, Ran; Yang, Yanwu; Xie, Tingting

2017-01-01

This research aims to explore how social communications of online communities affect users' perception and responses toward social media advertising. We developed a conceptual model based on the SBT, encapsulating 9 constructs and 10 hypothesis extracted from the extant social media advertising literature. Our research outcome proves that social communications can effectively boost users' behaviors to be in accordance with an online social community, thus facilitate their acceptance and responses toward social media advertising, with users' group intention as an intervening factor. From an operational standpoint, it's an effective way to build and maintain social bonds between users and the community by boosting social communications, supporting fluent interpersonal communications. In addition, managers of an online community should elaborate on users' group intentions to increase users' advertising acceptance and response.

How Social Communications Influence Advertising Perception and Response in Online Communities?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fue Zeng

2017-08-01

Full Text Available This research aims to explore how social communications of online communities affect users’ perception and responses toward social media advertising. We developed a conceptual model based on the SBT, encapsulating 9 constructs and 10 hypothesis extracted from the extant social media advertising literature. Our research outcome proves that social communications can effectively boost users’ behaviors to be in accordance with an online social community, thus facilitate their acceptance and responses toward social media advertising, with users’ group intention as an intervening factor. From an operational standpoint, it’s an effective way to build and maintain social bonds between users and the community by boosting social communications, supporting fluent interpersonal communications. In addition, managers of an online community should elaborate on users’ group intentions to increase users’ advertising acceptance and response.

How Social Communications Influence Advertising Perception and Response in Online Communities?

Science.gov (United States)

Zeng, Fue; Tao, Ran; Yang, Yanwu; Xie, Tingting

2017-01-01

This research aims to explore how social communications of online communities affect users’ perception and responses toward social media advertising. We developed a conceptual model based on the SBT, encapsulating 9 constructs and 10 hypothesis extracted from the extant social media advertising literature. Our research outcome proves that social communications can effectively boost users’ behaviors to be in accordance with an online social community, thus facilitate their acceptance and responses toward social media advertising, with users’ group intention as an intervening factor. From an operational standpoint, it’s an effective way to build and maintain social bonds between users and the community by boosting social communications, supporting fluent interpersonal communications. In addition, managers of an online community should elaborate on users’ group intentions to increase users’ advertising acceptance and response. PMID:28855879

Donor Retention in Online Crowdfunding Communities: A Case Study of DonorsChoose.org.

Science.gov (United States)

Althoff, Tim; Leskovec, Jure

2015-05-01

Online crowdfunding platforms like DonorsChoose.org and Kick-starter allow specific projects to get funded by targeted contributions from a large number of people. Critical for the success of crowdfunding communities is recruitment and continued engagement of donors. With donor attrition rates above 70%, a significant challenge for online crowdfunding platforms as well as traditional offline non-profit organizations is the problem of donor retention. We present a large-scale study of millions of donors and donations on DonorsChoose.org, a crowdfunding platform for education projects. Studying an online crowdfunding platform allows for an unprecedented detailed view of how people direct their donations. We explore various factors impacting donor retention which allows us to identify different groups of donors and quantify their propensity to return for subsequent donations. We find that donors are more likely to return if they had a positive interaction with the receiver of the donation. We also show that this includes appropriate and timely recognition of their support as well as detailed communication of their impact. Finally, we discuss how our findings could inform steps to improve donor retention in crowdfunding communities and non-profit organizations.

Anonymity Versus Privacy: Selective Information Sharing in Online Cancer Communities

Science.gov (United States)

Vermeulen, Ivar E; Beekers, Nienke

2014-01-01

Background Active sharing in online cancer communities benefits patients. However, many patients refrain from sharing health information online due to privacy concerns. Existing research on privacy emphasizes data security and confidentiality, largely focusing on electronic medical records. Patient preferences around information sharing in online communities remain poorly understood. Consistent with the privacy calculus perspective adopted from e-commerce research, we suggest that patients approach online information sharing instrumentally, weighing privacy costs against participation benefits when deciding whether to share certain information. Consequently, we argue that patients prefer sharing clinical information over daily life and identity information that potentially compromises anonymity. Furthermore, we explore whether patients’ prior experiences, age, health, and gender affect perceived privacy costs and thus willingness to share information. Objective The goal of the present study is to document patient preferences for sharing information within online health platforms. Methods A total of 115 cancer patients reported sharing intentions for 15 different types of information, demographics, health status, prior privacy experiences, expected community utility, and privacy concerns. Results Factor analysis on the 15 information types revealed 3 factors coinciding with 3 proposed information categories: clinical, daily life, and identity information. A within-subject ANOVA showed a strong preference for sharing clinical information compared to daily life and identity information (F 1,114=135.59, P=.001, η2=.93). Also, adverse online privacy experiences, age, and health status negatively affected information-sharing intentions. Female patients shared information less willingly. Conclusions Respondents’ information-sharing intentions depend on dispositional and situational factors. Patients share medical details more willingly than daily life or identity

Negative Perceptions of Urban Tourism Community in Beijing: Based on Online Comments

OpenAIRE

Ping, Li; Kaiyong, Wang; Tian, Chen; Fuyuan, Wang

2017-01-01

The development of urban tourism community (UTC) will bring new vigor and vitality into the urban sustainable development. There are abundant tourists’ comments about personal experience in UTC in online travel communities, which provide good access to the knowledge of negative perceptions of urban tourism community. Based on online comments, this paper used content analysis method to research tourists’ negative perceptions about five typical tourism communities in Beijing, whereby the common...

Creating a Community of Inquiry in Online Library Instruction

Science.gov (United States)

Rapchak, Marcia E.

2017-01-01

According to the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000), an enriching educational experience online in a collaborative learning environment requires three interdependent elements: social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence. Social presence provides interaction in the online environment that allows…

Learning within Incoherent Structures: The Space of Online Discussion Forums.

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, Matthew J. W.

2002-01-01

Presents results from a study of undergraduate students' learning outcomes and patterns of interaction within an online discussion forum. Topics include social dynamics of computer-mediated communication versus face-to-face communication; cognitive engagement; critical and reflective thinking; and student interaction. (Author/LRW)

Assessing the Overall Value of an Online Writing Community

Science.gov (United States)

Mohapatra, Sanjay; Mohanty, Sukriti

2017-01-01

The advent of internet has brought in changes to many existing stable business models. With the technological shift, the concept of community writing has undergone several changes. Using a sample of 181 participants, it was found that online community, of late, has been greatly impacted by technology. Community writing involves amalgamation of…

A pedagogical design pattern framework for sharing experiences and enhancing communities of practice within online and blended learning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

May, Michael; Neutszky-Wulff, Chresteria; Rosthøj, Susanne

2016-01-01

for teachers at the University of Copenhagen a new and simpler pedagogical design pattern framework was developed for interfaculty sharing of experiences and enhancing communities of practice in relation to online and blended learning across the university. The framework of pedagogical design patterns were...... applied to describe the learning design in four online and blended learning courses within different academic disciplines: Classical Greek, Biostatistics, Environmental Management in Europe, and Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation. Future perspectives for using the framework for developing...... new E-learning patterns for online and blended learning courses are discussed....

Developing leadership practices in hospital-based nurse educators in an online learning community.

Science.gov (United States)

Stutsky, Brenda J; Spence Laschinger, Heather K

2014-01-01

Hospital-based nurse educators are in a prime position to mentor future nurse leaders; however, they need to first develop their own leadership practices. The goal was to establish a learning community where hospital-based nurse educators could develop their own nursing leadership practices within an online environment that included teaching, cognitive, and social presence. Using a pretest/posttest-only nonexperimental design, 35 nurse educators from three Canadian provinces engaged in a 12-week online learning community via a wiki where they learned about exemplary leadership practices and then shared stories about their own leadership practices. Nurse educators significantly increased their own perceived leadership practices after participation in the online community, and teaching, cognitive, and social presence was determined to be present in the online community. It was concluded that leadership development can be enhanced in an online learning community using a structured curriculum, multimedia presentations, and the sharing and analysis of leadership stories. Educators who participated should now be better equipped to role model exemplary leadership practices and mentor our nurse leaders of the future.

Healthy living in Nunavut: an on-line nutrition course for inuit communities in the Canadian arctic.

Science.gov (United States)

Hamilton, Sue; Martin, Jeff; Guyot, Melissa; Trifonopoulos, Mary; Caughey, Amy; Chan, Hing Man

2004-09-01

It is recognized that empowerment of Indigenous Peoples through training and education is a priority. The objective was to design a course that would provide an innovative training approach to targeted workers in remote communities and enhance learning related to the Nunavut Food Guide, traditional food and nutrition, and diabetes prevention. A steering committee was established at the outset of the project with representation from McGill University and the Government of Nunavut (including nutritionists, community nurses and community health representatives (CHRs), as well as with members of the target audience. Course content and implementation, as well as recruitment of the target audience, were carried out with guidance from the steering committee. An 8-week long course was developed for delivery in January - March, 2004. Learning activities included presentation of the course content through stories, online self-assessment quizzes, time-independent online discussions and telephone-based discussions. Invitations were extended to all prenatal nutrition program workers, CHRs, CHR students, home-care workers, Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative workers and public health nurses in Nunavut. Ninety-six health-care workers registered for Healthy Living in Nunavut, with 44 actively participating, 23 with less active participation and 29 who did not participate. Despite having to overcome numerous technological, linguistic and cultural barriers, approximately 40% of registrants actively participated in the online nutrition course. The internet may be a useful medium for delivery of information to target audiences in the North.

Study on Online Hotel Reservation Systems

OpenAIRE

Alleweldt, Frank; Tonner, Klaus; McDonald, Marc

2009-01-01

This study, conducted by Civic Consulting, looks at both pre-contractual and contractual matters concerning online hotel reservation systems, examines relevant Community rules, identifies gaps and, where needed, discusses possible policy options. Key conclusions The study shows that the impact of Community law on online hotel

Online community source of new knowledge, practices for Africa's ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

29 avr. 2016 ... The online network connects rural broadcasters to their peers and to a wealth of useful resources and information. The broadcasters can then package and relay that information through their own programming. Barza3.png. Officially launched in November 2011, the Barza online community now more than ...

Anonymity versus privacy: Selective information sharing in online cancer communities

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Frost, J.H.; Vermeulen, I.E.; Beekers, N.

2014-01-01

Background: Active sharing in online cancer communities benefits patients. However, many patients refrain from sharing health information online due to privacy concerns. Existing research on privacy emphasizes data security and confidentiality, largely focusing on electronic medical records. Patient

Student Interactions in Online Discussion Forum: Empirical Research from "Media Richness Theory" Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Balaji, M. S.; Chakrabarti, Diganta

2010-01-01

The present study contributes to the understanding of the effectiveness of online discussion forum in student learning. A conceptual model based on "theory of online learning" and "media richness theory" was proposed and empirically tested. We extend the current understanding of media richness theory to suggest that use of…

The danger of engagement: Behavioral observations of online community activity and service spending in the online gaming

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kaptein, M.C.; Parvinen, P.; Pöyri, E.

2015-01-01

Research indicates that customer engagement in online communities has positive effects on related businesses, and that, on an aggregated level, community activity and service spending are positively related. Therefore, marketing efforts tend to focus on promoting the community activity of customers.

Using Television Sitcoms to Facilitate Asynchronous Discussions in the Online Communication Course

Science.gov (United States)

Tolman, Elizabeth; Asbury, Bryan

2012-01-01

Asynchronous discussions are a useful instructional resource in the online communication course. In discussion groups students have the opportunity to actively participate and interact with students and the instructor. Asynchronous communication allows for flexibility because "participants can interact with significant amounts of time between…

Analysis of Superposters' Motives for Participating in Online Forum Discussions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Irena Miljković Krečar

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The main aim of this study was to identify factors which motivate daily participation of extremely active online forum members. An extensive online questionnaire was constructed and sent to the Forum.hr members with more than 8,000 posts. The final sample consisted of 112 respondents. Principal components analysis provided an interpretable three components solution, explaining 54.6% of the item variance. The components were labelled as self-esteem, information exchange, and confrontation. Some significant differences were also found among motivational subscales and variables of gender, age, and the intensity of forum activity. Results are discussed in relation to previous research.

Exploring the relation between online case-based discussions and learning outcomes in dental education.

Science.gov (United States)

Koole, Sebastiaan; Vervaeke, Stijn; Cosyn, Jan; De Bruyn, Hugo

2014-11-01

Online case-based discussions, parallel to theoretical dental education, have been highly valued by students and supervisors. This study investigated the relation between variables of online group discussions and learning outcomes. At Ghent University in Belgium, undergraduate dental students (years two and three) are required to participate in online case-based discussion groups (five students/group) in conjunction with two theoretical courses on basic periodontics and related therapy. Each week, a patient case is discussed under supervision of a periodontist, who authored the case and performed the treatment. Each case includes treatment history and demand, intra- and extraoral images, and full diagnostic information with periodontal and radiographic status. For this retrospective study, data were obtained for all 252 students in forty-three discussion groups between 2009 and 2012. Spearman's rank correlations were calculated to investigate the relation among group dynamics (number of group posts and views), individual student contributions (number of individual posts, newly introduced elements, questions, and reactions to other posts), supervisors' interventions (number of posts and posed questions), and learning outcomes (examination result). The results showed that learning outcomes were significantly related to the number of student posts (Spearman's rho (ρ)=0.19), newly introduced elements (ρ=0.21), reactions to other posts (ρ=0.14), number of supervisors' interventions (ρ=0.12), and supervisors' questions (ρ=0.20). These results suggest that individual student contributions during online case-based discussions and the provided supervision were related to learning outcomes.

Empowerment of patients in online discussions about medicine use.

Science.gov (United States)

van Berkel, Jasper J; Lambooij, Mattijs S; Hegger, Ingrid

2015-04-08

Patient empowerment is crucial in the successful self-management of people with chronic diseases. In this study, we investigated whether discussions about medicine use taking place on online message boards contribute to patient empowerment and could subsequently result in the more effective use of medicines. We discuss the extent to which patient empowerment processes occur in discussions on online message boards, focusing on patients with three disorders with different characteristics: diabetes, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Because information is an important factor in both patient empowerment and self-management, we also evaluate the quality of the information being exchanged. We used a deductive thematic analysis method based on pre-existing categories. We gathered and analysed 5532 posts related to the conditions ADHD, ALS and diabetes from seven message boards (three for ADHD, three for diabetes, and one for ALS). We coded the posts for empowerment processes and the quality of the information exchanged. We identified patient empowerment processes in posts related to all three disorders. There is some variation in the frequency of these processes, but they show a similar order in the results: patients used the online message boards to exchange information, share personal experiences and for empathy or support. The type of information shared in these processes could contribute to the patient's self-efficacy when it comes to medicine use. The exchanged information was either correct or largely harmless. We also observed a tendency whereby participants correct previously posted incorrect information, and refer people to a healthcare professional following a request for medical advice, e.g. concerning the choice of medicines or dosage. Our findings show that patient empowerment processes occur in posts related to all three disorders. The type of information shared in these processes can contribute to the

On-line case discussion assessment in ultrasound: The effect on student centred and inter-professional learning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harrison, G.; Mulloy, B.; Harris, A.; Flinton, D.

2012-01-01

In 2009 an asynchronous on-line case discussion assessment was introduced, to replace an existing traditional case study assessment, within the Medical Ultrasound Programmes at City University London, to help extend collaborative, inter-professional student-led learning skills. Two clinical modules were used to develop the on-line learning method with associated assessments. Students selected and led a clinical case from their department, uploaded anonymised images and case details with questions, to encourage interaction from other colleagues. Thirty students participated in the on-line case discussions. The assessment was evaluated via informal feedback, end of module feedback and an on-line questionnaire. Some students completed two modules, using the on-line discussion, others were involved in only one module, of which 21 out of 26 students completed end of module feedback for the 1st module and 18 out of 20 students completed feedback from the 2nd module. Twelve students out of 30 completed the on-line questionnaire. Feedback suggested that the on-line case discussions were a good learning tool, providing a wide range of cases for students to participate in or read and learn from each other. All students found the cases interesting, engaging and useful, but time consuming. Despite the small numbers involved, useful feedback was provided to assist further development of the assessment, particularly in relation to the number of cases being assessed and length of availability. On-line case discussions are an innovative, engaging method to encourage self directed, collaborative learning which could be utilised in the health care setting to share interesting cases, promote inter-professional and self-directed learning.

The Social Ties That Bind. Online Treasures

Science.gov (United States)

Balas, Janet L.

2006-01-01

This article discusses how, in the new world of the information age, libraries must seek to bring relevant services to their technically savvy patrons. This includes designing a library that can serve not only the geographic community, but also the virtual online community. Software used to create online communities is known as social software and…

Influencing consumer engagement in online customer communities: The role of interactivity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mercy Mpinganjira

2016-08-01

Originality and value of research: Little research exists on consumer engagement, resulting in limited understanding of the concept as well as its antecedents. Focusing on online customer communities, this article contributes to addressing this gap in literature. Managers of online customer communities can use the findings to monitor levels of consumer engagement on their sites and find ways of enhancing it.

Online extremism and the communities that sustain it: Detecting the ISIS supporting community on Twitter

Science.gov (United States)

Joseph, Kenneth; Carley, Kathleen M.

2017-01-01

The Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (ISIS) continues to use social media as an essential element of its campaign to motivate support. On Twitter, ISIS’ unique ability to leverage unaffiliated sympathizers that simply retweet propaganda has been identified as a primary mechanism in their success in motivating both recruitment and “lone wolf” attacks. The present work explores a large community of Twitter users whose activity supports ISIS propaganda diffusion in varying degrees. Within this ISIS supporting community, we observe a diverse range of actor types, including fighters, propagandists, recruiters, religious scholars, and unaffiliated sympathizers. The interaction between these users offers unique insight into the people and narratives critical to ISIS’ sustainment. In their entirety, we refer to this diverse set of users as an online extremist community or OEC. We present Iterative Vertex Clustering and Classification (IVCC), a scalable analytic approach for OEC detection in annotated heterogeneous networks, and provide an illustrative case study of an online community of over 22,000 Twitter users whose online behavior directly advocates support for ISIS or contibutes to the group’s propaganda dissemination through retweets. PMID:29194446

"The Next Level": Investigating Teaching and Learning within an Irish Traditional Music Online Community

Science.gov (United States)

Kenny, Ailbhe

2013-01-01

Online music communities offer a new context and culture for musical participation globally. This article, employing a socio-cultural theoretical lens, examines how the Online Academy of Irish Music (OAIM) functions as a teaching and learning online community for Irish traditional music. Findings from qualitative case study research present…

The Development of a Community Feeling Scale toward Online Distance Education Environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hale Ilgaz

2009-11-01

members and satisfaction about the group activities (Rovai, 2000. By increasing the numbers and qualities of interactions in distance education programs, the community feeling in online mediums can be improved.By this aim the scale, which was based on Rovai, Wighting and Lucking's (2004 study, validity and reliability analyzes has been executed. The scale has been developed by the data which were obtained from 571 of the freshmen of the Ankara University Distance Education Program of Completion of Undergraduate in Faculty of Theology in 2007-2008 terms. At the end of the analysis the scale has been finalized with 6 items under 2 factors. As a result, in order to determine the community feeling of the learners who were registered to online distance education environments, a scale has been developed with validity and reliability studies. It is founded that keeping interaction between students by various tools such as discussion boards, chat modules or e-mails is important about prevention of students from social isolation, not being a member of the group in online distance education environments. The students who are being in interaction with each others will be more willing to participate in learning activities and won‟t tend to drop out as a result of feeling of alienation. This situation will affect students‟ achievement and satisfaction in a positive way.

Determinants of Success for Online Communities: An Analysis of Three Communities in Terms of Members' Perceived Professional Development

Science.gov (United States)

Hew, Khe Foon

2009-01-01

Recent empirical evidence suggests that the updated DeLone and McLean's information systems (D&M IS) model can identify the determinants of success of online communities in terms of member loyalty (Lin and Lee 2006). This study is similarly concerned with the challenge of identifying the determinants of success of online communities, but it…

Student Perceptions of a Successful Online Collaborative Learning Community

Science.gov (United States)

Waugh, Michael L.; Su, Jian

2016-01-01

This paper shares the perceptions of a group of 11 successful online students regarding the value of the collaborative learning community that developed as part of their participation in the first cohort of the WebIT online Master of Science Degree in Instructional Technology program, at The University of Tennessee at Knoxville during 2008-2010.…

Benefits of peer support in online Japanese breast cancer communities: differences between lurkers and posters.

Science.gov (United States)

Setoyama, Yoko; Yamazaki, Yoshihiko; Namayama, Kazuhiro

2011-12-29

Web 2.0 has improved interactions among peers on the Internet, especially for the many online patient communities that have emerged over the past decades. Online communities are said to be particularly beneficial peer support resources for patients with breast cancer. However, most studies of online patient communities have focused on those members who post actively (posters), even though there are many members who participate without posting (lurkers). In addition, little attention has been paid to the usage of online communities among non-English-speaking patients. The present study explored the differences in peer support received by lurkers and posters in online breast cancer communities. It also examined the effects of such support on both groups' mental health. We conducted an exploratory, descriptive, cross-sectional, Web-based survey among members of four Japanese online breast cancer communities. In an online questionnaire, we asked questions regarding sociodemographics, disease-related characteristics, mental health, participation in online communities, and peer support received from those communities. Of the 465 people who accessed the questionnaire, 253 completed it. Of the respondents, 113/220 (51.4%) were lurkers. There was no significant difference between lurkers and posters with regard to sociodemographic variables. About half of the posters had been given a diagnosis of breast cancer less than a year previously, which was a significantly shorter period than that of the lurkers (P = .02). The 5 support functions extracted by factor analysis were the same for both posters and lurkers. These were emotional support/helper therapy, emotional expression, conflict, advice, and insight/universality. When the support scores were calculated, insight/universality scored highest for both posters and lurkers, with scores that were not significantly different between the two groups. Among the 5 support scores, emotional support/helper therapy and emotional

Community Colleges and Underappreciated Assets: Using Institutional Data to Promote Success in Online Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Hachey, Alyse; Conway, Katherine; Wladis, Claire

2013-01-01

Adapting to the 21st century, community colleges are not adding brick and mortar to meet enrollment demands. Instead, they are expanding services through online learning, with at least 61% of all community college students taking online courses today (Pearson, 2011). As online learning is affording alternate pathways to education for students, it…

Einstein girls: Exploring STEM careers, interest, and identity in an online mentoring community

Science.gov (United States)

Scott, Jill Rice

The purpose of this project was to create and study an online mentoring community that connected fifth and sixth grade girls and female STEM mentors. The project was designed to give girls who were interested in science the chance to communicate online with women who were successful STEM professionals. The community provided the girls a venue to ask the women questions about their careers, their interests, and their science identities. Through this venue the girls were able to explore various STEM careers, be exposed to role models, and potentially increase their interest in science for the future. Mentoring has been shown to have a positive impact on girls and help improve their attitudes toward science and interests in STEM. The project examined the nature of the online mentoring process as well as the participants' perceptions of the opportunities and constraints of the community. The girls were members of an afterschool academy and the mentoring took place through the Internet using a secure educational social networking program. The program spanned a four-week period between April and May 2013. The main purpose of this study was formative since online mentoring is a relatively new area of research. This investigation produced detailed accounts of activities between the girls and the mentors. Findings revealed that the participants approached the community uniquely and explored many aspects of career exploration, STEM interest, and science identity. The participants also identified what they perceived as the opportunities afforded by the community as well as the constraints posed by the community. The research represented by this study was practitioner research with the work connecting theory with practice. The knowledge gained through the intentional reflection on and study of the Einstein Girls online mentoring community was useful in the production of knowledge that is transformative for the researcher's professional practice and transferable to other

Expanding the Traditional Physiology Class with Asynchronous Online Discussions and Collaborative Projects

Science.gov (United States)

Taradi, Suncana Kukolja; Taradi, Milan

2004-01-01

Discussion and writing are very powerful ways to support learning. This article describes the use of a free, synchronous online forum to expand student-teacher discussions beyond the time/place constraints of the physical physiology classroom. The main participants were medical students enrolled in physiology class at the University of Zagreb…

Collective Value Creation and Empowerment in an Online Brand Community: A Netnographic Study on LEGO Builders

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pekka Tuominen

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Online communities are becoming “places” of belonging, information, and emotional support that people cannot do without. These social groups have a real existence for their participants, and thus have consequential effects on many aspects of behaviour. This article examines collective value creation and empowerment in an online brand community. It presents the main features of an online brand community, the process of value co-creation, and motivators for participating in online brand communities. These key factors jointly characterize collective value creation and empowerment. This netnographic study focuses on an online brand community called BrickBuilders, which is a meeting place for LEGO builders in Finland. BrickBuilders’ members feel a sense of belonging, they share similar motivations, and they create value together.

Designing, Supporting, and Sustaining an Online Community of Practice: NASA EPO Workspace as an Ongoing Exploration of the Value of Community

Science.gov (United States)

Davey, B.; Davis, H. B.

2015-12-01

Increasingly, geographically diverse organizations, like NASA's Science Mission Directorate Education and Public Outreach personnel (SMD EPO), are looking for ways to facilitate group interactions in meaningful ways while limiting costs. Towards this end, of particular interest, and showing great potential are communities of practice. Communities of practice represent relationships in real-time between and among people sharing a common practice. They facilitate the sharing of information, building collective knowledge, and growing of the principles of practice. In 2010-11, SMD EPO established a website to support EPO professionals, facilitate headquarters reporting, and foster a community of practice. The purpose of this evaluation is to examine the design and use of the workspace and the value created for both individual community members and SMD EPO, the sponsoring organization. The online workspace was launched in 2010-11 for the members of NASA's SMDEPO community. The online workspace was designed to help facilitate the efficient sharing of information, be a central repository for resources, help facilitate and support knowledge creation, and ultimately lead to the development of an online community of practice. This study examines the role of the online workspace component of a community in the work of a community of practice. Much has been studied revealing the importance of communities of practice to organizations, project success, and knowledge management and some of these same successes hold true for virtual communities of practice. Additionally, we look at the outcomes of housting the online community for these past years in respect to knowledge building and personal and organizational value, the affects on professional dvelopment opportunities, how community members have benefited, and how the workspace has evolved to better serve the community.

Finding the community in sustainable online community engagement: Not-for-profit organisation websites, service-learning and research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alice Dodd

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This article explores the use of action research (2008–2014 based on a case study of the Sustainable Online Community Engagement (SOCE Project, a service-learning project in which University of South Australia students build websites for not-for-profit (NFP organisations, to demonstrate that effective teaching, public service and research are interdependent. A significant problem experienced in the SOCE project was that, despite some training and ongoing assistance, the community organisations reported that they found it difficult to make effective use of their websites. One of the proposed solutions was to develop an online community of the participating organisations that would be self-supporting, member-driven and collaborative, and enable the organisations to share information about web-based technology. The research reported here explored the usefulness of developing such an online community for the organisations involved and sought alternative ways to assist the organisations to maintain an effective and sustainable web presence. The research used a three-phase ethnographic action research approach. The first phase was a content analysis and review of the editing records of 135 organisational websites hosted by the SOCE project. The second phase was an online survey sent to 145 community organisation members responsible for the management of these websites, resulting in 48 responses. The third phase consisted of semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 18 of the website managers from 12 of these organisations. The research revealed the extent to which organisations were unable to manage their websites and found that the proposed solution of an online community would not be useful. More importantly, it suggested other useful strategies which have been implemented. In Furco’s (2010 model of the engaged campus, public engagement can be used to advance the public service, teaching and research components of higher education’s tripartite

Participant Perceptions of an Online Discussion among University Students in Israel, Taiwan and the United States

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Zimmerman, Lynn W.

2010-01-01

This study examines whether and how online discussions used in learning situations help to develop interactive intercultural communication. Undergraduate university students in the US, Taiwan, and Israel engaged in an online discussion about gender stereotypes. This study examines their perceptions of the interactions. There were 31 undergraduate…

Community of Inquiry and Video in Higher Education: Engaging Students Online

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Conrad, Oliver

2015-01-01

The purpose of this literature review was to explore how video technology can be effectively used in an online classroom setting. The author found and cited online journals with information about the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework. He further explored specific sources that could give readers an idea how online video technology can affect…

The danger of engagement : Behavioral observations of online community activity and service spending in the online gaming context

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kaptein, M.C.; Parvinen, Petri; Poyry, Essi

2016-01-01

Research indicates that customer engagement in online communities has positive effects on related businesses, and that, on an aggregated level, community activity and service spending are positively related. Therefore, marketing efforts tend to focus on promoting the community activity of customers.

Retention of community college students in online courses

Science.gov (United States)

Krajewski, Sarah

The issue of attrition in online courses at higher learning institutions remains a high priority in the United States. A recent rapid growth of online courses at community colleges has been instigated by student demand, as they meet the time constraints many nontraditional community college students have as a result of the need to work and care for dependents. Failure in an online course can cause students to become frustrated with the college experience, financially burdened, or to even give up and leave college. Attrition could be avoided by proper guidance of who is best suited for online courses. This study examined factors related to retention (i.e., course completion) and success (i.e., receiving a C or better) in an online biology course at a community college in the Midwest by operationalizing student characteristics (age, race, gender), student skills (whether or not the student met the criteria to be placed in an AFP course), and external factors (Pell recipient, full/part time status, first term) from the persistence model developed by Rovai. Internal factors from this model were not included in this study. Both univariate analyses and multivariate logistic regression were used to analyze the variables. Results suggest that race and Pell recipient were both predictive of course completion on univariate analyses. However, multivariate analyses showed that age, race, academic load and first term were predictive of completion and Pell recipient was no longer predictive. The univariate results for the C or better showed that age, race, Pell recipient, academic load, and meeting AFP criteria were predictive of success. Multivariate analyses showed that only age, race, and Pell recipient were significant predictors of success. Both regression models explained very little (<15%) of the variability within the outcome variables of retention and success. Therefore, although significant predictors were identified for course completion and retention, there are still

A Supervised Machine Learning Study of Online Discussion Forums about Type-2 Diabetes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Reichert, Jonathan-Raphael; Kristensen, Klaus Langholz; Mukkamala, Raghava Rao

2017-01-01

supervised machine learning techniques to analyze the online conversations. In order to analyse these online textual conversations, we have chosen four domain specific models (Emotions, Sentiment, Personality Traits and Patient Journey). As part of text classification, we employed the ensemble learning...... method by using 5 different supervised machine learning algorithms to build a set of text classifiers by using the voting method to predict most probable label for a given textual conversation from the online discussion forums. Our findings show that there is a high amount of trust expressed by a subset...

Being an online celebrity: Norms and expectations of YouTube’s beauty community

OpenAIRE

García-Rapp, Florencia; Roca-Cuberes, Carles

2017-01-01

This paper is based on 22 months of online fieldwork examining YouTube’s beauty community, specifically the beauty guru Bubz, her uploaded content, and user comments. We aim to conceptualize central community-specific dynamics and practices, particularly those related to self-presentation and identity management and their affordances for legitimized online popularity. We explain how the guru’s successful online persona is based on a performative blend of relatable, down-to-earth values paired...

A Peek into the Life of Online Learning Discussion Forums: Implications for Web-Based Distance Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Allan, Mary

2004-01-01

Supporting quality learning in online discussion forums is an intricate task, particularly for e-tutors aspiring to facilitate vigorous interactive learning environments. I argue that the key to successful online discussion forums is the ability of e-tutors to provide learners with feedback well informed in the meaning making and knowledge…

Content-specific network analysis of peer-to-peer communication in an online community for smoking cessation.

Science.gov (United States)

Myneni, Sahiti; Cobb, Nathan K; Cohen, Trevor

2016-01-01

Analysis of user interactions in online communities could improve our understanding of health-related behaviors and inform the design of technological solutions that support behavior change. However, to achieve this we would need methods that provide granular perspective, yet are scalable. In this paper, we present a methodology for high-throughput semantic and network analysis of large social media datasets, combining semi-automated text categorization with social network analytics. We apply this method to derive content-specific network visualizations of 16,492 user interactions in an online community for smoking cessation. Performance of the categorization system was reasonable (average F-measure of 0.74, with system-rater reliability approaching rater-rater reliability). The resulting semantically specific network analysis of user interactions reveals content- and behavior-specific network topologies. Implications for socio-behavioral health and wellness platforms are also discussed.

The hidden moderator – Exploring the roles of tuo’er in intra-firm R&D online communities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li-Ying, Jason; Zhang, Zhinan; Long, Qing

knowledge sharing and innovation within intra-firm online R&D communities. Just like those in a market place, tuo’er in online knowledge shari ng communities also have a mandate to mislead other regular community members by creating a bandwagon effect. However, their intention to facilitate online knowledge...... for the effective use of online knowledge sharing communiti es by firms. An in-depth case study with multiple data sources is conducted in China in a longitudinal fashion....

A Tale of Blue Rain Cafe: A Study on the Online Narrative Construction about a Community of English Learners on the Chinese Mainland

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Gao, Xuesong

2007-01-01

The study analyzes a strand of online discussion messages entitled "a Tale of Blue Rain Cafe" from an online community of English learners on the Chinese mainland. The strand of messages was part of the collective reflection made by members of an English learning club on their participation. Using sociocultural learning theory, the paper…

Video diaries on social media: Creating online communities for geoscience research and education

Science.gov (United States)

Tong, V.

2013-12-01

Making video clips is an engaging way to learn and teach geoscience. As smartphones become increasingly common, it is relatively straightforward for students to produce ';video diaries' by recording their research and learning experience over the course of a science module. Instead of keeping the video diaries for themselves, students may use the social media such as Facebook for sharing their experience and thoughts. There are some potential benefits to link video diaries and social media in pedagogical contexts. For example, online comments on video clips offer useful feedback and learning materials to the students. Students also have the opportunity to engage in geoscience outreach by producing authentic scientific contents at the same time. A video diary project was conducted to test the pedagogical potential of using video diaries on social media in the context of geoscience outreach, undergraduate research and teaching. This project formed part of a problem-based learning module in field geophysics at an archaeological site in the UK. The project involved i) the students posting video clips about their research and problem-based learning in the field on a daily basis; and ii) the lecturer building an online outreach community with partner institutions. In this contribution, I will discuss the implementation of the project and critically evaluate the pedagogical potential of video diaries on social media. My discussion will focus on the following: 1) Effectiveness of video diaries on social media; 2) Student-centered approach of producing geoscience video diaries as part of their research and problem-based learning; 3) Learning, teaching and assessment based on video clips and related commentaries posted on Facebook; and 4) Challenges in creating and promoting online communities for geoscience outreach through the use of video diaries. I will compare the outcomes from this study with those from other pedagogical projects with video clips on geoscience, and

Benefits of Peer Support in Online Japanese Breast Cancer Communities: Differences Between Lurkers and Posters

OpenAIRE

Setoyama, Yoko; Yamazaki, Yoshihiko; Namayama, Kazuhiro

2011-01-01

Background Web 2.0 has improved interactions among peers on the Internet, especially for the many online patient communities that have emerged over the past decades. Online communities are said to be particularly beneficial peer support resources for patients with breast cancer. However, most studies of online patient communities have focused on those members who post actively (posters), even though there are many members who participate without posting (lurkers). In addition, little attentio...

The adoption of Firm-Hosted Online Communities: an empirical investigation into the role of service quality and social interactions

Science.gov (United States)

Corkindale, David; Ram, Jiwat; Chen, Howard

2018-02-01

Online communities are a powerful device for collaborative creativity and innovation. Developments in Web 2.0 technologies have given rise to such interactions through firm-hosted online communities (FHOCs) - firm-run online information services that also provide self-help to a community. We devise a model that seeks to explain the factors that encourage people to become members of a FHOC and test the model using structural equation modelling based on data collected from 511 users of a FHOC. The study finds that: (a) an understanding of Perceived Usefulness (PU) plays a mediating role between Behavioural Intention (BI) to adopt FHOC and Trust, as well as Interface design; b) Networking among users has an indirect effect on BI; and c) design of the Interface has a direct influence on BI. A managerial implication is that Networking plays a role in the way supplementary services, including blogs and discussion forums, are perceived. Theoretically, when service quality is decomposed into components such as core services and supplementary services, it also positively influences PU.

Perceptions of veterinary admissions committee members of undergraduate credits earned from community colleges or online compared to traditional 4-year institutions.

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Kogan, L R; Stewart, S M; Schoenfeld-Tacher, R; Hellyer, P W

2015-01-01

Veterinary admission committees are asked to create and implement a fair, reliable, and valid system to select the candidates most likely to succeed in veterinary school from a large pool of applicants. Although numerous studies have explored grade point average (GPA) as a predictive value of later academic success, there has been little attention paid to how and where an applicant acquires his/her undergraduate coursework. Quality of academic program is an important component of applicant files, and it is suggested that the source of a candidate's coursework might influence admissions committee decisions, perhaps even outside of the committee's immediate awareness. Options for undergraduate education include taking classes at a traditional four-year institution, a community college, or online. This study provides an overview of the current state of online courses and community colleges in the US as a foundation to explore the views of veterinary admissions committee members pertaining to coursework completed at traditional residential 4-year schools or at community colleges and whether they are delivered on campus or online (at either type of institution). Survey participants reported a pattern of preference for traditional four-year residential coursework compared to online or community college courses. These results are interesting given the exponential growth of students taking online courses and data showing community colleges are providing a successful gateway to obtaining a four-year degree. This also points to the need for admission committees to discuss potential biases since the information about type of school and/or course may not be consistently available for all applicants. Finally, at a time when admitting a diverse class of students is a goal of many programs, it is of special concern that there are potential biases against courses taken online or from community colleges - venues that tend to draw a more diverse population than traditional 4-year

Perceptions of veterinary admissions committee members of undergraduate credits earned from community colleges or online compared to traditional 4-year institutions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L.R. Kogan

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Veterinary admission committees are asked to create and implement a fair, reliable, and valid system to select the candidates most likely to succeed in veterinary school from a large pool of applicants. Although numerous studies have explored grade point average (GPA as a predictive value of later academic success, there has been little attention paid to how and where an applicant acquires his/her undergraduate coursework. Quality of academic program is an important component of applicant files, and it is suggested that the source of a candidate’s coursework might influence admissions committee decisions, perhaps even outside of the committee’s immediate awareness. Options for undergraduate education include taking classes at a traditional four-year institution, a community college, or online. This study provides an overview of the current state of online courses and community colleges in the US as a foundation to explore the views of veterinary admissions committee members pertaining to coursework completed at traditional residential 4-year schools or at community colleges and whether they are delivered on campus or online (at either type of institution. Survey participants reported a pattern of preference for traditional four-year residential coursework compared to online or community college courses. These results are interesting given the exponential growth of students taking online courses and data showing community colleges are providing a successful gateway to obtaining a four-year degree. This also points to the need for admission committees to discuss potential biases since the information about type of school and/or course may not be consistently available for all applicants. Finally, at a time when admitting a diverse class of students is a goal of many programs, it is of special concern that there are potential biases against courses taken online or from community colleges - venues that tend to draw a more diverse population than

Analysis of an Asynchronous Online Discussion as a Supportive Model for Peer Collaboration and Reflection in Teacher Education

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Mojca Pecar

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Professional development of future teachers is based on connecting theory and practice with the aim of supporting and developing critical, independent, responsible decision-making and active teaching. With this aim we designed a blended learning environment with an asynchronous online discussion, enabling collaboration and reflection even when face-to-face communication was not possible. This paper discusses the constructs of social and cognitive components, reflection and collaborative learning in blended learning environments. It presents the results of a study that was conducted on a sample of pre-service primary school teachers studying at the largest faculty of education in Slovenia. The purpose of the study was to determine the intensity, level and content of students’ posts in the online discussion, how students assess its usefulness, and whether there are differences in the assessment of goals achieved in teaching practice between the students who were included in the online discussion and those who were not. We found that in the sub-groups where communication between students participating in the online discussion did not develop at the level of interpersonal relations, it also failed to develop at the level of learning. We also found that the online discussion helped the participating students to plan their lessons. In assessing the achieved practical teaching goals, it became obvious that the online discussion had a positive impact on students’ perception about adapting their lessons, as well as on their critical assessment in analysing their teaching.

Community Structure in Online Collegiate Social Networks

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Traud, Amanda; Kelsic, Eric; Mucha, Peter; Porter, Mason

2009-03-01

Online social networking sites have become increasingly popular with college students. The networks we studied are defined through ``friendships'' indicated by Facebook users from UNC, Oklahoma, Caltech, Georgetown, and Princeton. We apply the tools of network science to study the Facebook networks from these five different universities at a single point in time. We investigate each single-institution network's community structure, which we obtain through partitioning the graph using an eigenvector method. We use both graphical and quantitative tools, including pair-counting methods, which we interpret through statistical analysis and permutation tests to measure the correlations between the network communities and a set of characteristics given by each user (residence, class year, major, and high school). We also analyze the single gender subsets of these networks, and the impact of missing demographical data. Our study allows us to compare the online social networks for the five schools as well as infer differences in offline social interactions. At the schools studied, we were able to define which characteristics of the Facebook users correlate best with friendships.

Patient-provider discussion of online health information: results from the 2007 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS).

Science.gov (United States)

Chung, Jae Eun

2013-01-01

Increasing numbers of people have turned to the Internet for health information. Little has been done beyond speculation to empirically investigate patients' discussion of online health information with health care professionals (HCPs) and patients' perception of HCPs' reactions to such discussion. The author analyzed data from the 2007 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) to identify the characteristics of patients (a) who search for health information on the Internet, (b) who discuss the information found on the Internet with HCPs, and (c) who positively assess HCPs' reaction to the online information. Findings show that men were more likely than were women to have a conversation on online information with HCPs. It is unfortunate that patients who had trouble understanding or trusting online health information were no more likely to ask questions to or seek guidance from HCPs. Reactions of HCPs to online information were perceived as particularly negative by certain groups of patients, such as those who experienced poor health and those who had more concerns about the quality of their searched information. Results are discussed for their implications for patient empowerment and patient-HCP relationships.

Investigation of the nature of the church through an analysis of selected email-based Christian online communities

OpenAIRE

Campbell, Heidi A.

2001-01-01

This thesis investigates Christian online communities, with special emphasis on studying the nature of community and cyberspace. The purpose is to identify characteristics of community that individuals are seeking to cultivate in the online setting, showing possible implications for individuals in the "real world" church and offline communities. The key research question is: "What does online communication offer individual Christians and groups of Christians? How is the Interne...

Emotions, Public Opinion, and U.S. Presidential Approval Rates: A 5-Year Analysis of Online Political Discussions

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Gonzalez-Bailon, Sandra; Banchs, Rafael E.; Kaltenbrunner, Andreas

2012-01-01

This article examines how emotional reactions to political events shape public opinion. We analyze political discussions in which people voluntarily engage online to approximate the public agenda: Online discussions offer a natural approach to the salience of political issues and the means to analyze emotional reactions as political events take…

At Issue: Online Education and the New Community College Student

Science.gov (United States)

Castillo, Marco

2013-01-01

Community colleges are facing a demographic shift in their student bodies with significant consequences for how they can utilize instructional innovations such as online education. On the one hand, community colleges are educating an increasing number of adult learners, with a set of psychological, academic, and personal characteristics that make…

Exploring the Role of `Gendered' Discourse Styles in Online Science Discussions

Science.gov (United States)

Sullivan, Florence R.; Kapur, Manu; Madden, Sandra; Shipe, Stefanie

2015-02-01

In this study, we examined whether gendered discourse styles were evidenced in online, synchronous, physics collaborative learning group discussions, and the extent to which such discourse patterns were related to the uptake of ideas within the group. We defined two discourse styles: the oppositional/direct style, theorized to be the socialized discourse pattern typically used by males, and the aligned/indirect style, theorized to be the socialized discourse pattern typically used by females. Our analysis indicates the presence of both styles in these chats and the styles were generally utilized along theorized, gendered lines. However, we also observed male use of the stereotypically 'feminine' discourse style and female use of the stereotypically 'masculine' discourse style. Moreover, we found no main effect for discourse style on the uptake of ideas. The findings indicate that, contrary to prior research in both face-to-face science classroom settings and online physics settings, ideas were taken up at relatively similar rates regardless of the gendered discourse style employed. Design implications of this study are discussed and suggestions for future research are made.

From Confrontation to Understanding: In/exclusion of Alternative Voices in Online Discussion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tamara Witschge

2011-05-01

Full Text Available This article examines the potential and limitations of the internet’s use for democratic debate. Academic literature on the potential uses of the internet to enhance democratic discussion in Western democracies almost always falls exclusively on one side of the optimist/pessimist divide. This article responds to the need for more situated knowledge, using an in-depth critical discourse analysis of the public debate on immigration in the Netherlands. The Dutch public debate on immigration and integration has been dominated in the past decade by a sense of deep ideological differences. The analysis conducted in this article reveals the power relations between the dominant and alternative discourses on immigration. It shows the ways in which online alternative voices deemed too radical by the mainstream public are excluded from participation in the public debate. The paper furthermore addresses the potential for understanding and for meaningful interaction across difference and illustrates the role of alternative styles of communication in online discussions. As such it contributes to our understanding of cross-cultural communication as well as that of online interaction. The study, though limited to case studies in the Netherlands, addresses a question relevant beyond the specific case and national context examined: how to establish meaningful interaction in light of difference?

One Happy Union: Infusing Community-Based Learning Projects through Online Instruction

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Jason W.; Kane, Jennifer; Cavanaugh, Terence

2015-01-01

Both community-based learning (CBL) and online learning are popular pedagogical practices, with distinct benefits and issues for teaching and learning. The integration of these practices may seem challenging, but they can be compatible. This article seeks to provide effective examples and support for conducting CBL projects in online courses while…

Speaking as one, but not speaking up : dealing with new moral taint in an occupational online community

OpenAIRE

Vaast, Emmanuelle; Levina, Natalia

2015-01-01

This paper builds a process theory of how participants in an online community deal with a new identity threat. Based upon the in-depth, interpretive case study of an online community of retail bankers, it develops a grounded theory that reveals that participants in an online community deal with new taint by protecting their occupation's identity but not by attempting to repair its external image. In the investigated community, reactions progressed from rejecting the taint to distancing from i...

Content and Community Redux: Instructor and Student Interpretations of Online Communication in a Graduate Seminar

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mary E. Dykes

2003-06-01

Full Text Available The experiences of an instructor and teaching assistant who employed online communication strategies in a graduate seminar are examined in this paper. This paper expands on the findings reported in an earlier article on virtual learning communities founded on social constructivist pedagogy (Schwier & Balbar, 2002. We examine how the instructors constructed and refined structured discussions of content with synchronous and asynchronous communication at the graduate level. The instructors offer several observations and principles that are organized into categories that illustrate the source, message, channel and receiver in the communication system. The critical reflections of the instructors are compared with data from interviews with students about learning experienced in the online discussions (Dykes, 2003. Findings include the realization that instructors may fundamentally misinterpret or overlook important elements of communication, but that students are robust learners who can transcend the limitations of the medium and the instructor if given the authority in a social constructivist learning environment.

Understanding a Nonlinear Causal Relationship Between Rewards and Physicians’ Contributions in Online Health Care Communities: Longitudinal Study

Science.gov (United States)

2017-01-01

Background The online health care community is not just a place for the public to share physician reviews or medical knowledge, but also a physician-patient communication platform. The medical resources of developing countries are relatively inadequate, and the online health care community is a potential solution to alleviate the phenomenon of long hospital queues and the lack of medical resources in rural areas. However, the success of the online health care community depends on online contributions by physicians. Objective The aim of this study is to examine the effect of incentive mechanisms on physician’s online contribution behavior in the online health community. We addressed the following questions: (1) from which specialty area are physicians more likely to participate in online health care community activities, (2) what are the factors affecting physician online contributions, and (3) do incentive mechanisms, including psychological and material rewards, result in differences of physician online contributions? Methods We designed a longitudinal study involving a data sample in three waves. All data were collected from the Good Doctor website, which is the largest online health care community in China. We first used descriptive statistics to investigate the physician online contribution behavior in its entirety. Then multiple linear and quadratic regression models were applied to verify the causal relationship between rewards and physician online contribution. Results Our sample included 40,300 physicians from 3607 different hospitals, 10 different major specialty areas, and 31 different provinces or municipalities. Based on the multiple quadratic regression model, we found that the coefficients of the control variables, past physician online contributions, doctor review rating, clinic title, hospital level, and city level, were .415, .189, –.099, –.106, and –.143, respectively. For the psychological (or material) rewards, the standardized

Answers to Health Questions: Internet Search Results Versus Online Health Community Responses.

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Kanthawala, Shaheen; Vermeesch, Amber; Given, Barbara; Huh, Jina

2016-04-28

About 6 million people search for health information on the Internet each day in the United States. Both patients and caregivers search for information about prescribed courses of treatments, unanswered questions after a visit to their providers, or diet and exercise regimens. Past literature has indicated potential challenges around quality in health information available on the Internet. However, diverse information exists on the Internet-ranging from government-initiated webpages to personal blog pages. Yet we do not fully understand the strengths and weaknesses of different types of information available on the Internet. The objective of this research was to investigate the strengths and challenges of various types of health information available online and to suggest what information sources best fit various question types. We collected questions posted to and the responses they received from an online diabetes community and classified them according to Rothwell's classification of question types (fact, policy, or value questions). We selected 60 questions (20 each of fact, policy, and value) and the replies the questions received from the community. We then searched for responses to the same questions using a search engine and recorded the Community responses answered more questions than did search results overall. Search results were most effective in answering value questions and least effective in answering policy questions. Community responses answered questions across question types at an equivalent rate, but most answered policy questions and the least answered fact questions. Value questions were most answered by community responses, but some of these answers provided by the community were incorrect. Fact question search results were the most clinically valid. The Internet is a prevalent source of health information for people. The information quality people encounter online can have a large impact on them. We present what kinds of questions people ask

Online research article discussion board to increase knowledge translation during emergency medicine residency.

Science.gov (United States)

Stoneking, Lisa R; Grall, Kristi H; Min, Alice A; Panchal, Ashish R

2013-01-01

Many clinicians have difficulties reading current best practice journal articles on a regular basis. Discussion boards are one method of online asynchronous learning that facilitates active learning and participation. We hypothesized that an online repository of best practice articles with a discussion board would increase journal article reading by emergency medicine residents. PARTICIPANTS ANSWERED THREE QUESTIONS WEEKLY ON A DISCUSSION BOARD: What question does this study address? What does this study add to our knowledge? How might this change clinical practice? A survey regarding perceived barriers to participating was then distributed. Most participants completed an article summary once or twice in total (23/32, 71.9%). Only three were involved most weeks (3/32, 9.4%) whereas 5/32 (15.6%) participated monthly. The most common barriers were lack of time (20/32, 62.5%), difficulty logging on (7/32, 21.9%), and forgetting (6/32, 18.8%). Although subjects were provided weekly with an article link, email, and feedback, journal article reading frequency did not increase.

A Hybrid Trust-Based Recommender System for Online Communities of Practice

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Zheng, Xiao-Lin; Chen, Chao-Chao; Hung, Jui-Long; He, Wu; Hong, Fu-Xing; Lin, Zhen

2015-01-01

The needs for life-long learning and the rapid development of information technologies promote the development of various types of online Community of Practices (CoPs). In online CoPs, bounded rationality and metacognition are two major issues, especially when learners face information overload and there is no knowledge authority within the…

Designing Online Management Education Courses Using the Community of Inquiry Framework

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Weyant, Lee E.

2013-01-01

Online learning has grown as a program delivery option for many colleges and programs of business. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework consisting of three interrelated elements--social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presences--provides a model to guide business faculty in their online course design. The course design of an online…

FCJ-162 Symbolic violence in the online field: Calls for ‘civility’ in online discussion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shannon Sindorf

2014-04-01

Full Text Available In this paper, I argue that enforcing norms of civility in a deliberative space can be dangerous, as a requirement of civility can be used as a tool to stifle dissent and reinforce existing arrangements of power. I analyse the comments that led to the closing of the online comments board of a community newspaper in Greeley, Colorado in the United States, the editor of the paper’s justification for shutting down commenting, as well as the few comments that made it to the forum in response to the announcement before the commenting function ceased. I find that despite the fact that comments were often rude and insulting, they were performing a vital deliberative democratic function.

Using Social Media to Expand Peer-to-Peer Discussion in an Online Course about Regional Climate Modeling

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Yarker, M. B.; Mesquita, M. D. S.

2015-12-01

The goal of this project is to make knowledge about regional climate modeling accessible to anyone in any location, regardless of their resources. We accomplish this through the development of a free online course, which introduces novice model users to an educational version of the Weather Research and Forecasting model (e-WRF). These courses are grounded in education theory and have been described in detail at prior AGU meetings (Kelsey et al. 2014, Walton et al. 2014, Yarker & Mesquita 2013). Research indicates that effective dialogue is an important component for successful learning to occur and displays the following elements: asking complex questions, deep discussion, and use of evidence to construct arguments (Benus et al. 2013). These can happen between the student and tutor, but peer-to-peer interaction is especially important as well as the most difficult aspect of social constructivism to meet, especially in an online setting. In our online courses, standard course forums were underutilized and generally only used to ask the tutor clarifying questions or troubleshoot error messages. To rectify this problem, we began using social media to facilitate conversation and notice vast improvement in peer-to-peer communication. Moreover, we created a community of over 700 regional climate modelers from around the world, sharing information, asking questions, and creating research projects relating to climate change. Data was gathered by qualitatively analyzing forum and Facebook posts and quantitatively analyzing survey data from participants in both courses. Facebook participants posted on the group more often about a wider variety of topics than the forum participants. Additionally, there were statistically significant increase ('student' t test and Mann-Whitney test) in the elements of effective dialogue. We conclude that social media can serve as a possible tool in the development of online learning, especially for difficult concepts like regional climate

Engaging Communities using a MOOC combined with Public Library Discussions

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Ackerman, S. A.; Mooney, M. E.; Morrill, J.; Handlos, Z.; Morrill, S.

2015-12-01

A massive open online course, or MOOC, is an noncredit education activity that delivers learning content to anyone with access to the Internet. Individual courses are generally free of charge, while a certificate can have small costs. The University of Wisconsin-Madison has exploring the use of MOOC as part of its Wisconsin Idea. In the 2015, a series of MOOCs focusing on the environment were offered via Coursera. One of those MOOCS was "Changing Weather and Climate of the Great Lakes Region." This 4-week course features a new season each week through short lectures and activities covering Great Lakes weather, observed changes in the climate, and societal impacts of climate change. (https://www.coursera.org/course/greatlakesclimate) The MOOC conveyed information from NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS) Weather-Ready Nation initiative as well as findings from the recent National Climate Assessment and the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts (WICCI). The course was organized by members of the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies; material included discussion, videos for lectures as well as guest lecturers. There were also weekly visits by the course team to 21 public libraries throughout the state of WI. The library collaboration as facilitated by WiLS (Wisconsin Library Services - wils.org), who organized the application and selection process. The public libraries hosted local residents and course instructors in discussions of course content in the context of their communities as well as strategies to mitigate the climate change impacts. This presentation will discuss the public library discussions experience and the our evaluation of the impact of including a face-to-face component in the MOOC activity on engagement and learning.

Understanding a Nonlinear Causal Relationship Between Rewards and Physicians' Contributions in Online Health Care Communities: Longitudinal Study.

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Wang, Jying-Nan; Chiu, Ya-Ling; Yu, Haiyan; Hsu, Yuan-Teng

2017-12-21

The online health care community is not just a place for the public to share physician reviews or medical knowledge, but also a physician-patient communication platform. The medical resources of developing countries are relatively inadequate, and the online health care community is a potential solution to alleviate the phenomenon of long hospital queues and the lack of medical resources in rural areas. However, the success of the online health care community depends on online contributions by physicians. The aim of this study is to examine the effect of incentive mechanisms on physician's online contribution behavior in the online health community. We addressed the following questions: (1) from which specialty area are physicians more likely to participate in online health care community activities, (2) what are the factors affecting physician online contributions, and (3) do incentive mechanisms, including psychological and material rewards, result in differences of physician online contributions? We designed a longitudinal study involving a data sample in three waves. All data were collected from the Good Doctor website, which is the largest online health care community in China. We first used descriptive statistics to investigate the physician online contribution behavior in its entirety. Then multiple linear and quadratic regression models were applied to verify the causal relationship between rewards and physician online contribution. Our sample included 40,300 physicians from 3607 different hospitals, 10 different major specialty areas, and 31 different provinces or municipalities. Based on the multiple quadratic regression model, we found that the coefficients of the control variables, past physician online contributions, doctor review rating, clinic title, hospital level, and city level, were .415, .189, -.099, -.106, and -.143, respectively. For the psychological (or material) rewards, the standardized coefficient of the main effect was 0.261 (or 0

Social networking online to recover from opioid use disorder: A study of community interactions.

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D'Agostino, Alexandra R; Optican, Allison R; Sowles, Shaina J; Krauss, Melissa J; Escobar Lee, Kiriam; Cavazos-Rehg, Patricia A

2017-12-01

Social media has increasingly become a venue for health discourse and support, particularly for vulnerable individuals. This study examines user-generated content of an online Reddit community targeting individuals recovering from opiate addiction. 100 Reddit posts and their comments were collected from the online community on August 19, 2016. Posts were qualitatively coded for opioid use disorder (OUD) criteria as outlined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), as well as other common themes. Comments were coded for expression of distinct therapeutic factors (i.e., instillation of hope, universality, imparting information, and altruism). All posts and comments were coded for addiction phase of the author (i.e., using, withdrawing, recovering). 73 unique usernames authored the 100 posts. Among the 73 usernames, 33% (24/73) described enough symptoms in their posts to meet DSM-V criteria for OUD (16/73 or 22% mild severity, 7/73 or 10% moderate severity, and 1/73 or 1% high severity. Among the 100 posts, advice was requested in 43% (43/100) of the posts and support was sought in 24% (24/100) of the posts. There were 511 comments made on the 100 posts, nearly all of which contained at least one distinct therapeutic factor (486/511, 95%) with altruism being the most common (341/511, 67%). This research provides validity to the supportive content generated on an online recovery-oriented community, while also revealing discussions of self-reported struggles with OUD among group members. Future research should explore the feasibility of incorporating social media-based peer support into traditional addiction treatments. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

An online community improves adherence in an internet-mediated walking program. Part 1: results of a randomized controlled trial.

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Richardson, Caroline R; Buis, Lorraine R; Janney, Adrienne W; Goodrich, David E; Sen, Ananda; Hess, Michael L; Mehari, Kathleen S; Fortlage, Laurie A; Resnick, Paul J; Zikmund-Fisher, Brian J; Strecher, Victor J; Piette, John D

2010-12-17

Approximately half of American adults do not meet recommended physical activity guidelines. Face-to-face lifestyle interventions improve health outcomes but are unlikely to yield population-level improvements because they can be difficult to disseminate, expensive to maintain, and inconvenient for the recipient. In contrast, Internet-based behavior change interventions can be disseminated widely at a lower cost. However, the impact of some Internet-mediated programs is limited by high attrition rates. Online communities that allow participants to communicate with each other by posting and reading messages may decrease participant attrition. Our objective was to measure the impact of adding online community features to an Internet-mediated walking program on participant attrition and average daily step counts. This randomized controlled trial included sedentary, ambulatory adults who used email regularly and had at least 1 of the following: overweight (body mass index [BMI] ≥ 25), type 2 diabetes, or coronary artery disease. All participants (n = 324) wore enhanced pedometers throughout the 16-week intervention and uploaded step-count data to the study server. Participants could log in to the study website to view graphs of their walking progress, individually-tailored motivational messages, and weekly calculated goals. Participants were randomized to 1 of 2 versions of a Web-based walking program. Those randomized to the "online community" arm could post and read messages with other participants while those randomized to the "no online community" arm could not read or post messages. The main outcome measures were participant attrition and average daily step counts over 16 weeks. Multiple regression analyses assessed the effect of the online community access controlling for age, sex, disease status, BMI, and baseline step counts. Both arms significantly increased their average daily steps between baseline and the end of the intervention period, but there were no

Structured academic discussions through an online education-specific platform to improve Pharm.D. students learning outcomes.

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Kolluru, Srikanth; Varughese, James T

To facilitate active academic discussions using an online, education-centered platform and reinforce concepts, in order to improve overall course outcomes. A third year integrated pharmacotherapy course was enrolled on an online searchable platform, Piazza®, to facilitate academic discussions. Students could ask, answer, and explore content, and build on submitted answers in wiki style in collaboration. Instructor posted learning objectives, endorsed student responses with correct answers and led follow-up discussions. Review sessions were conducted on this platform before all major exams. A student t-test was used to compare class performance with those of previous years. In a post-activity qualitative survey, most students appreciated the less stressful, online interaction with peers and faculty. For 15 medicinal chemistry course hours, there were 83 posts on Piazza® with 303 total contributions, 107 student responses, and 546min of group discussion time. 94% of questions received student responses and 89% of those were endorsed by the instructor. Students enjoyed pre-exam discussions, organization of the page, and reinforcing material on complex learning objectives. This discussion forum fostered personal exploration of content by the students, which led to better performance on examinations. Involving the use of an online, education-centered platform for student discussions was an effective means of increasing class engagement with the course material. Student performance on exams was significantly improved in both cohorts that utilized active learning compared to the cohort without active learning (p=0.001 and p= 0.002 respectively). Piazza® can be utilized for any course and across disciplines. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Preferences for Internet-Based Mental Health Interventions in an Adult Online Sample: Findings From an Online Community Survey.

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Batterham, Philip J; Calear, Alison L

2017-06-30

Despite extensive evidence that Internet interventions are effective in treating mental health problems, uptake of Internet programs is suboptimal. It may be possible to make Internet interventions more accessible and acceptable through better understanding of community preferences for delivery of online programs. This study aimed to assess community preferences for components, duration, frequency, modality, and setting of Internet interventions for mental health problems. A community-based online sample of 438 Australian adults was recruited using social media advertising and administered an online survey on preferences for delivery of Internet interventions, along with scales assessing potential correlates of these preferences. Participants reported a preference for briefer sessions, although they recognized a trade-off between duration and frequency of delivery. No clear preference for the modality of delivery emerged, although a clear majority preferred tailored programs. Participants preferred to access programs through a computer rather than a mobile device. Although most participants reported that they would seek help for a mental health problem, more participants had a preference for face-to-face sources only than online programs only. Younger, female, and more educated participants were significantly more likely to prefer Internet delivery. Adults in the community have a preference for Internet interventions with short modules that are tailored to individual needs. Individuals who are reluctant to seek face-to-face help may also avoid Internet interventions, suggesting that better implementation of existing Internet programs requires increasing acceptance of Internet interventions and identifying specific subgroups who may be resistant to seeking help. ©Philip J Batterham, Alison L Calear. Originally published in JMIR Mental Health (http://mental.jmir.org), 30.06.2017.

Does social climate influence positive eWOM? A study of heavy-users of online communities.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carla Ruiz-Mafe

2018-01-01

Full Text Available This paper provides a deeper understanding of the role of social influences on positive eWOM behaviour (PeWOM of heavy-users of online communities. Drawing on Social Interaction Utility Framework, Group Marketing and Social Learning Theories, we develop and test a research model integrating the interactions between the social climate of a website and Interpersonal Influences in PeWOM. 262 Spanish heavy-users of online communities were selected and the data analysed using partial least squares equation modelling. Overall, the model explains 59% of the variance of PeWOM on online communities. Findings reveal that interaction with other members of the online community (Social Presence is the main predictor of PeWOM. Social Identity is a mediator between Social Presence and PeWOM. Interpersonal Influence has an important role as a moderator variable; the greater the impact of Interpersonal Influence, the stronger the relationship between Social Presence and PeWOM.

"We make choices we think are going to save us": Debate and stance identification for online breast cancer CAM discussions.

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Zhang, Shaodian; Qiu, Lin; Chen, Frank; Zhang, Weinan; Yu, Yong; Elhadad, Noémie

2017-04-01

Patients discuss complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in online health communities. Sometimes, patients' conflicting opinions toward CAM-related issues trigger debates in the community. The objectives of this paper are to identify such debates, identify controversial CAM therapies in a popular online breast cancer community, as well as patients' stances towards them. To scale our analysis, we trained a set of classifiers. We first constructed a supervised classifier based on a long short-term memory neural network (LSTM) stacked over a convolutional neural network (CNN) to detect automatically CAM-related debates from a popular breast cancer forum. Members' stances in these debates were also identified by a CNN-based classifier. Finally, posts automatically flagged as debates by the classifier were analyzed to explore which specific CAM therapies trigger debates more often than others. Our methods are able to detect CAM debates with F score of 77%, and identify stances with F score of 70%. The debate classifier identified about 1/6 of all CAM-related posts as debate. About 60% of CAM-related debate posts represent the supportive stance toward CAM usage. Qualitative analysis shows that some specific therapies, such as Gerson therapy and usage of laetrile, trigger debates frequently among members of the breast cancer community. This study demonstrates that neural networks can effectively locate debates on usage and effectiveness of controversial CAM therapies, and can help make sense of patients' opinions on such issues under dispute. As to CAM for breast cancer, perceptions of their effectiveness vary among patients. Many of the specific therapies trigger debates frequently and are worth more exploration in future work.

Online discussions mirroring family life during pregnancy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pirkko Kouri

2006-03-01

Conclusions Today, the relationship between clients and professionals is inevitably changing. More online services and advocacy are needed if families are to have access to online health services. The role of professionals is diversifying from being authorities to supporting and facilitating clients' individual self-care. Based on direct client feedback, the quality of maternity care can be improved.

The Effects of Online Communities of Practice on Pre-Service Teachers' Critical Thinking Dispositions

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Ekici, Didem Inel

2017-01-01

This empirical study attempted to investigate the effect of using online communities of practice in teacher education on pre-service teachers' critical thinking dispositions. California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory and the comments posted to the online community of practice were used as the data collection tools. Results showed that…

Blended Learning and Sense of Community: A Comparative Analysis with Traditional and Fully Online Graduate Courses

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fred Rovai and Hope Jordan

2004-08-01

Full Text Available Blended learning is a hybrid of classroom and online learning that includes some of the conveniences of online courses without the complete loss of face-to-face contact. The present study used a causal-comparative design to examine the relationship of sense of community between traditional classroom, blended, and fully online higher education learning environments. Evidence is provided to suggest that blended courses produce a stronger sense of community among students than either traditional or fully online courses.

An Analysis of Peer Review Response Types in Threaded Discussions of an Online Graduate Class

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Molseed, Tim

2011-01-01

The effectiveness of a peer review process for online graduate students is predicated on a balance between "social"- and "task"-directed communications. The defining criteria of learning communities are presented to illustrate the operational meaning of social and the criteria for Critical Thinking used to illustrate the…

Long-Term Condition Self-Management Support in Online Communities: A Meta-Synthesis of Qualitative Papers

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Vassilev, Ivaylo; Kennedy, Anne; Rogers, Anne

2016-01-01

Background Recent years have seen an exponential increase in people with long-term conditions using the Internet for information and support. Prior research has examined support for long-term condition self-management through the provision of illness, everyday, and emotional work in the context of traditional offline communities. However, less is known about how communities hosted in digital spaces contribute through the creation of social ties and the mobilization of an online illness “workforce.” Objective The aim was to understand the negotiation of long-term condition illness work in patient online communities and how such work may assist the self-management of long-term conditions in daily life. Methods A systematic search of qualitative papers was undertaken using various online databases for articles published since 2004. A total of 21 papers met the inclusion criteria of using qualitative methods and examined the use of peer-led online communities for those with a long-term condition. A qualitative meta-synthesis was undertaken and the review followed a line of argument synthesis. Results The main themes identified in relation to the negotiation of self-management support were (1) redressing offline experiential information and knowledge deficits, (2) the influence of modeling and learning behaviors from others on self-management, (3) engagement that validates illness and negates offline frustrations, (4) tie formation and community building, (5) narrative expression and cathartic release, and (6) dissociative anonymity and invisibility. These translated into a line of argument synthesis in which four network mechanisms for self-management support in patient online communities were identified. These were (1) collective knowledge and identification through lived experience; (2) support, information, and engagement through readily accessible gifting relationships; (3) sociability that extends beyond illness; and (4) online disinhibition as a facilitator

Comparing Interactions in Literature Circles in Both Online and in Class Discussions

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Skeen, Christel Ghrist

2014-01-01

Discourse analysis of literature circles can lead educators to understand the different types of interactions taking place as students talk about text. Social and academic interactions exist in both face-to-face and online discussions of reading material. This study examines two different settings of literature circles and compares interactions of…

Classroom Active Learning Complemented by an Online Discussion Forum to Teach Sustainability

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Dengler, Mary

2008-01-01

This paper identifies some of the pedagogical benefits of an active learning course delivery complemented by an online discussion forum to teach sustainability by evaluating the case of a geography master's course. The potential benefits and some challenges of an active learning course delivery to teach sustainability in geography and related…

Stopping Antidepressants and Anxiolytics as Major Concerns Reported in Online Health Communities: A Text Mining Approach.

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Abbe, Adeline; Falissard, Bruno

2017-10-23

Internet is a particularly dynamic way to quickly capture the perceptions of a population in real time. Complementary to traditional face-to-face communication, online social networks help patients to improve self-esteem and self-help. The aim of this study was to use text mining on material from an online forum exploring patients' concerns about treatment (antidepressants and anxiolytics). Concerns about treatment were collected from discussion titles in patients' online community related to antidepressants and anxiolytics. To examine the content of these titles automatically, we used text mining methods, such as word frequency in a document-term matrix and co-occurrence of words using a network analysis. It was thus possible to identify topics discussed on the forum. The forum included 2415 discussions on antidepressants and anxiolytics over a period of 3 years. After a preprocessing step, the text mining algorithm identified the 99 most frequently occurring words in titles, among which were escitalopram, withdrawal, antidepressant, venlafaxine, paroxetine, and effect. Patients' concerns were related to antidepressant withdrawal, the need to share experience about symptoms, effects, and questions on weight gain with some drugs. Patients' expression on the Internet is a potential additional resource in addressing patients' concerns about treatment. Patient profiles are close to that of patients treated in psychiatry. ©Adeline Abbe, Bruno Falissard. Originally published in JMIR Mental Health (http://mental.jmir.org), 23.10.2017.

Gaming out online: Black lesbian identity development and community building in Xbox Live.

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Gray, Kishonna L

2017-11-22

As gaming culture continues to marginalize women and people of color, other gamers are also highlighting the inequalities they face within digital gaming communities. While heterosexism and homophobia are commonplace within gaming culture, little is known about the actual experiences of "gaymers" and even less about "gaymers" of color. As such, this article seeks to explore lesbians of color and their experiences "gayming" out and online. Exploring identity development, community building, and connectivity via social networking, the women within this study articulate what it means to be lesbian online and how this impacts their physical and digital experiences. The private spaces within gaming culture that many marginalized groups inhabit are the few spaces that value the articulation of marginalized interests and viewpoints. Ethnographic observations reveal how supportive communities can improve resilience by mitigating the effects of stereotyping, microaggressions, and other discriminatory practices in online gaming.

Online Discovery and Mapping of Great Lakes Climate Change Education and Scientific Research Activities: Building an Online Collaborative Learning Community of Scientists and Educators

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Tuddenham, P.; Bishop, K.; Walters, H.; Carley, S.

2011-12-01

The Great Lakes Climate Change Science and Education Systemic Network (GLCCSESN) project is an NSF-funded CCEP program awarded to Eastern Michigan University in 2010. The College of Exploration is one of the project partners and has conducted a series of online surveys, workshop and focus group to identify a wide range of organizations, individuals, resources and needs related to climate change education and research activities in and about the Great Lakes Region and to provide information about climate change science to the education community. One of the first steps taken to build this community was to build a web site that features a dynamic online map of individuals and organizations concerned about climate change as well as interested in resources and activities specific to the Great Lakes. Individuals and organizations have been, and are still, invited to put themselves on the map at http://greatlakesclimate.org This map of the Great Lakes region provides both a visual representation of activities and resources as well as a database of climate change activities. This map will grow over time as more people and organizations put themselves on the map. The use of online technologies has helped broaden the participation and representation in the GLCCSESN from all states/provinces in the Great Lakes region, encouraging diverse audiences and stakeholders, including scientists, educators, and journalists, etc.to engage with the project. In the fall of 2011 a combined online professional development workshop and focus group is planned. Educators and scientists working on climate change studies and issues related to the Great Lakes will be sharing their work and expertise in an online workshop and focus group. Following the professional development activity a focus group will be conducted online using a model developed as part of a NSF funded COSEE project. The focus group purpose is to review current educational resources and to identify gaps and needs for further

Choosing your network: social preferences in an online health community.

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Centola, Damon; van de Rijt, Arnout

2015-01-01

A growing number of online health communities offer individuals the opportunity to receive information, advice, and support from peers. Recent studies have demonstrated that these new online contacts can be important informational resources, and can even exert significant influence on individuals' behavior in various contexts. However little is known about how people select their health contacts in these virtual domains. This is because selection preferences in peer networks are notoriously difficult to detect. In existing networks, unobserved pressures on tie formation--such as common organizational memberships, introductions to friends of friends, or limitations on accessibility--may mistakenly be interpreted as individual preferences for interacting/not interacting with others. We address these issues by adopting a social media approach to studying network formation. We study social selection using an in vivo study within an online exercise program, in which anonymous participants have equal opportunities for initiating relationships with other program members. This design allows us to identify individuals' preferences for health contacts, and to evaluate what these preferences imply for members' access to new kinds of health information, and for the kinds of social influences to which they are exposed. The study was conducted within a goal-oriented fitness competition, in which participation was greatest among a small core of active individuals. Our results show that the active participants displayed indifference to the fitness and exercise profiles of others, disregarding information about others' fitness levels, exercise preferences, and workout experiences, instead selecting partners almost entirely on the basis of similarities on gender, age, and BMI. Interestingly, the findings suggest that rather than expanding and diversifying their sources of health information, participants' choices limited the value of their online resources by selecting contacts

Responsibility and Generativity in Online Learning Communities

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Beth, Alicia D.; Jordan, Michelle E.; Schallert, Diane L.; Reed, JoyLynn H.; Kim, Minseong

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether and how students enact "responsibility" and "generativity" through their comments in asynchronous online discussions. "Responsibility" referred to discourse markers indicating participants' sense that their contributions are required in order to uphold their…

A content analysis of an online pro-eating disorder community on Reddit.

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Sowles, Shaina J; McLeary, Monique; Optican, Allison; Cahn, Elizabeth; Krauss, Melissa J; Fitzsimmons-Craft, Ellen E; Wilfley, Denise E; Cavazos-Rehg, Patricia A

2018-03-01

Pro-eating disorder communities provide a refuge for individuals with eating disorders (EDs) who are ambivalent about seeking treatment. We investigated a pro-ED community on Reddit, an anonymous social networking platform with topical forums, to identify expression of behaviors aligned with ED symptoms and support for these behaviors. A content analysis on four weeks of topic-specific discussion threads (N=125 comments, 115 replies to comments) was conducted to identify behaviors consistent with ED psychopathology and support for these behaviors (informational, tangible assistance, esteem/emotional support). Results indicated that the content aligned with expressions of clinically relevant ED psychopathology, with eating concerns (49/125) and shape concerns (47/125) being most prevalent. The majority (92/115) of replies provided esteem/emotional support to the comment author. Online interventions and/or recovery programs are needed to counteract reinforcing dialogue that occurs on social media sites, like Reddit, and promote ED recovery through supportive messages on these platforms. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Inferring Smoking Status from User Generated Content in an Online Cessation Community.

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Amato, Michael S; Papandonatos, George D; Cha, Sarah; Wang, Xi; Zhao, Kang; Cohn, Amy M; Pearson, Jennifer L; Graham, Amanda L

2018-01-22

User generated content (UGC) is a valuable but underutilized source of information about individuals who participate in online cessation interventions. This study represents a first effort to passively detect smoking status among members of an online cessation program using UGC. Secondary data analysis was performed on data from 826 participants in a web-based smoking cessation randomized trial that included an online community. Domain experts from the online community reviewed each post and comment written by participants and attempted to infer the author's smoking status at the time it was written. Inferences from UGC were validated by comparison with self-reported 30-day point prevalence abstinence (PPA). Following validation, the impact of this method was evaluated across all individuals and timepoints in the study period. Of the 826 participants in the analytic sample, 719 had written at least one post from which content inference was possible. Among participants for whom unambiguous smoking status was inferred during the 30 days preceding their 3-month follow-up survey, concordance with self-report was almost perfect (kappa = 0.94). Posts indicating abstinence tended to be written shortly after enrollment (median = 14 days). Passive inference of smoking status from UGC in online cessation communities is possible and highly reliable for smokers who actively produce content. These results lay the groundwork for further development of observational research tools and intervention innovations. © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Joint Interactions in Large Online Knowledge Communities: The A[subscript 3]C Framework

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Jeong, Heisawn; Cress, Ulrike; Moskaliuk, Johannes; Kimmerle, Joachim

2017-01-01

Social interaction is crucial for understanding individual and collective processes in knowledge communities. We describe how technology has changed the way people interact in large communities. Building on this description, we propose a framework that distinguishes four types of joint interactions in online knowledge communities: Attendance,…

“We make choices we think are going to save us”: Debate and stance identification for online breast cancer CAM discussions

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Shaodian; Qiu, Lin; Chen, Frank; Zhang, Weinan; Yu, Yong; Elhadad, Noémie

2017-01-01

Patients discuss complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in online health communities. Sometimes, patients’ conflicting opinions toward CAM-related issues trigger debates in the community. The objectives of this paper are to identify such debates, identify controversial CAM therapies in a popular online breast cancer community, as well as patients’ stances towards them. To scale our analysis, we trained a set of classifiers. We first constructed a supervised classifier based on a long short-term memory neural network (LSTM) stacked over a convolutional neural network (CNN) to detect automatically CAM-related debates from a popular breast cancer forum. Members’ stances in these debates were also identified by a CNN-based classifier. Finally, posts automatically flagged as debates by the classifier were analyzed to explore which specific CAM therapies trigger debates more often than others. Our methods are able to detect CAM debates with F score of 77%, and identify stances with F score of 70%. The debate classifier identified about 1/6 of all CAM-related posts as debate. About 60% of CAM-related debate posts represent the supportive stance toward CAM usage. Qualitative analysis shows that some specific therapies, such as Gerson therapy and usage of laetrile, trigger debates frequently among members of the breast cancer community. This study demonstrates that neural networks can effectively locate debates on usage and effectiveness of controversial CAM therapies, and can help make sense of patients’ opinions on such issues under dispute. As to CAM for breast cancer, perceptions of their effectiveness vary among patients. Many of the specific therapies trigger debates frequently and are worth more exploration in future work. PMID:28967000

On-line Professional Learning Communities: Increasing Teacher Learning and Productivity in Isolated Rural Communities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dora Salazar

2010-08-01

Full Text Available On-line and distance professional learning communities provides teachers with increased access and flexibility as well as the combination of work and education. It also provides a more learner-centered approach, enrichment and new ways of interacting with teachers in isolated rural areas. For educational administrators, on-line learning offers high quality and usually cost-effective professional development for teachers. It allows upgrading of skills, increased productivity and development of a new learning culture. At the same time, it means sharing of costs, of training time, increased portability of training, and the exchange of creativity, information, and dialogue.

A Coding Scheme to Analyse the Online Asynchronous Discussion Forums of University Students

Science.gov (United States)

Biasutti, Michele

2017-01-01

The current study describes the development of a content analysis coding scheme to examine transcripts of online asynchronous discussion groups in higher education. The theoretical framework comprises the theories regarding knowledge construction in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) based on a sociocultural perspective. The coding…

Effectiveness of Using Online Discussion Forum for Case Study Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ravi Seethamraju

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Business schools are exploring new pedagogical approaches to learning in order to deal with challenges such as increased class sizes, limited funding support, and difficulties in facilitating and encouraging active participation and learning among a diverse cohort of students. This paper reports on a study of the effectiveness of a pedagogical approach that blends online discussion board and case study. Analysing quantity and quality of online postings and comparing accounting students’ performance with previous cohort, this study observes a significant improvement in student learning. Appropriate design and delivery strategies and clear assessment criteria for assessment and use have provided an effective learning vehicle for students, helped them overcome their own language related barriers, and encouraged them to participate in a nonthreatening environment. This approach further complemented the benefits of peer-to-peer learning and case study pedagogy. Reported increase in workload for students and marking load for academics and measuring the value of learning, however, are some of the challenges that need further attention by researchers.

Sociocultural Perspective of Science in Online Learning Environments. Communities of Practice in Online Learning Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Erdogan, Niyazi

2016-01-01

Present study reviews empirical research studies related to learning science in online learning environments as a community. Studies published between 1995 and 2015 were searched by using ERIC and EBSCOhost databases. As a result, fifteen studies were selected for review. Identified studies were analyzed with a qualitative content analysis method…

Simulating Social Networks of Online Communities: Simulation as a Method for Sociability Design

Science.gov (United States)

Ang, Chee Siang; Zaphiris, Panayiotis

We propose the use of social simulations to study and support the design of online communities. In this paper, we developed an Agent-Based Model (ABM) to simulate and study the formation of social networks in a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) guild community. We first analyzed the activities and the social network (who-interacts-with-whom) of an existing guild community to identify its interaction patterns and characteristics. Then, based on the empirical results, we derived and formalized the interaction rules, which were implemented in our simulation. Using the simulation, we reproduced the observed social network of the guild community as a means of validation. The simulation was then used to examine how various parameters of the community (e.g. the level of activity, the number of neighbors of each agent, etc) could potentially influence the characteristic of the social networks.

Missed Opportunities for Science Learning: Unacknowledged Unscientific Arguments in Asynchronous Online and Face-to-Face Discussions

Science.gov (United States)

Callis-Duehl, Kristine; Idsardi, Robert; Humphrey, Eve A.; Gougis, Rebekka Darner

2018-02-01

We explored the scientific argumentation that occurs among university biology students during an argumentation task implemented in two environments: face-to-face in a classroom and online in an asynchronous discussion. We observed 10 student groups, each composed of three students. Our analysis focused on how students respond to their peers' unscientific arguments, which we define as assertions, hypotheses, propositions, or explanations that are inaccurate or incomplete from a scientific perspective. Unscientific arguments provide opportunities for productive dissent, scientific argumentation, and conceptual development of scientifically desirable conceptions. We found that students did not respond to the majority of unscientific arguments in both environments. Challenges to unscientific arguments were expressed as a question or through explanation, although the latter was more common online than face-to-face. Students demonstrated significantly more epistemic distancing in the face-to-face environment than the online environment. We discuss the differences in discourse observed in both environments and teaching implications. We also provide direction for future research seeking to address the challenges of engaging students in productive scientific argumentation in both face-to-face and online environments.

The contribution of a MOOC to community discussions around death and dying.

Science.gov (United States)

Tieman, Jennifer; Miller-Lewis, Lauren; Rawlings, Deb; Parker, Deborah; Sanderson, Christine

2018-02-20

Advances in medicine have helped many to live longer lives and to be able to meet health challenges. However death rates are anticipated to increase given the ageing population and chronic disease progression. Being able to talk about death is seen to be important in normalising death as part of life and supporting preparedness for death. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) provide opportunities for the community to engage in collaborative learning. A 5 week MOOC was developed covering four main topics (language and humour, representations of death, medicalisation of dying, and digital dying) aiming: To enable participants to openly and supportively discuss and learn about issues around living, death and dying, To explore the normally unheard opinions and views of Australians around death and dying, and To determine what effect online learning and discussions offered through the MOOC had on participants' feelings and attitudes towards death and dying. Data was captured on engagement rates in the various MOOC activities. Death Attitudes were measured by five items representing the MOOC's learning objectives and completed at enrolment and conclusion. MOOC Satisfaction was measured with six items at the end of the MOOC. Descriptive statistics were produced for each variable and Chi-Square Tests of Independence assessed the extent of the relationship between categorical variables. Socio-demographic variables were examined as predictors of the outcome variables of MOOC engagement, MOOC satisfaction, and death attitudes. Ethical approval was received from Flinders University Social and Behavioural Research Ethics Committee (Project No. 7247). One thousand one hundred fifty six people enrolled in the Dying2Learn MOOC with 895 participating in some way. Enrolees were primarily female (92.1%). Age ranged from 16 to 84 (mean = 49.5, SD = 12.3). MOOC satisfaction scores were high. Responses to the experience of participating in the MOOC were very positive, with mean

Principles for Community College Finance: Discussion Paper.

Science.gov (United States)

Keating, Joseph P.

In preparation for the 1987 demise of the current community college funding mechanism in California, this discussion paper reviews the current fiscal situation in the state and considers the needs that should be addressed in the finance mechanism that would become effective in July 1987. Background information is presented on the history of the…

Bladder cancer discussed on the internet: a systematic analysis of gender differences of initial posters on an online discussion board.

Science.gov (United States)

Lippka, Yannick; Patschan, Oliver; Todenhöfer, Tilmann; Schwentner, Christian; Gutzeit, Andreas; Merseburger, Axel S; Horstmann, Marcus

2013-01-01

To evaluate gender differences of initial posters in threads dealing with bladder cancer on an online discussion board. 529 threads opened between 09/2005 and 03/2012 were screened on the largest German speaking bladder cancer online discussion board. 366 threads fulfilled the requirements for this study. Gender, age, number, status of concern and oncological situation of initiating posters as well as their motives and language style were analyzed following a standardized protocol. Threads were initiated in 45% (164/366) by men and in 55% (202/366) by women. Mean age of male initiating posters was 50 years and of female posters 44 years (p posters asked for medical information or therapeutic recommendations regarding diagnosis, treatment and prognosis. However, women significantly more often expressed their wish for emotional support (p = 0.034) and in tendency wanted to share their experiences with others (p = 0.057). Language analysis revealed that women significantly more often used a tentative language style than men (p = 0.003). Even though women are less often affected by bladder cancer, they are more active -especially for their concerned family members - on the evaluated discussion board than men. Whereas both genders equally often ask for medical information, women more often want to share their experiences and look for emotional support.

Critical and Higher Order Thinking in Online Threaded Discussions in the Slovak Context

Science.gov (United States)

Pisutova-Gerber, Katarina; Malovicova, Jana

2009-01-01

This article describes and analyzes efforts to use collaborative asynchronous discussion forums in a three semester online education program for NGO leaders and managers in Slovakia. Slovakia, as a country with autocratic styles of teacher-centered education, presents strong barriers to the implementation of collaborative learning activities. The…

The Impact of Participation in Online Cancer Communities on Patient Reported Outcomes: Systematic Review.

Science.gov (United States)

van Eenbergen, Mies C; van de Poll-Franse, Lonneke V; Heine, Peter; Mols, Floortje

2017-09-28

In recent years, the question of how patients' participating in online communities affects various patient reported outcomes (PROs) has been investigated in several ways. This study aimed to systematically review all relevant literature identified using key search terms, with regard to, first, changes in PROs for cancer patients who participate in online communities and, second, the characteristics of patients who report such effects. A computerized search of the literature via PubMed (MEDLINE), PsycINFO (5 and 4 stars), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and ScienceDirect was performed. Last search was conducted in June 2017. Studies with the following terms were included: (cancer patient) and (support group or health communities) and (online or Internet). A total of 21 studies were included and independently assessed by 2 investigators using an 11-item quality checklist. The methodological quality of the selected studies varied: 12 were of high quality, eight were of adequate quality, and only one was of low quality. Most of the respondents were women (about 80%), most with breast cancer; their mean age was 50 years. The patients who were active in online support groups were mostly younger and more highly educated than the nonusers. The investigated PROs included general well-being (ie, mood and health), anxiety, depression, quality of life, posttraumatic growth, and cancer-related concerns. Only marginal effects-that is, PRO improvements-were found; in most cases they were insignificant, and in some cases they were contradictory. The main shortcoming of this kind of study is the lack of methodological instruments for reliable measurements. Furthermore, some patients who participate in online communities or interact with peers via Internet do not expect to measure changes in their PROs. If cancer survivors want to meet other survivors and share information or get support, online communities can be a trustworthy and reliable platform to facilitate

Participation in asynchronous online discussion forums does improve student learning of gross anatomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Green, Rodney A; Farchione, Davide; Hughes, Diane L; Chan, Siew-Pang

2014-01-01

Asynchronous online discussion forums are common in blended learning models and are popular with students. A previous report has suggested that participation in these forums may assist student learning in a gross anatomy subject but it was unclear as to whether more academically able students post more often or whether participation led to improved learning outcomes. This study used a path model to analyze the contribution of forum participation, previous academic ability, and student campus of enrolment to final marks in a multicampus gross anatomy course for physiotherapy students. The course has a substantial online learning management system (LMS) that incorporates asynchronous forums as a learning tool, particularly to answer learning objectives. Students were encouraged to post new threads and answer queries in threads started by others. The forums were moderated weekly by staff. Discussion forums were the most used feature of the LMS site with 31,920 hits. Forty-eight percent of the students posted at least once with 186 threads initiated by students and a total of 608 posts. The total number of posts made a significant direct contribution to final mark (P = 0.008) as did previous academic ability (P = 0.002). Although campus did not contribute to final mark, there was a trend for students at the campus where the course coordinator was situated to post more often than those at the other campus (P = 0.073). These results indicate that asynchronous online discussion forums can be an effective tool for improving student learning outcomes as evidenced by final marks in gross anatomy teaching. Copyright © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.

Thinking twice online

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skov, Lene Illum; Albrechtsen, Thomas Rohde Skovdal; Johannesen, Hildegunn Juulsgaard

; Dezuanni, 2015; Lanksheare & Knobel, 2011; Pangrazio,2016; Selwyn, 2011). The concern is here how to help adolescents develop a critical attitude towards language andactions and to participate as a democratic citizen in local,regional, national and global communities (Bundsgaard,2009; 2017). The purpose...... of this paper is to discuss the design of a online learning material with the aim of enhancing young people’s critical digital literacy in a cross-curricular way in Danish public schools. The research question of the paperis the following: - How can an online learning material be designed with the purpose...... of enhancing adolescents’ critical digital literacy? This question will be answered through a case study of a new developed digital learning material called Omtanke Online. Focus in the analysis and discussion of the case will be on the pedagogical reflections on how to develop the digital empowerment...

Dare to share? How people share high-quality knowledge in online communities

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rotundo, Enrico; Blank, M.; Moser, C.; Leopold, H.

The Internet has fundamentally changed how work gets done in the 21st century. For example, people increasingly spend time on the Internet where they share and develop knowledge in online communities. Yet, little is known about how high-quality knowledge comes about in these communities. This is

Perceived Stress in Online Prostate Cancer Community Participants: Examining Relationships with Stigmatization, Social Support Network Preference, and Social Support Seeking.

Science.gov (United States)

Rising, Camella J; Bol, Nadine; Burke-Garcia, Amelia; Rains, Stephen; Wright, Kevin B

2017-06-01

Men with prostate cancer often need social support to help them cope with illness-related physiological and psychosocial challenges. Whether those needs are met depends on receiving support optimally matched to their needs. This study examined relationships between perceived stress, prostate cancer-related stigma, weak-tie support preference, and online community use for social support in a survey of online prostate cancer community participants (n = 149). Findings revealed a positive relationship between stigma and perceived stress. This relationship, however, was moderated by weak-tie support preference and online community use for social support. Specifically, stigma was positively related to perceived stress when weak-tie support was preferred. Analyses also showed a positive relationship between stigma and perceived stress in those who used their online community for advice or emotional support. Health communication scholars should work collaboratively with diagnosed men, clinicians, and online community administrators to develop online interventions that optimally match social support needs.

Mutual support and recovery in the Russian Alcoholics Anonymous online community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lyytikäinen Laura

2016-04-01

Full Text Available AIMS – In Russia the paradigm of alcoholism as a disease is still in contrast to the general perception of alcoholics as weak-willed. This article studies alcoholism and recovery in Russia through the case study of the Russian Alcoholics Anonymous online group. It studies how people who are seeking help for their drinking problems in this online community come to incorporate a new self-understanding of being ill with alcoholism.

Community desires for an online health information strategy.

Science.gov (United States)

Dart, Jared M; Gallois, Cindy

2010-11-01

To determine whether the community's attitudes to components of a community eHealth strategy differ across three different socioeconomic groups. A survey questionnaire was designed and implemented across three different communities. Paper-based surveys were left in community organisations and local health practices in a low socioeconomic community on the outskirts of Ipswich, Queensland (n = 262), a mid-high socioeconomic community in the western suburbs of Brisbane (n = 256) and at a local university (n = 200). Ascribed importance and comfort with proposed components of a community eHealth strategy. A community-oriented health website was perceived as useful in getting access to relevant health information. Those who were most comfortable with accessing online health information were those who were: experienced, had home internet access and were frequent internet users. The most important types of health information for the website were: information about the treatment of conditions, how to manage a chronic illness, how to stay healthy and patient clinical pathways. The low socioeconomic community had different information priorities – all categories were considered more important, particularly information about how the public system operates, local health support groups, and the roles of health professionals. Different communities have different information demands but there is a strong demand for information which empowers community members to take control of their own health and become active participants in their health care. Tools such as a community health portal and patient clinical pathways should become more available.

Online Peer-to-Peer Communities in the Daily Lives of People With Chronic Illness: A Qualitative Systematic Review.

Science.gov (United States)

Kingod, Natasja; Cleal, Bryan; Wahlberg, Ayo; Husted, Gitte R

2017-01-01

This qualitative systematic review investigated how individuals with chronic illness experience online peer-to-peer support and how their experiences influence daily life with illness. Selected studies were appraised by quality criteria focused upon research questions and study design, participant selection, methods of data collection, and methods of analysis. Four themes were identified: (a) illness-associated identity work, (b) social support and connectivity, (c) experiential knowledge sharing, and (d) collective voice and mobilization. Findings indicate that online peer-to-peer communities provide a supportive space for daily self-care related to chronic illness. Online communities provided a valued space to strengthen social ties and exchange knowledge that supported offline ties and patient-doctor relationships. Individuals used online communities to exchange experiential knowledge about everyday life with illness. This type of knowledge was perceived as extending far beyond medical care. Online communities were also used to mobilize and raise collective awareness about illness-specific concerns. © The Author(s) 2016.

Using Biographical Prompts to Build Community in an Online Graduate Course: An Adult Learning Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Lohr, Kathy D.; Haley, Karen J.

2018-01-01

Adult learners are taking advantage of the availability and convenience of online education. Mature learners in online higher education classrooms bring a wealth of experience filtered through cultural, generational, and socioeconomical differences. The purpose of this research was to explore community building in an online graduate course by…

To War or Not? Engaging Middle School Students in an Ongoing Online Discussion

Science.gov (United States)

O'Brien, Joseph; Lawrence, Nicholas; Green, Kori

2014-01-01

In seeking to prepare students to be "citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world," teachers engage students in live, online discussions about what justifies war, while at the same time grappling with the requirements to teach the memorization of people, places and isolated events. Teachers and a…

Social control in online communities of consumption: a framework for community management

OpenAIRE

Sibai, Olivier; de Valck, K.; Farrell, A.M.; Rudd, J.M.

2015-01-01

Online communities of consumption (OCCs) represent highly diverse groups of consumers whose interests are not always aligned. Social control in OCCs aims to effectively manage problems arising from this heterogeneity. Extant literature on social control in OCCs is fragmented as some studies focus on the principles of social control, while others focus on the implementation. Moreover, the domain is undertheorized. This article integrates the disparate literature on social control in OCCs provi...

The Structure of Discussions in an Online Communication Course: What Do Students Find Most Effective?

Science.gov (United States)

Jacobi, Laura

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore the perspectives of students regarding what was effective about the way in which the asynchronous discussions were structured in an upper level online organizational communication course. Surveys from 27 student participants were used, with questions focused upon the structure of discussions in the online…

Discourse of support: Exploring Online Discussions on Depression

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lamerichs, J.M.W.J.

2003-01-01

This study aims to explore the everyday talk of people who take part in an online support group on depression. Although the popularity of online support groups has increased over the years, illustrated by a growing number of people -both patients and family members-, who turn to the Internet to

Online Peer-to-Peer Communities in the Daily Lives of People With Chronic Illness

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kingod, Natasja; Cleal, Bryan; Wahlberg, Ayo

2017-01-01

This qualitative systematic review investigated how individuals with chronic illness experience online peer-to-peer support and how their experiences influence daily life with illness. Selected studies were appraised by quality criteria focused upon research questions and study design, participant...... selection, methods of data collection, and methods of analysis. Four themes were identified: (a) illness-associated identity work, (b) social support and connectivity, (c) experiential knowledge sharing, and (d) collective voice and mobilization. Findings indicate that online peer-to-peer communities...... everyday life with illness. This type of knowledge was perceived as extending far beyond medical care. Online communities were also used to mobilize and raise collective awareness about illness-specific concerns....

Global Learning Communities: A Comparison of Online Domestic and International Science Class Partnerships

Science.gov (United States)

Kerlin, Steven C.; Carlsen, William S.; Kelly, Gregory J.; Goehring, Elizabeth

2013-08-01

The conception of Global Learning Communities (GLCs) was researched to discover potential benefits of the use of online technologies that facilitated communication and scientific data sharing outside of the normal classroom setting. 1,419 students in 635 student groups began the instructional unit. Students represented the classrooms of 33 teachers from the USA, 6 from Thailand, 7 from Australia, and 4 from Germany. Data from an international environmental education project were analyzed to describe grades 7-9 student scientific writing in domestic US versus international-US classroom online partnerships. The development of an argument analytic and a research model of exploratory data analysis followed by statistical testing were used to discover and highlight different ways students used evidence to support their scientific claims about temperature variation at school sites and deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Findings show modest gains in the use of some evidentiary discourse components by US students in international online class partnerships compared to their US counterparts in domestic US partnerships. The analytic, research model, and online collaborative learning tools may be used in other large-scale studies and learning communities. Results provide insights about the benefits of using online technologies and promote the establishment of GLCs.

Online community source of new knowledge, practices for Africa's ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2016-04-29

Apr 29, 2016 ... Barza, meaning “the place where people in a village meet under a tree to talk and sort out questions concerning the community,” began in 2009 as a project of Farm Radio International (FRI) and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation. The online network connects rural broadcasters to ...

Sharing best practices through online communities of practice: a case study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Johnson Peter

2010-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Introduction The USAID-funded Capacity Project established the Global Alliance for Pre-Service Education (GAPS to provide an online forum to discuss issues related to teaching and acquiring competence in family planning, with a focus on developing countries' health related training institutions. The success of the Global Alliance for Nursing and Midwifery's ongoing web-based community of practice (CoP provided a strong example of the successful use of this medium to reach many participants in a range of settings. Case description GAPS functioned as a moderated set of forums that were analyzed by a small group of experts in family planning and pre-service education from three organizations. The cost of the program included the effort provided by the moderators and the time to administer responses and conduct the analysis. Discussion and evaluation Family planning is still considered a minor topic in health related training institutions. Rather than focusing solely on family planning competencies, GAPS members suggested a focus on several professional competencies (e.g. communication, leadership, cultural sensitivity, teamwork and problem solving that would enhance the resulting health care graduate's ability to operate in a complex health environment. Resources to support competency-based education in the academic setting must be sufficient and appropriately distributed. Where clinical competencies are incorporated into pre-service education, responsible faculty and preceptors must be clinically proficient. The interdisciplinary GAPS memberships allowed for a comparison and contrast of competencies, opportunities, promising practices, documents, lessons learned and key teaching strategies. Conclusions Online CoPs are a useful interface for connecting developing country experiences. From CoPs, we may uncover challenges and opportunities that are faced in the absorption of key public health competencies required for decreasing maternal

Leveraging medical taxonomies to improve knowledge management within online communities of practice: The knowledge maps system.

Science.gov (United States)

Stewart, Samuel Alan; Abidi, Syed Sibte Raza

2017-05-01

Online communities of practice contain a wealth of information, stored in the free text of shared communications between community members. The Knowledge Maps (KMaps) system is designed to facilitate Knowledge Translation in online communities through multi-level analyses of the shared messages of these communications. Using state-of-the-art semantic mapping technologies (Metamap) the contents of the messages shared within an online community are mapped to terms from the MeSH medical lexicon, providing a multi-level topic-specific summary of the knowledge being shared within the community. Using the inherent hierarchical structure of the lexicon important insights can be found within the community. The KMaps system was applied to two medical mailing lists, the PPML (archives from 2009-02 to 2013-02) and SURGINET (archives from 2012-01 to 2013-04), identifying 27,924 and 50,597 medical terms respectively. KMaps identified content areas where both communities found interest, specifically around Diseases, 22% and 24% of the total terms, while also identifying field-specific areas that were more popular: SURGINET expressed an interest in Anatomy (14% vs 4%) while the PPML was more interested in Drugs (19% vs 9%). At the level of the individual KMaps identified 6 PPML users and 9 SURGINET users that had noticeably more contributions to the community than their peers, and investigated their personal areas of interest. The KMaps system provides valuable insights into the structure of both communities, identifying topics of interest/shared content areas and defining content-profiles for individual community members. The system provides a valuable addition to the online KT process. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Online Learning in Divorce: How the Formation of a Community of Practice in a Divorce Support Website Enables and Inhibits Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Paechter, Carrie

2012-01-01

This article is about the informal learning that took place in an online divorce support and advice forum. In it, the author discusses the formation of a community of practice among the members during the first nine months of the site's operation. The author shows how the key markers of mutual engagement, joint enterprise and shared repertoire…

Silencing dissent in an online discussion forum of a higher education institution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Louise Postma

2013-12-01

Full Text Available In an online forum at a higher education institution in South Africa, interventions from management in order to moderate discussions, result in antagonism and the smothering of dissident discourse. Critical poststructuralist theory, the model of communicative democratic discourse as held by Iris Marion Young, and the tenets of ideal speech as held by Jürgen Habermas, inform the study while it investigates how the internal and external moderation of the forum limit and terminate essential discourse which could be instrumental in the critical construction of meaning and the exercise of freedom of speech. The methodology of grounded theory and the approach of critical discourse analysis direct the exploration of interview transcripts and forum text. In the analysis of characteristics displayed in discursive moderating strategies, the researchers are enabled to propose a form of emancipatory moderation within the discourse which could result in better understanding among opposing parties. The hegemonous and distant character as seen in the discourse concerning current moderation is subversed to allow participatory and equal moderation for the establishment of an enabling, accepting and diverse online environment. Keywords: moderation of online forum; higher education institution; freedom of speech; censorship; democratic discourse

Online Teaching and Learning at the Graduate School Level: Student Perceptions on Discussion Boards v. Synchronous Communication

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christopher N. Amos Sr.

2014-06-01

Full Text Available This paper examines a group of graduate students and their previous experiences with online education, various teaching and learning online tools, and their perceptions on the effectiveness of these tools as it relates to their learning, interpersonal skills and communication. This paper presents the graduate student's self-reported educational experience at a regional state university in the southeast United States in a 100% online Master's Degree program. The data was collected through the use of a 28 open-ended question survey, which was completed by a group of 127 graduate students and the findings produced six main findings, which were: 1 The respondents indicated at a high percentage (85% a high level (level 4, 5 and 6 of technology use and understanding. 2 The majority of the respondents (97% indicated they preferred live synchronous sessions rather than discussion boards for learning content and communication. 3 The majority of the respondents (72% indicated that when choosing future courses, the inclusion of discussion boards in a course was not important (34% or somewhat unimportant (38%. 4 100% of the respondents indicated that Live Elluminate Sessions were Highly Effective (65% or Somewhat Effective (35%, as it pertained to understanding the content. 5 Respondents indicated that 59% (12% Highly Effective, 47% Somewhat Effective of the respondents indicated discussion boards as an impactful way of learning content at the graduate level. It also shows that 41% (22% Somewhat Ineffective, 19% Not Effective. This study helps universities identify the importance of synchronous learning in a digital format when delivering online teaching and learning. There is a clear change in the needs of students enrolled in 100% online courses, which will force university faculty to increase the synchronous interaction between them and their students and between the students and their peers. Keywords: Synchronous learning, discussion boards, Blackboard

Followers are not enough: a multifaceted approach to community detection in online social networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Darmon, David; Omodei, Elisa; Garland, Joshua

2015-01-01

In online social media networks, individuals often have hundreds or even thousands of connections, which link these users not only to friends, associates, and colleagues, but also to news outlets, celebrities, and organizations. In these complex social networks, a 'community' as studied in the social network literature, can have very different meaning depending on the property of the network under study. Taking into account the multifaceted nature of these networks, we claim that community detection in online social networks should also be multifaceted in order to capture all of the different and valuable viewpoints of 'community.' In this paper we focus on three types of communities beyond follower-based structural communities: activity-based, topic-based, and interaction-based. We analyze a Twitter dataset using three different weightings of the structural network meant to highlight these three community types, and then infer the communities associated with these weightings. We show that interesting insights can be obtained about the complex community structure present in social networks by studying when and how these four community types give rise to similar as well as completely distinct community structure.

Fight the Dragons: Using Online Discussion to Promote Critical Literacy in Teacher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Woodcock, Christine

2009-01-01

Today's children are bombarded by a range of media, and it is the responsibility of teachers to equip students to engage critically. Just as teachers are responsible to teach critical literacy, teacher educators must help empower teachers to become more critically literate. This paper explores the role of online discussion in the ways it fosters…

Nuclear Community in network

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tejedor, E.

2014-01-01

The internet has revolutionized the ways of communication and many companies/ organizations have adapted to the change but others have not, or have done it halfway. This presentation is a review of the main characteristics of virtual communities and their typology. The status of the Nuclear Online Community, both pro nuclear and antinuclear is analysed , and their main similarities and differences are discussed. The Pro nuclear Online Community is formed gradually. This presentation attempts to define some ways to increase the scope of the Community and encourage greater dissemination of the characteristics of nuclear energy. (Author)

What Online User Innovation Communities Can Teach Us about Capturing the Experiences of Patients Living with Chronic Health Conditions. A Scoping Review.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julia Amann

Full Text Available In order to adapt to societal changes, healthcare systems need to switch from a disease orientation to a patient-centered approach. Virtual patient networks are a promising tool to favor this switch and much can be learned from the open and user innovation literature where the involvement of online user communities in the innovation process is well-documented.The objectives of this study were 1 to describe the use of online communities as a tool to capture and harness innovative ideas of end users or consumers; and 2 to point to the potential value and challenges of these virtual platforms to function as a tool to inform and promote patient-centered care in the context of chronic health conditions.A scoping review was conducted. A total of seven databases were searched for scientific articles published in English between 1995 and 2014. The search strategy was refined through an iterative process.A total of 144 studies were included in the review. Studies were coded inductively according to their research focus to identify groupings of papers. The first set of studies focused on the interplay of factors related to user roles, motivations, and behaviors that shape the innovation process within online communities. Studies of the second set examined the role of firms in online user innovation initiatives, identifying different organizational strategies and challenges. The third set of studies focused on the idea selection process and measures of success with respect to online user innovation initiatives. Finally, the findings from the review are presented in the light of the particularities and challenges discussed in current healthcare research.The present paper highlights the potential of virtual patient communities to inform and promote patient-centered care, describes the key challenges involved in this process, and makes recommendations on how to address them.

What Online User Innovation Communities Can Teach Us about Capturing the Experiences of Patients Living with Chronic Health Conditions. A Scoping Review.

Science.gov (United States)

Amann, Julia; Zanini, Claudia; Rubinelli, Sara

2016-01-01

In order to adapt to societal changes, healthcare systems need to switch from a disease orientation to a patient-centered approach. Virtual patient networks are a promising tool to favor this switch and much can be learned from the open and user innovation literature where the involvement of online user communities in the innovation process is well-documented. The objectives of this study were 1) to describe the use of online communities as a tool to capture and harness innovative ideas of end users or consumers; and 2) to point to the potential value and challenges of these virtual platforms to function as a tool to inform and promote patient-centered care in the context of chronic health conditions. A scoping review was conducted. A total of seven databases were searched for scientific articles published in English between 1995 and 2014. The search strategy was refined through an iterative process. A total of 144 studies were included in the review. Studies were coded inductively according to their research focus to identify groupings of papers. The first set of studies focused on the interplay of factors related to user roles, motivations, and behaviors that shape the innovation process within online communities. Studies of the second set examined the role of firms in online user innovation initiatives, identifying different organizational strategies and challenges. The third set of studies focused on the idea selection process and measures of success with respect to online user innovation initiatives. Finally, the findings from the review are presented in the light of the particularities and challenges discussed in current healthcare research. The present paper highlights the potential of virtual patient communities to inform and promote patient-centered care, describes the key challenges involved in this process, and makes recommendations on how to address them.

Understanding consumer motivations for interacting in online food communities – potential for innovation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jacobsen, Lina; Sørensen, Bjarne Taulo; Tudoran, Ana Alina

This study contributes to the understanding of online user communities as a potential source of innovation. That would require an interest from users in interacting in such communities. In order to establish interaction, users must provide as well as consume information. However, depending...... on the innovation task, one may be more important than the other. It is therefore important to understand, how companies can increase user willingness to engage in these different interaction forms. This study investigates the influence of various motivation factors and user interests on intention to provide...... or consume information in online food communities. A survey was conducted among 1009 respondents followed by analysis based on Structural Equation Modelling. Results revealed the effect of motivation factors to be stronger than basic consumer interests indicating that companies can influence the intended...

Social and place-focused communities in location-based online social networks

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Chloë; Nicosia, Vincenzo; Scellato, Salvatore; Noulas, Anastasios; Mascolo, Cecilia

2013-06-01

Thanks to widely available, cheap Internet access and the ubiquity of smartphones, millions of people around the world now use online location-based social networking services. Understanding the structural properties of these systems and their dependence upon users' habits and mobility has many potential applications, including resource recommendation and link prediction. Here, we construct and characterise social and place-focused graphs by using longitudinal information about declared social relationships and about users' visits to physical places collected from a popular online location-based social service. We show that although the social and place-focused graphs are constructed from the same data set, they have quite different structural properties. We find that the social and location-focused graphs have different global and meso-scale structure, and in particular that social and place-focused communities have negligible overlap. Consequently, group inference based on community detection performed on the social graph alone fails to isolate place-focused groups, even though these do exist in the network. By studying the evolution of tie structure within communities, we show that the time period over which location data are aggregated has a substantial impact on the stability of place-focused communities, and that information about place-based groups may be more useful for user-centric applications than that obtained from the analysis of social communities alone.

Transparency in Cooperative Online Education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dalsgaard, Christian; Paulsen, Morten Flate

2009-01-01

The purpose of this article is to discuss the following question: What is the potential of social networking within cooperative online education? Social networking does not necessarily involve communication, dialogue, or collaboration. Instead, the authors argue that transparency is a unique...... feature of social networking services. Transparency gives students insight into each other’s actions. Cooperative learning seeks to develop virtual learning environments that allow students to have optimal individual freedom within online learning communities. This article demonstrates how cooperative...... learning can be supported by transparency. To illustrate this with current examples, the article presents NKI Distance Education’s surveys and experiences with cooperative learning. The article discusses by which means social networking and transparency may be utilized within cooperative online education...

When Disney Meets the Research Park: Metaphors and Models for Engineering an Online Learning Community of Tomorrow

Science.gov (United States)

Chenail, Ronald J.

2004-01-01

It is suggested that educators look to an environment in which qualitative research can be learned in more flexible and creative ways--an online learning community known as the Research Park Online (RPO). This model, based upon Walt Disney's 1966 plan for his "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" (EPCOT) and university cooperative…

Self-identity and regulatory focus in governance of online communities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li-Ying, Jason

A fast growing stream of literature has shown tremendous interests in the ‘wisdom of crowds’, which is embedded in various forms of online communities (OCs). However, studies on the governance of OCs are rather scattered. Our knowledge on how key governance mechanisms are interrelated is very much...

Following the Social Media: Aspect Evolution of Online Discussion

Science.gov (United States)

Tang, Xuning; Yang, Christopher C.

Due to the advance of Internet and Web 2.0 technologies, it is easy to extract thousands of threads about a topic of interest from an online forum but it is nontrivial to capture the blueprint of different aspects (i.e., subtopic, or facet) associated with the topic. To better understand and analyze a forum discussion given topic, it is important to uncover the evolution relationships (temporal dependencies) between different topic aspects (i.e. how the discussion topic is evolving). Traditional Topic Detection and Tracking (TDT) techniques usually organize topics as a flat structure but it does not present the evolution relationships between topic aspects. In addition, the properties of short and sparse messages make the content-based TDT techniques difficult to perform well in identifying evolution relationships. The contributions in this paper are two-folded. We formally define a topic aspect evolution graph modeling framework and propose to utilize social network information, content similarity and temporal proximity to model evolution relationships between topic aspects. The experimental results showed that, by incorporating social network information, our technique significantly outperformed content-based technique in the task of extracting evolution relationships between topic aspects.

Knowledge Building Quality in Online Communities of Practice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sorensen, E. K.; Takle, E. S.; Moser, H. M.

2006-01-01

This paper reports on a case-study on the implementation of “language games” as a pedagogical tool for analyzing, assessing and promoting the quality and the level of collaborative knowledge building in online learning dialogues. Part of the overall objective is to explore the use, strength......, weaknesses, and limitations of using the method in the context of an online senior level university course (on-campus and off-campus continuing education) on Global Change. In this investigation, the insight from using a theoretical perspective of language games is elucidated and discussed in relation...... to the benefits of other theoretical approaches. Applying an analytical perspective of language games, sequences of online dialogues are analyzed in order to understand their specific characteristics and to diagnose the quality of the collaborative knowledge building processes. To what extend do language games...

Bilingual asynchronous online discussion groups: design and delivery of an eLearning distance study module for nurse academics in a developing country.

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis, Peter A; Mai, Van Anh Thi; Gray, Genevieve

2012-04-01

The advent of eLearning has seen online discussion forums widely used in both undergraduate and postgraduate nursing education. This paper reports an Australian university experience of design, delivery and redevelopment of a distance education module developed for Vietnamese nurse academics. The teaching experience of Vietnamese nurse academics is mixed and frequently limited. It was decided that the distance module should attempt to utilise the experience of senior Vietnamese nurse academics - asynchronous online discussion groups were used to facilitate this. Online discussion occurred in both Vietnamese and English and was moderated by an Australian academic working alongside a Vietnamese translator. This paper will discuss the design of an online learning environment for foreign correspondents, the resources and translation required to maximise the success of asynchronous online discussion groups, as well as the rationale of delivering complex content in a foreign language. While specifically addressing the first iteration of the first distance module designed, this paper will also address subsequent changes made for the second iteration of the module and comment on their success. While a translator is clearly a key component of success, the elements of simplicity and clarity combined with supportive online moderation must not be overlooked. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Lessons Learned for Online Health Community Moderator Roles: A Mixed-Methods Study of Moderators Resigning From WebMD Communities

Science.gov (United States)

Marmor, Rebecca; Jiang, Xiaoqian

2016-01-01

Background Online health community (OHC) moderators help facilitate conversations and provide information to members. However, the necessity of the moderator in helping members achieve goals by providing the support they need remains unclear, with some prior research suggesting that moderation is unnecessary or even harmful for close-knit OHCs. Similarly, members’ perceptions of moderator roles are underexplored. Starting January of 2013, WebMD moderators stopped working for WebMD communities. This event provided an opportunity for us to study the perceived role of moderators in OHCs. Objective We examine the OHC members’ perception on OHC moderators by studying their reactions toward the departure of moderators in their communities. We also analyzed the relative posting activity on OHCs before and after the departure of moderators from the communities among all members and those who discussed moderators’ departures. Methods We applied a mixed-methods approach to study the posts of all 55 moderated WebMD communities by querying the terms relating to discussions surrounding moderators’ disappearance from the WebMD community. We performed open and axial coding and affinity diagramming to thematically analyze patients’ reactions to the disappeared moderators. The number of posts and poster groups (members and moderators) were analyzed over time to understand posting patterns around moderators’ departure. Results Of 821 posts retrieved under 95 threads, a total of 166 open codes were generated. The codes were then grouped into 2 main themes with 6 total subthemes. First, patients attempted to understand why moderators had left and what could be done to fill the void left by the missing moderators. During these discussions, the posts revealed that patients believed that moderators played critical roles in the communities by making the communities vibrant and healthy, finding solutions, and giving medical information. Some patients felt personally attached

Nursing Community 2.0: a method to promote online collaborative learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maura I. Cascio

2016-07-01

qualitative and quantitative analysis of online interactions. Results indicate that, thanks to the deployment of suitable technology and expert tutor support, Nursing Community 2.0 has successfully established itself as an environment for generating and exchanging knowledge.

Building an online community to promote communication and collaborative learning between health professionals and young people who self-harm: an exploratory study.

Science.gov (United States)

Owens, Christabel; Sharkey, Siobhan; Smithson, Janet; Hewis, Elaine; Emmens, Tobit; Ford, Tamsin; Jones, Ray

2015-02-01

Online communities are known to break down barriers between supposed experts and non-experts and to promote collaborative learning and 'radical trust' among members. Young people who self-harm report difficulties in communicating with health professionals, and vice versa. We sought to bring these two groups together online to see how well they could communicate with each other about self-harm and its management, and whether they could agree on what constituted safe and relevant advice. We allocated 77 young people aged 16-25 with experience of self-harm and 18 recently/nearly qualified professionals in relevant health-care disciplines to three separate Internet discussion forums. The forums contained different proportions of professionals to young people (none; 25%; 50% respectively) to allow us to observe the effect of the professionals on online interaction. The young people were keen to share their lived experience of self-harm and its management with health professionals. They engaged in lively discussion and supported one another during emotional crises. Despite registering to take part, health professionals did not actively participate in the forums. Reported barriers included lack of confidence and concerns relating to workload, private-professional boundaries, role clarity, duty of care and accountability. In their absence, the young people built a vibrant lay community, supported by site moderators. Health professionals may not yet be ready to engage with young people who self-harm and to exchange knowledge and experience in an anonymous online setting. Further work is needed to understand and overcome their insecurities. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Student Outcomes Associated with Use of Asynchronous Online Discussion Forums in Gross Anatomy Teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Green, Rodney A.; Hughes, Diane L.

2013-01-01

Asynchronous online discussion forums are increasingly common in blended learning environments but the relationship to student learning outcomes has not been reported for anatomy teaching. Forums were monitored in two multicampus anatomy courses; an introductory first year course and a second year physiotherapy-specific course. The forums are…

Learning in Discussion Forums: An Analysis of Knowledge Construction in a Gaming Affinity Space

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Don; Marone, Vittorio

2016-01-01

In the learning sciences and game studies communities, there has been an increasing interest in the potential of game-related "paratexts" and "surrounds" in supporting learning, such as online discussion forums and gaming affinity spaces. While there have been studies identifying how learning occurs in such communities, little…

User-Generated Content, YouTube and Participatory Culture on the Web: Music Learning and Teaching in Two Contrasting Online Communities

Science.gov (United States)

Waldron, Janice

2013-01-01

In this paper, I draw on seminal literature from new media researchers to frame the broader implications that user-generated content (UGC), YouTube, and participatory culture have for music learning and teaching in online communities; to illustrate, I use examples from two contrasting online music communities, the Online Academy of Irish…

JGME-ALiEM Hot Topics in Medical Education: Analysis of a Multimodal Online Discussion About Team-Based Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Riddell, Jeff; Patocka, Catherine; Lin, Michelle; Sherbino, Jonathan

2017-02-01

Team-based learning (TBL) is an instructional method that is being increasingly incorporated in health professions education, although use in graduate medical education (GME) has been more limited. To curate and describe themes that emerged from a virtual journal club discussion about TBL in GME, held across multiple digital platforms, while also evaluating the use of social media in online academic discussions. The Journal of Graduate Medical Education ( JGME ) and the Academic Life in Emergency Medicine blog facilitated a weeklong, open-access, virtual journal club on the 2015 JGME article "Use of Team-Based Learning Pedagogy for Internal Medicine Ambulatory Resident Teaching." Using 4 stimulus questions (hosted on a blog as a starting framework), we facilitated discussions via the blog, Twitter, and Google Hangouts on Air platforms. We evaluated 2-week web analytics and performed a thematic analysis of the discussion. The virtual journal club reached a large international audience as exemplified by the blog page garnering 685 page views from 241 cities in 42 countries. Our thematic analysis identified 4 domains relevant to TBL in GME: (1) the benefits and barriers to TBL; (2) the design of teams; (3) the role of assessment and peer evaluation; and (4) crowdsourced TBL resources. The virtual journal club provided a novel forum across multiple social media platforms, engaging authors, content experts, and the health professions education community in a discussion about the importance, impediments to implementation, available resources, and logistics of adopting TBL in GME.

Finding the community in sustainable online community engagement: Not-for-profit organisation websites, service-learning and research

OpenAIRE

Dodd, Alice

2017-01-01

This article explores the use of action research (2008–2014) based on a case study of the Sustainable Online Community Engagement (SOCE) Project, a service-learning project in which University of South Australia students build websites for not-for-profit (NFP) organisations, to demonstrate that effective teaching, public service and research are interdependent. A significant problem experienced in the SOCE project was that, despite some training and ongoing assistance, the community organisat...

Online role-playing for faculty development.

Science.gov (United States)

Ladhani, Zahra; Chhatwal, Jugesh; Vyas, Rashmi; Iqbal, Mobeen; Tan, Christina; Diserens, Deborah

2011-03-01

There has been a rapid growth of online teaching in the past few years, yet the implementation of role-play for formal educational activities in an online setting is growing more slowly. The use of online role-playing for the development of health professions educators is virtually un-documented in the literature. In the project reported here we use role-playing as a method to motivate and increase active participation in an online web-based discussion on community-based medical education (CBME). The Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education & Research (FAIMER(®) ) Institute hosts virtual group discussions for fellows as part of its fellowship programmes, in order to deepen their knowledge base in health professions education and research. In June 2008, a group of seven FAIMER(®) fellows and faculty members moderated an online discussion on CBME using an online role-play exercise with other fellows and faculty members. Out of a total of 102 fellows, 36 (35.3%) participated actively, which exceeded the typical percentage of list server participation. In addition, a rich discussion resulted in a comprehensive report on the goals, challenges, logistical components, role of Health Ministry policy and the possible ethical mandate of CBME in developing countries. Online role-play encouraged distributed participation among a highly diverse international group of participants, supporting the conclusion that role-playing can be used effectively with mid-career health professional faculty members in the online environment. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2011.

Othering in Online Learning: An Examination of Social Presence, Identity, and Sense of Community

Science.gov (United States)

Phirangee, Krystle; Malec, Alesia

2017-01-01

Fostering a strong sense of community among students in online courses is the goal of many instructors because it is seen as being essential in supporting students' learning experiences. However, high dropout rates in online learning suggest that students feel disconnected and isolated from their course, feelings which have been attributed to the…

The influence of an online virtual situated environment on a Chinese learning community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kuo-En Chang

2012-03-01

Full Text Available This study used an online virtual environment to create and develop a Chinese learning community. The purposes of research were (1 to enhance the Chinese learners’ oral Chinese communication skills and (2 to change the community members’ Chinese speaking and teaching behavior. This is an action research. The research tried to create a community in a virtual environment. The research results showed that (1 a virtual community can enhance learner’s Chinese competence, and (2 future Chinese teachers’ instructional and leading skills can be developed in a virtual community situation.

Barriers and facilitators for the implementation of an online clinical health community in addition to usual fertility care: a cross-sectional study.

Science.gov (United States)

Aarts, Johanna W M; Faber, Marjan J; den Boogert, Anne G; Cohlen, Ben J; van der Linden, Paul J Q; Kremer, Jan A M; Nelen, Willianne L D M

2013-08-30

Online health communities are becoming more popular in health care. Patients and professionals can communicate with one another online, patients can find peer support, and professionals can use it as an additional information channel to their patients. However, the implementation of online health communities into daily practice is challenging. These challenges relate to the fact that patients need to be activated to (1) become a member (ie, subscription) and (2) participate actively within the community before any effect can be expected. Therefore, we aimed at answering 2 research questions: (1) what factors are associated with subscription to an online health community, and (2) which are associated with becoming an active participant within an online health community. To identify barriers and facilitators as perceived by patients for the implementation of an online health community. We performed a cross-sectional study. Three Dutch fertility clinics (2 IVF-licensed) offered their patients a secure online clinical health community through which clinicians can provide online information and patients can ask questions to the medical team or share experiences and find support from peers. We randomly selected and invited 278 men and women suffering from infertility and attending 1 of the participating clinics. Participants filled out a questionnaire about their background characteristics and current use of the online community. Possible barriers and facilitators were divided into 2 parts: (1) those for subscription to the community, and (2) those for active participation in the community. We performed 2 multivariate logistic regression analyses to calculate determinants for both subscription and active participation. Subscription appeared to be associated with patients' background characteristics (eg, gender, treatment phase), intervention-related facilitators (odds ratio [OR] 2.45, 95% CI 1.14-5.27), and patient-related barriers (OR 0.20, 95% CI 0.08-0.54), such as

Establishment of a Hub for the Light Water Reactor Sustainability Online Monitoring Community

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lybeck, Nancy J.; Tawfik, Magdy S.; Pham, Binh T.

2011-01-01

Implementation of online monitoring and prognostics in existing U.S. nuclear power plants will involve coordinating the efforts of national laboratories, utilities, universities, and private companies. Internet-based collaborative work environments provide necessary communication tools to facilitate interaction between geographically diverse participants. Available technologies were considered, and a collaborative workspace was established at INL as a hub for the light water reactor sustainability online monitoring community.

School Teacher Professional Development in Online Communities of Practice:A Systematic Literature Review

OpenAIRE

Khalid, Md. Saifuddin; Strange, Majbrit Højland

2016-01-01

This study informs researchers of educational technology, teachers, teacher associations and moderators or admins of online platforms who are interested in knowledge sharing among teachers within online communities of practice (CoPs). The continuous professional development of teachers is primarily about improving their teaching practice. It includes both formal and informal learning activities to transform attitudes, behaviour, skills and knowledge. Formal knowledge sharing methods like trai...

The messages presented in online electronic cigarette promotions and discussions: a scoping review protocol.

Science.gov (United States)

McCausland, Kahlia; Maycock, Bruce; Jancey, Jonine

2017-11-08

Electronic cigarettes have become increasingly popular over the last 10 years. These devices represent a new paradigm for tobacco control offering smokers an opportunity to inhale nicotine without inhaling tobacco smoke. To date there are no definite conclusions regarding the safety and long-term health effects of electronic cigarettes; however, there is evidence that they are being marketed online as a healthier alternative to traditional cigarettes. This scoping review aims to identify and describe the breadth of messages (eg, health, smoking-cessation and price related claims) presented in online electronic cigarette promotions and discussions. A scoping review will be undertaken adhering to the methodology outlined in The Joanna Briggs Institute Manual for Scoping Reviews. Six key electronic databases will be searched to identify eligible studies. Studies must be published in English between 2007 and 2017, examine and/or analyse content captured from online electronic cigarette promotions or discussions and report results for electronic cigarettes separately to other forms of tobacco delivery. Studies will be screened initially by title and abstract, followed by full-text review. Results of the search strategy will be reported in a PRISMA flow diagram and presented in tabular form with accompanying narrative summary. The methodology consists of reviewing and collecting data from publicly available studies, and therefore does not require ethics approval. Results will be published in a peer reviewed journal and be presented at national/international conferences. Additionally, findings will be disseminated via social media and online platforms. Advocacy will be key to informing policy makers of regulatory and health issues that need to be addressed. The review was registered prospectively with The Joanna Briggs Institute Systematic Reviews database. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights

Automatic topic identification of health-related messages in online health community using text classification.

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Yingjie

2013-01-01

To facilitate patient involvement in online health community and obtain informative support and emotional support they need, a topic identification approach was proposed in this paper for identifying automatically topics of the health-related messages in online health community, thus assisting patients in reaching the most relevant messages for their queries efficiently. Feature-based classification framework was presented for automatic topic identification in our study. We first collected the messages related to some predefined topics in a online health community. Then we combined three different types of features, n-gram-based features, domain-specific features and sentiment features to build four feature sets for health-related text representation. Finally, three different text classification techniques, C4.5, Naïve Bayes and SVM were adopted to evaluate our topic classification model. By comparing different feature sets and different classification techniques, we found that n-gram-based features, domain-specific features and sentiment features were all considered to be effective in distinguishing different types of health-related topics. In addition, feature reduction technique based on information gain was also effective to improve the topic classification performance. In terms of classification techniques, SVM outperformed C4.5 and Naïve Bayes significantly. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed approach could identify the topics of online health-related messages efficiently.

Web Annotation and Threaded Forum: How Did Learners Use the Two Environments in an Online Discussion?

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Yanyan; Gao, Fei

2014-01-01

Web annotation is a Web 2.0 technology that allows learners to work collaboratively on web pages or electronic documents. This study explored the use of Web annotation as an online discussion tool by comparing it to a traditional threaded discussion forum. Ten graduate students participated in the study. Participants had access to both a Web…

A urinary incontinence continuing education online course for community health nurses in South Korea.

Science.gov (United States)

De Gagne, Jennie C; Park, Sunah; So, Aeyoung; Wu, Bei; Palmer, Mary H; McConnell, Eleanor S

2015-04-01

Although urinary incontinence is prevalent among older women living in rural Korea, a lack of awareness and education exists in this population and among health professionals. Geographic isolation and limited resources also contribute to having few educational offerings for rural nurses. The authors' aim was to develop an online continuing education course on continence care for community health nurses and to examine its effectiveness. A one-group, pretest-posttest design was used to detect changes in knowledge and attitudes after taking the online education course. Participant satisfaction was also measured at the end of the training. A significant improvement in knowledge and attitudes toward continence care was noted. More than 95% of participants responded that they would recommend the online program to other health care providers and indicated the program would be helpful regarding continence care in their practice. The continuing education online course is a feasible strategy to support rural community health nurses' learning to improve knowledge and attitudes toward urinary incontinence management and care. Copyright 2015, SLACK Incorporated.

Fra onlinefællesskaber til onlinenetværk: Facebook som augmentering af den sociale virkelighed [From online communities to online networks: Facebook as an augmentation of social reality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jakob Linaa Jensen

2009-06-01

Full Text Available This article discusses the Facebook phenomenon, using it as an example of how the most dominant social use of the Internet today is network-based rather than community-based. In the early years of the Internet, online communities were popular fora for meeting new people with related interests or opinions. Today, the dominant social use is to create and maintain relationships with your existing social network. It is also demonstrated that the success of Facebook, is dependent, among other factors, upon the fulfilment of five social functions for the users: self-presentation, friendship, object sharing, publication, and having a “sixth sense”. Thus, Facebook contributes to an enhancement of existing social relationships offline, what I call an augmentation of social reality.

Patterns of behavior in an online community

Science.gov (United States)

Gallos, Lazaros; Rybski, Diego; Liljeros, Fredrik; Havlin, Shlomo; Makse, Hernan

2009-03-01

Human behavior can be seen as the expression of inherent motives. Despite the diverse range of these motives, social theorists have long identified a small number of distinct underlying mechanisms, where, consciously or unconsciously, every individual tries to exploit a different aspect of social interactions and/or optimize the efficiency of certain procedures for the benefit of the society or for personal gain. Here we show that users in an online community follow certain behavioral patterns and the choice of their favorite members is far from a random process. More importantly, these patterns are systematically modified with time as a member becomes more involved in such a community. We are able to identify a crossover in the average behavior of the members when their favorites list exceeds roughly 10 favorites. Additionally, this process allows us to identify individuals with a markedly different behavior than the average person. This study can help us understand the process of establishing friendships and the motives behind this process.

Understanding Motivations and User Interests as Antecedents for Different Interaction Forms in Online Communities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jacobsen, Lina; Sørensen, Bjarne Taulo; Tudoran, Ana Alina

This study contributes to the understanding of online user communities as a potential source of innovation. That would require an interest from users in interacting in such communities. In order to establish interaction, users must provide as well as consume information. However, depending...... on the innovation task, one may be more important than the other. It is therefore important to understand, how companies can increase user willingness to engage in these different interaction forms. This study investigates the influence of various motivation factors and user interests on intention to provide...... or consume information in online food communities. A survey was conducted among 1009 respondents followed by analysis based on Structural Equation Modelling. Results revealed the effect of motivation factors to be stronger than basic consumer interests indicating that companies can influence the intended...

Can You Hear Me Now? The Impact of Voice in an Online Gaming Community

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, Dmitri; Caplan, Scott; Xiong, Li

2007-01-01

This paper reports the results of a controlled field experiment in which voice communication was introduced into an existing online community (online gaming guilds within the popular game "World of Warcraft"), comparing a mix of voice and text with text only. Quantitative results suggest increases in liking and trust due to the addition of voice,…

The What and How of Online Communities : An exploratory desk research

NARCIS (Netherlands)

drs. Skylla Janssen; Gina Ocana Machado

2014-01-01

For this exploratory study we aim to provide knowledge and insights concerning the processes of setting up, implementing and managing online communities as a part of the product/services offer of media companies. The goal is to increase their reach amongst target groups, to strengthen involvement

Social Influence in Online Health Discussions: An Evaluation of Online Graduate Student Support Groups

Science.gov (United States)

Maloney, Erin Kay

2010-01-01

This paper reports on the results of a field experimental design assessing online support groups testing hypotheses derived from the social identification model of deindividuation effects (SIDE; Lea & Spears, 1992) and social information processing theory (SIP; Walther, 1992). Specifically, it is predicted that individuals in an online support…

Developing Professional Identity in an Online Learning Environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Horn, Line Helverskov

2015-01-01

identity as the outcome for the intern. This paper describes the interactions in an online learning environment. The online platform sought to enable peer interaction between younger and older students in a discussion of the professional identity of Natural and Cultural Heritage Management (NCHM......From a socio-cultural perspective, the development of a professional identity is an on-going process that is social in nature and negotiated in communities of practice (Wenger, 1998). Internships in higher education function as such communities of practice, with an improved sense of professional...

Predictive Modeling to Forecast Student Outcomes and Drive Effective Interventions in Online Community College Courses

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Vernon C.; Lange, Adam; Huston, Daniel R.

2012-01-01

Community colleges continue to experience growth in online courses. This growth reflects the need to increase the numbers of students who complete certificates or degrees. Retaining online students, not to mention assuring their success, is a challenge that must be addressed through practical institutional responses. By leveraging existing student…

Exploring emotional expressions in e-word-of-mouth from online communities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Standing, Craig; Holzweber, Markus; Mattsson, Jan

2016-01-01

Electronic word-of-mouth communication (eWOM) is an important force in building a digital marketplace. The study of eWOM has implications for how to build an online community through social media design, web communication and knowledge exchange. Innovative use of eWOM has significant benefits......, especially for start-up firms. We focus on how users on the web communicate value related to online products. It is the premise of this paper that generating emotional value (E-value) in social media and networking sites (SMNS) is critical for the survival of new e-service ventures. Hence, by introducing...

Introducing a Relationship Marketing perspective in the measurement of Online Community success

OpenAIRE

Nadia Jouini; Ilaria Dalla Pozza

2014-01-01

A relationship marketing perspective is missed in measuring the success of online communities. Scope of this paper is to introduce a relationship marketing perspective in the definition of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for measuring the success of onl

Dynamics of the Community of Inquiry (CoI within a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC for In-Service Teachers in Environmental Education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maya Kaul

2018-03-01

Full Text Available One of the greatest ways to transform education systems is to develop community-centered professional supports for in-service teachers. Given the rise of distance learning platforms such as massive open online courses (MOOCs, there is a growing potential to deliver such supports at scale. The community of inquiry (CoI framework models the asynchronous, text-based communication that defines educational experiences within such collaborative learning environments; however, methods of CoI transcript analysis must be improved. This paper uses the University of Helsinki’s 2016 MOOC, Sustainable Energy in Education, as a case study on how the CoI framework can be used to characterize the educational experience of in-service teachers in distance learning environments. Using the CoI coding protocol, this paper employs a transcript analysis of the discussion forum posts on the MOOC (n = 78, and applies improved measures of reliability in order to understand the capacity of CoI transcript analysis to reliably define online learning experiences. The findings suggest that, while the CoI framework is able to characterize some elements of online learning communities, more work needs to be done to ensure the framework captures the more nuanced elements of such educational experiences, such as the effects of course design and the relative engagement of course participants.

Sharing best practices through online communities of practice: a case study.

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, Annamma Udaya; Fried, Grace P; Johnson, Peter; Stilwell, Barbara J

2010-11-12

The USAID-funded Capacity Project established the Global Alliance for Pre-Service Education (GAPS) to provide an online forum to discuss issues related to teaching and acquiring competence in family planning, with a focus on developing countries' health related training institutions. The success of the Global Alliance for Nursing and Midwifery's ongoing web-based community of practice (CoP) provided a strong example of the successful use of this medium to reach many participants in a range of settings. GAPS functioned as a moderated set of forums that were analyzed by a small group of experts in family planning and pre-service education from three organizations. The cost of the program included the effort provided by the moderators and the time to administer responses and conduct the analysis. Family planning is still considered a minor topic in health related training institutions. Rather than focusing solely on family planning competencies, GAPS members suggested a focus on several professional competencies (e.g. communication, leadership, cultural sensitivity, teamwork and problem solving) that would enhance the resulting health care graduate's ability to operate in a complex health environment. Resources to support competency-based education in the academic setting must be sufficient and appropriately distributed. Where clinical competencies are incorporated into pre-service education, responsible faculty and preceptors must be clinically proficient. The interdisciplinary GAPS memberships allowed for a comparison and contrast of competencies, opportunities, promising practices, documents, lessons learned and key teaching strategies. Online CoPs are a useful interface for connecting developing country experiences. From CoPs, we may uncover challenges and opportunities that are faced in the absorption of key public health competencies required for decreasing maternal mortality and morbidity. Use of the World Health Organization (WHO) Implementing Best Practices

The Predictive Relationship among the Community of Inquiry Framework, Perceived Learning and Online, and Graduate Students' Course Grades in Online Synchronous and Asynchronous Courses

Science.gov (United States)

Rockinson-Szapkiw, Amanda J.; Wendt, Jillian; Wighting, Mervyn; Nisbet, Deanna

2016-01-01

The Community of Inquiry framework has been widely supported by research to provide a model of online learning that informs the design and implementation of distance learning courses. However, the relationship between elements of the CoI framework and perceived learning warrants further examination as a predictive model for online graduate student…

Exploring the behavioural patterns of knowledge dimensions and cognitive processes in peer-moderated asynchronous online discussions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hajar Ghadirian

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Peer moderation has been used as a beneficial strategy in asynchronous online discussions to assist student learning performance. However, most studies in peer-moderated asynchronous online discussions (PMAOD have focused only on learning effectiveness and perceptions of students rather than on students’ knowledge dimensions and cognitive processing patterns. This study combined quantitative content analysis (QCA and lag sequential analysis (LSA to explore student knowledge dimensions and cognitive processing patterns in PMAOD. The participants were 84 students in an undergraduate blended course from University Putra Malaysia (UPM, Malaysia. The Revised Bloom Taxonomy (RBT was used as the codification scheme to code the discussion transcripts of participants assigned the role of peer moderators in a reciprocal manner over seven weeks. Behavioural distributions and patterns of high- and low-quality discussion groups were compared. Results showed that students were primarily sharing knowledge dimensions and cognitive processes of metacognition and understanding, respectively. Additionally, it was found that there was a modest proportion of off-topic discussions. Nonetheless, by means of LSA, it was found that PMAOD exhibited a certain degree of self-sustainability in knowledge and cognitive process behaviours, with the exceptions of procedural knowledge and the cognitive process of applyingand, in terms of diversity in knowledge dimension and cognitive processing, high-quality discussion groups outperformed low-quality groups.

Player communities in multiplayer online games : A systematic review of emperical research

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Warmelink, H.J.G.; Siitonen, M.

2011-01-01

Numerous researchers have written about the social dynamics of player communities in multiplayer online games. Following a systematic review of refereed empirical research publications from 2000-2010, this article synthesizes the key methods and concepts researchers have used to study and

Online support for transgender people: an analysis of forums and social networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Cipolletta, Sabrina; Votadoro, Riccardo; Faccio, Elena

2017-09-01

Transgender people face a range of personal and social conflicts that strongly influence their well-being. In many cases, the Internet can become the main resource in terms of finding support. The aim of this study was to understand how transgender people give and receive help online. Between 2013 and 2015, 122 online community conversations were collected on Italian forums and Facebook groups involving transgender people, and online interviews were conducted with 16 users of these communities. A qualitative content analysis was conducted by using the software package, NVivo10. The main categories that emerged were: motivations to join an online community, online help, differences between online and offline interactions, status, conflicts and professional help. Results indicate that participation in online communities often derives from the users' need for help. This help can be given by peers who have had similar experiences, and by professionals who participate in the discussions as moderator. The need to test one's own identity, to compare oneself with others and to share one's personal experiences made online communities at risk of exposing users to invalidation and transphobic messages. Administrators and moderators try to ensure the safety of users, and suggest that they ask for professional help offline and/or online when over-specific medical advice was sought. This study confirms that transgender people might find benefit from an online platform of help and support and might minimise distance problems, increase financial convenience and foster disinhibition. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Asynchronous interaction, online technologies self-efficacy and self-regulated learning as predictors of academic achievement in an online class

Science.gov (United States)

McGhee, Rosie M. Hector

This research is a correlational study of the relationship among the independent variables: asynchronous interaction, online technologies self-efficacy, and self-regulated learning, and the dependent variable; academic achievement. This study involves an online computer literacy course at a local community college. Very little research exists on the relationship among asynchronous interaction, online technologies self-efficacy and self-regulated learning on predicting academic achievement in an online class. Liu (2008), in his study on student interaction in online courses, concluded that student interaction is a complex issue that needs more research to increase our understanding as it relates to distance education. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between asynchronous interaction, online technologies self-efficacy, self-regulated learning and academic achievement in an online computer literacy class at a community college. The researcher used quantitative methods to obtain and analyze data on the relationships among the variables during the summer 2010 semester. Forty-five community college students completed three web-based self-reporting instruments: (a) the GVU 10th WWW User Survey Questionnaire, (b) the Online Technologies Self-Efficacy Survey, and (c) selected items from the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire. Additional data was obtained from asynchronous discussions posted on Blackboard(TM) Learning Management System. The results of this study found that there were statistically significant relationships between asynchronous interaction and academic achievement (r = .55, p online technologies self-efficacy and academic achievement (r = .50, p online instructors, online course designers, faculty, students and others who are concerned about predictors for online students' success. Also, it serves as a foundation for future research and provides valuable information for educators interested in taking online teaching and

Receiving social support online: implications for health education.

Science.gov (United States)

White, M; Dorman, S M

2001-12-01

Online support groups are expanding as the general public becomes more comfortable using computer-mediated communication technology. These support groups have certain benefits for users who may not be able to or do not have the desire to attend face-to-face sessions. Online support groups also present challenges when compared to traditional face-to-face group communication. Communication difficulties may arise resulting from lack of visual and aural cues found in traditional face-to-face communication. Online support groups have emerged within health care as a result of the need individuals have to know more about health conditions they are confronting. The proliferation of these online communities may provide an opportunity for health educators to reach target populations with specific messages. This paper reviews the development of health-related online support groups, examines research conducted within these communities, compares their utility with traditional support groups and discusses the implications of these groups for health education.

Operation of the online forum for the discussion of high level radioactive waste and related issues

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Furihata, Shiori; Sugiyama, Naoki; Kikuchi, AKiko; Takizawa, Masayuki

2002-03-01

JNC is releasing information on the technical reliability for geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) to public. However, the recognition and understanding of general public on the geological disposal of HLW are not satisfied. Recently more and more people are using the Internet, which is two-way, instant and open communication network. So JNC has offered the opportunity for discussing the topics related to geological disposal of HLW on the Internet web site since fiscal year 1999. In this fiscal year, the online forum was opened from January 25 to March 11. The forum was held on the web server independent from JNC so that discussion is done as fairly and objectively as possible. The event, which is the online discussion by university students in nation-wide, was specially held. The number of accesses to the forum significantly increased in this period compared to that of last two fiscal years. The adequate operation of the forum and the presentation of the information about geological disposal of HLW were surveyed by the questionnaire distributed to the participants. (author)

Liking and hyperlinking: Community detection in online child sexual exploitation networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Westlake, Bryce G; Bouchard, Martin

2016-09-01

The online sexual exploitation of children is facilitated by websites that form virtual communities, via hyperlinks, to distribute images, videos, and other material. However, how these communities form, are structured, and evolve over time is unknown. Collected using a custom-designed webcrawler, we begin from known child sexual exploitation (CE) seed websites and follow hyperlinks to connected, related, websites. Using a repeated measure design we analyze 10 networks of 300 + websites each - over 4.8 million unique webpages in total, over a period of 60 weeks. Community detection techniques reveal that CE-related networks were dominated by two large communities hosting varied material -not necessarily matching the seed website. Community stability, over 60 weeks, varied across networks. Reciprocity in hyperlinking between community members was substantially higher than within the full network, however, websites were not more likely to connect to homogeneous-content websites. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Klik-suri sa Online Community ng mga Lesbiyana sa Facebook Gamit ang Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA at Natural Language Processing (NLP (Click-analysis of a Lesbian Online Community in Facebook Using the CDA and NLP

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alona Jumaquio-Ardales

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This study aims to describe the discourse on the online community of lesbians in the Philippines. The organization of Lesbian Community or LESCOM was chosen as subject of the study based on high number of ‘likes’ they received in Facebook. The texts were automatically gathered, filtered, shortlisted, and harvested from their Facebook page using the Natural Language Processing (NLP. The theoretical framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA was used in analysing the data in order to describe online discourses that reflect the identity and community of lesbians based in the Philippines. The result of analysis were the following: [1] the emotions projected by exclamatory mark displayed their identity; [2] some plural words served as their voice for being group-oriented; [3] frequent usage of personal names manifested their inclusive community; and [4] social consciousness was part of their organizational agenda.

The motivations and experiences of students enrolled in online science courses at the community college

Science.gov (United States)

Ghosh, Urbi

An important question in online learning involves how to effectively motivate and retain students in science online courses. There is a dearth of research and knowledge about the experiences of students enrolled in online science courses in community colleges which has impeded the proper development and implementation of online courses and retention of students in the online environment. This study sought to provide an understanding of the relationships among each of the following variables: self-efficacy, task value, negative-achievement emotions, self-regulation learning strategies (metacognition), learning strategy (elaboration), and course satisfaction to student's performance (course final grade). Bandura's social-cognitive theory was used as a framework to describe the relationships among students' motivational beliefs (perceived task value, self-efficacy, and self-regulation) and emotions (frustration and boredom) with the dependent variables (elaboration and overall course satisfaction). A mixed-method design was used with a survey instrumentation and student interviews. A variety of science online courses in biology, genetics, astronomy, nutrition, and chemistry were surveyed in two community colleges. Community colleges students (N = 107) completed a questionnaire during enrollment in a variety of online science online courses. Upon course completion, 12 respondents were randomly selected for follow-up in-depth interviews. Multiple regression results from the study indicate perceived task value and self-regulatory learning strategies (metacognition) were as important predictors for students' use of elaboration, while self-efficacy and the number of prior online courses was not significant predictors for students' elaboration when all four predictors were included. Frustration was a significant negative predictor of overall course satisfaction, and boredom unexpectedly emerged as a positive predictor when frustration was also in the model. In addition, the

Opt-Out Parental Consent in Online Surveys: Ethical Considerations.

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, Jane; Porcellato, Lorna

2018-07-01

This article aims to foster discussion and debate around seeking parental consent from young people recruited online. The growth of social media, particularly for young people, has led to increased interest in young people's online activities as both a research topic and recruitment setting. In a health-related study, which sought to recruit young people aged 13 to 18 years old from YouTuber fan communities to an online survey, the question arose of how parental consent could be sought from young people below 16 when no link existed between researcher and parents/guardians. A practical strategy is proposed which combines novel communication methods for participant information, opt-out online consent and age verification to address this issue. Strengths and limitations of these approaches are discussed.

CORSSA: Community Online Resource for Statistical Seismicity Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Zechar, J. D.; Hardebeck, J. L.; Michael, A. J.; Naylor, M.; Steacy, S.; Wiemer, S.; Zhuang, J.

2011-12-01

Statistical seismology is critical to the understanding of seismicity, the evaluation of proposed earthquake prediction and forecasting methods, and the assessment of seismic hazard. Unfortunately, despite its importance to seismology-especially to those aspects with great impact on public policy-statistical seismology is mostly ignored in the education of seismologists, and there is no central repository for the existing open-source software tools. To remedy these deficiencies, and with the broader goal to enhance the quality of statistical seismology research, we have begun building the Community Online Resource for Statistical Seismicity Analysis (CORSSA, www.corssa.org). We anticipate that the users of CORSSA will range from beginning graduate students to experienced researchers. More than 20 scientists from around the world met for a week in Zurich in May 2010 to kick-start the creation of CORSSA: the format and initial table of contents were defined; a governing structure was organized; and workshop participants began drafting articles. CORSSA materials are organized with respect to six themes, each will contain between four and eight articles. CORSSA now includes seven articles with an additional six in draft form along with forums for discussion, a glossary, and news about upcoming meetings, special issues, and recent papers. Each article is peer-reviewed and presents a balanced discussion, including illustrative examples and code snippets. Topics in the initial set of articles include: introductions to both CORSSA and statistical seismology, basic statistical tests and their role in seismology; understanding seismicity catalogs and their problems; basic techniques for modeling seismicity; and methods for testing earthquake predictability hypotheses. We have also begun curating a collection of statistical seismology software packages.

Knowledge Discovery from Posts in Online Health Communities Using Unified Medical Language System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Donghua Chen

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Patient-reported posts in Online Health Communities (OHCs contain various valuable information that can help establish knowledge-based online support for online patients. However, utilizing these reports to improve online patient services in the absence of appropriate medical and healthcare expert knowledge is difficult. Thus, we propose a comprehensive knowledge discovery method that is based on the Unified Medical Language System for the analysis of narrative posts in OHCs. First, we propose a domain-knowledge support framework for OHCs to provide a basis for post analysis. Second, we develop a Knowledge-Involved Topic Modeling (KI-TM method to extract and expand explicit knowledge within the text. We propose four metrics, namely, explicit knowledge rate, latent knowledge rate, knowledge correlation rate, and perplexity, for the evaluation of the KI-TM method. Our experimental results indicate that our proposed method outperforms existing methods in terms of providing knowledge support. Our method enhances knowledge support for online patients and can help develop intelligent OHCs in the future.

The Feasibility of an Online Health Program for Community College Students

Science.gov (United States)

Donovan, Elizabeth; Chiauzzi, Emil; Floyd, Deborah L.; Bond, Kathleen; Wood, Mollie

2012-01-01

A comprehensive, four-phase approach was used to test the feasibility of an online, tailored health program for community college students. The prototype was perceived by students as relevant and useful; practitioners were favorable toward offering the program as part of orientation and in a credit-course format. (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.)

?I Use Weed for My ADHD?: A Qualitative Analysis of Online Forum Discussions on Cannabis Use and ADHD

OpenAIRE

Mitchell, John T.; Sweitzer, Maggie M.; Tunno, Angela M.; Kollins, Scott H.; McClernon, F. Joseph

2016-01-01

Background Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a risk factor for problematic cannabis use. However, clinical and anecdotal evidence suggest an increasingly popular perception that cannabis is therapeutic for ADHD, including via online resources. Given that the Internet is increasingly utilized as a source of healthcare information and may influence perceptions, we conducted a qualitative analysis of online forum discussions, also referred to as threads, on the effects of cannab...

Growth Patterns and E-Moderating Supports in Asynchronous Online Discussions in an Undergraduate Blended Course

Science.gov (United States)

Ghadirian, Hajar; Ayub, Ahmad Fauzi Mohd; Bakar, Kamariah Binti Abu; Hassanzadeh, Maryam

2016-01-01

This study presents a case study of asynchronous online discussions' (AOD) growth patterns in an undergraduate blended course to address the gap in our current understanding of how threads are developed in peer-moderated AODs. Building on a taxonomy of thread pattern proposed by Chan, Hew and Cheung (2009), growth patterns of thirty-six forums…

Styles of moderation in online health and support communities : an experimental comparison of their acceptance and effectiveness

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Matzat, U.; Rooks, G.

2014-01-01

Medical and social support communities depend very much on the active participation of their members. An active nurturing and moderation of online community activities is often necessary to overcome typical problems of community interaction, such as a lack of trust and active engagement. However, it

Web 2.0 Technologies and Building Online Learning Communities: Students' Perspectives

Science.gov (United States)

Abdelmalak, Mariam Mousa Matta

2015-01-01

The purpose of this action research was to explore students' perspectives regarding using Web 2.0 technologies to develop a community of learners. The course described in this study was a fully online course in an Educational Learning Technologies master's program at a medium-sized university in the U.S. Southwest. A variety of Web 2.0 tools…

Identifying gender-preferred communication styles within online cancer communities: a retrospective, longitudinal analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Durant, Kathleen T; McCray, Alexa T; Safran, Charles

2012-01-01

The goal of this research is to determine if different gender-preferred social styles can be observed within the user interactions at an online cancer community. To achieve this goal, we identify and measure variables that pertain to each gender-specific social style. We perform social network and statistical analysis on the communication flow of 8,388 members at six different cancer forums over eight years. Kruskal-Wallis tests were conducted to measure the difference between the number of intimate (and highly intimate) dyads, relationship length, and number of communications. We determine that two patients are more likely to form an intimate bond on a gender-specific cancer forum (ovarian P = communicates with more members than a female patient (Ovarian forum P = 0.0406, Breast forum P = 0.0013). A relationship between two patients is longer on the gender-specific cancer forums than a connection between two members not identified as patients (ovarian forum P = 0.00406, breast forum P = 0.00013, prostate forum P = .0.0003). The high level of interconnectedness among the prostate patients supports the hypothesis that men prefer to socialize in large, interconnected, less-intimate groups. A female patient is more likely to form a highly intimate connection with another female patient; this finding is consistent with the hypothesis that woman prefer fewer, more intimate connections. The relationships of same-gender cancer patients last longer than other relationships; this finding demonstrates homophily within these online communities. Our findings regarding online communication preferences are in agreement with research findings from person-to-person communication preference studies. These findings should be considered when designing online communities as well as designing and evaluating psychosocial and educational interventions for cancer patients.

The Community of Inquiry Framework Meets the SOLO Taxonomy: A Process-Product Model of Online Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Shea, Peter; Gozza-Cohen, Mary; Uzuner, Sedef; Mehta, Ruchi; Valtcheva, Anna Valentinova; Hayes, Suzanne; Vickers, Jason

2011-01-01

This paper presents both a conceptual and empirical investigation of teaching and learning in online courses. Employing both the Community of Inquiry framework (CoI) and the Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO) taxonomy, two complete online courses were examined for the quality of both collaborative learning processes and learning…

[Attitude of patients and customers toward on-line purchase of drugs--a Hungarian survey by community pharmacies].

Science.gov (United States)

Fittler, András; Bosze, Gergely; Botz, Lajos

2010-11-28

As internet is now available to nearly everyone in Hungary, the accessibility of websites offering pharmaceutical products is also increasing. The national and international regulation of these sites is currently an unsolved problem worldwide, thus potentially harmful, counterfeit and prescription only medicines are easily accessible on the market. We aimed to measure and estimate the current situation of the ordering of online medicines. In 5 Hungarian cities 434 self-administered questionnaires were collected in community pharmacies. Our results show that 6.2% of the respondents have already ordered drugs or dietary supplements online and approximately same amount of people are considering this option in the near future. Based on our survey mostly the educated, the 30-49 year old people and women are likely to buy drugs online. Every fifth respondent reported willingness to buy drugs online from abroad if lower prices were offered. Most people do not know that the quality of medicines purchased online could be different from the ones purchased from community pharmacies. We would like to draw attention of healthcare professionals to the rising popularity and potential risks of drugs available online.

Online persuasion process: a critical literature review of prior research

OpenAIRE

Poorrezaei, M

2013-01-01

In this paper, some of the limitations of prior research in terms of online persuasion process are\\ud highlighted. To do this, two main approaches which have been considered to study online persuasion\\ud process in context of social media are identified. Then, this study discusses the limitations and gaps\\ud of each approach. This paper is a part of author’s PhD dissertation which is being conducted to\\ud examine how different online behaviours are persuaded in online brand communities. The r...

Online University-Industry Collaboration

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Søndergaard, Helle Alsted; Bergenholtz, Carsten; Juhl, Hans Jørn

Extant studies have shown how online communities can promote collaborative and innovative activities in general. Studies on university-industry collaborations have so far focused less on online activities. We therefore set out to examine the individual and organizational drivers and barriers...... for academics and industrial professionals to contribute to online community-based platforms. We use a mixed method approach using both survey data and in-depth interviews with respondents from the Danish food sector. Findings show that in line with known studies on online innovation communities in general......, the main drivers for engagement are organizational and individual learning, and establishing connections, rather than monetary incentives. In contrast to offline studies on university-industry interactions, well-connected academics are less interested in online communities of academics and industry...

Exploring the Learner's Knowledge Construction and Cognitive Patterns of Different Asynchronous Platforms: Comparison of an Online Discussion Forum and Facebook

Science.gov (United States)

Hou, Huei-Tse; Wang, Shu-Ming; Lin, Peng-Chun; Chang, Kuo-En

2015-01-01

The primary purpose of this study is to explore the knowledge construction behaviour and cognitive patterns involved in students' online discussion using online forum and Facebook (FB). This study employed quantitative content analysis and lag sequential analysis to examine the content and behavioural patterns of 50 students from a private…

Credibility of online comments in the HPV vaccination discussion in Finnish online forums

OpenAIRE

Tuhkala, Veera

2016-01-01

Internet ja lukuisat online-kanavat ja -foorumit ovat mahdollistaneet reaaliaikaisen kom-mentoinnin lähes jokaiselle ja näin yleisöistä ja sisällön kuluttajista on tullut sisällöntuottajia. Sisällöt voivat myös ohjailla kuluttajien käyttäytymistä. Kuluttajien tuottaman sisällön suuri määrä on johtanut siihen, että online-sisältöjen luotettavuuden arvioimisesta on tullut entistä tärkeämpää ja organisaatioiden täytyy ennakoida ja hallita heitä käsittelevää verkkokeskustelua. Tavallisten ihmiste...

The Usage of an Online Discussion Forum for the Facilitation of Case-Based Learning in an Intermediate Accounting Course: A New Zealand Case

Science.gov (United States)

Weil, Sidney; McGuigan, Nicholas; Kern, Thomas

2011-01-01

This paper describes the implementation of an online discussion forum as a means of facilitating case-based learning in an intermediate financial accounting course. The paper commences with a review of case-based learning literature and the use of online discussions as a delivery platform, linking these pedagogical approaches to the emerging needs…

Are embedded online communities of practice more successful than exclusively virtual ones?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Matzat, U.

2008-01-01

Is a deliberate shaping of the mixture of virtual and 'real-life' interaction in online communities a crucial condition for diminishing typical problems of knowledge sharing? Typical problems that increase the risk of failure are: 1. a lack of trust between members, 2. free rider behavior, and 3. a

Perceived healthcare provider reactions to patient and caregiver use of online health communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Rupert, Douglas J; Moultrie, Rebecca R; Read, Jennifer Gard; Amoozegar, Jacqueline B; Bornkessel, Alexandra S; O'Donoghue, Amie C; Sullivan, Helen W

2014-09-01

Many Internet users seek health information through online health communities (OHCs) and other social media. Yet few studies assess how individuals use peer-generated health information, and many healthcare providers (HCPs) believe OHCs interfere with patient-provider relationships. This study explored how individuals use OHC content in clinical discussions and how HCPs react to it. We conducted in-person and virtual focus groups with patients/caregivers who visited OHCs (n=89). A trained moderator asked about reasons for membership, sharing OHC content with providers, HCP reactions, and preferred roles for HCPs. Two researchers independently coded verbatim transcripts (NVivo 9.2) and conducted thematic response analysis. Participants described OHCs as supplementing information from HCPs, whom they perceived as too busy for detailed discussions. Almost all participants shared OHC content with HCPs, although only half cited OHCs as the source. Most HCPs reacted negatively to OHC content, making participants feel disempowered. Despite these reactions, participants continued to use OHCs, and most desired HCP feedback on the accuracy of OHC content. Individuals do not use OHCs to circumvent HCPs but instead to gather more in-depth information. HCPs should discuss OHC content with patients to help them avoid misinformation and make more informed decisions. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

A pedagogical design pattern framework for sharing experiences and enhancing communities of practice within online and blended learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chresteria Neutszky-Wulff

2016-12-01

Full Text Available ”Design patterns” were originally proposed in architecture and later in software engineering as a methodology to sketch and share solutions to recurring design problems. In recent years ”pedagogical design patterns” have been introduced as a way to sketch and share good practices in teaching and learning; specifically in the context of technology-enhanced learning (e-learning. Several attempts have been made to establish a framework for describing and sharing such e-learning patterns, but so far they have had limited success. At a series of workshops in a competence-development project for teachers at the University of Copenhagen a new and simpler pedagogical design pattern framework was developed for interfaculty sharing of experiences and enhancing communities of practice in relation to online and blended learning across the university. In this study, the new pedagogical design pattern framework is applied to describe the learning design in four online and blended learning courses within different academic disciplines: Classical Greek, Biostatistics, Environmental Management in Europe, and Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation. Future perspectives for using the framework for developing new E-learning patterns for online and blended learning courses are discussed.

In Pursuit of Ethical Research: Studying Hybrid Communities Using Online and Face-to-Face Communications

Science.gov (United States)

Busher, Hugh; James, Nalita

2015-01-01

Hybrid communities using online and face-to-face communications to construct their practices are increasingly part of everyday life amongst people who have easy access to the internet. Researching these communities raises a number of challenges for researchers in the pursuit of ethical research. The paper begins by exploring what is understood by…

Supporting socialisation in the transition to university: A potential use for on-line discussion boards

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Robinson, Leslie; Reeves, Pauline; Murphy, Fred; Hogg, Peter

2010-01-01

Background: Promoting socialisation for students entering Higher Education is desirable on two grounds. In the first instance it facilitates the processes of student collaboration which, according to sociocultural pedagogies, is important for effective learning. Secondly, it provides a supportive social network, enhancing the student experience which is thought to reduce the risk of attrition. These two drivers provided the rationale for our work. Method: Using the Blackboard Virtual Learning Environment, two on-line discussion boards were used during the transition and induction period for the BSc (Hons) Diagnostic Radiography programme at the University of Salford. The aim was to facilitate socialisation between students about to embark on the programme and current students and staff. The use of discussion boards was evaluated using a mixed methods approach. Statistical data regarding postings was analysed. Posts and focus group comments were subject to content analysis. Results: The discussion boards were 'hit' 5718 times and there were 280 posts. A small number of students did not post any messages. There was evidence of the key features of on-line socialisation which were; establishing an identity; getting to know others; discovering and contributing to communication etiquette; and developing supporting and trusting relationships. Conclusion: The discussion boards were deemed a successful method of providing socialisation during transition and induction. There were some limitations with discussion board layout and functionality and a blog, with its chronological layout and capability to display visual cues such as emoticons may be more effective. The limited participation by some students may provide a means by which to identify 'at-risk' students before the start of the course and this would be an interesting area for further study.

Building Better Online Courses (Invited Talk)

OpenAIRE

Norvig, Peter

2013-01-01

We now have many choices in designing a course, whether it is in the classroom, online, or a hybrid. This talk will cover some of the mechanics of running an online course, including the factors involved in building a community. And we will discuss whether building a course is like building software: in the early days, software was crafted by individuals, but over time we established processes that enabled large groups to build much larger systems. Today, courses are still crafted by an in...

Multilabel user classification using the community structure of online networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Rizos, Georgios; Papadopoulos, Symeon; Kompatsiaris, Yiannis

2017-01-01

We study the problem of semi-supervised, multi-label user classification of networked data in the online social platform setting. We propose a framework that combines unsupervised community extraction and supervised, community-based feature weighting before training a classifier. We introduce Approximate Regularized Commute-Time Embedding (ARCTE), an algorithm that projects the users of a social graph onto a latent space, but instead of packing the global structure into a matrix of predefined rank, as many spectral and neural representation learning methods do, it extracts local communities for all users in the graph in order to learn a sparse embedding. To this end, we employ an improvement of personalized PageRank algorithms for searching locally in each user's graph structure. Then, we perform supervised community feature weighting in order to boost the importance of highly predictive communities. We assess our method performance on the problem of user classification by performing an extensive comparative study among various recent methods based on graph embeddings. The comparison shows that ARCTE significantly outperforms the competition in almost all cases, achieving up to 35% relative improvement compared to the second best competing method in terms of F1-score.

Multilabel user classification using the community structure of online networks.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Georgios Rizos

Full Text Available We study the problem of semi-supervised, multi-label user classification of networked data in the online social platform setting. We propose a framework that combines unsupervised community extraction and supervised, community-based feature weighting before training a classifier. We introduce Approximate Regularized Commute-Time Embedding (ARCTE, an algorithm that projects the users of a social graph onto a latent space, but instead of packing the global structure into a matrix of predefined rank, as many spectral and neural representation learning methods do, it extracts local communities for all users in the graph in order to learn a sparse embedding. To this end, we employ an improvement of personalized PageRank algorithms for searching locally in each user's graph structure. Then, we perform supervised community feature weighting in order to boost the importance of highly predictive communities. We assess our method performance on the problem of user classification by performing an extensive comparative study among various recent methods based on graph embeddings. The comparison shows that ARCTE significantly outperforms the competition in almost all cases, achieving up to 35% relative improvement compared to the second best competing method in terms of F1-score.

Factors that Predict Full-Time Community College Faculty Engagement in Online Instruction

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Akroyd, Duane; Patton, Bess; Bracken, Susan

2013-01-01

This study is a secondary quantitative analysis of the 2004 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF) data. It examines the ability of human capital, intrinsic rewards, extrinsic rewards, and gender/race demographics to predict full-time community college faculty teaching on-line courses. Findings indicate that those faculty with higher…

?I Always Vet Things?: Navigating Privacy and the Presentation of Self on Health Discussion Boards Among Individuals with Long-Term Conditions

OpenAIRE

Brady, Ellen; Segar, Julia; Sanders, Caroline

2016-01-01

Background: The ethics of research into online communities is a long-debated issue, with many researchers arguing that open-access discussion groups are publically accessible data and do not require informed consent from participants for their use for research purposes. However, it has been suggested that there is a discrepancy between the perceived and actual privacy of user-generated online content by community members.Objective: There has been very little research regarding how privacy is ...

Learning and Best Practices for Learning in Open-Source Software Communities

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Singh, Vandana; Holt, Lila

2013-01-01

This research is about participants who use open-source software (OSS) discussion forums for learning. Learning in online communities of education as well as non-education-related online communities has been studied under the lens of social learning theory and situated learning for a long time. In this research, we draw parallels among these two…

ONLINE MARKETING OF HOSPITALITY SERVICES : Tourist satisfaction with online accommodation booking

OpenAIRE

Kaakinen, Heidi; Purkayastha, Eshita

2016-01-01

The aim of this thesis was to study tourist satisfaction in online accommodation booking. Nowadays it is very common to conduct any kind of business online because of its practicality, accessibility and convenience. These days online is a community and it is a very effective way to build relation with the consumers. Hospitality firms like hostel and restaurants are using online community as a marketing tool to reach their customers. Studies have found four participation benefits as to partici...

A qualitative analysis of an interactive online discussion by health professions educators on education research.

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Damodar, Komaladevi S; Lingaraj, Jayalakshmi; Kumar, Latha R; Chacko, Thomas V

2012-01-01

In view of increasing demand for reforms in medical education in India, it is important to generate evidence through education research to increase the relevance and improve the quality of medical education. Education research is still at a nascent stage in India for a number of reasons. This study elicited health professions educators' views about the dearth of education research in Southeast Asia and what is needed to improve it. Qualitative content analysis of an interactive, online discussion on 'education research' between PSG-FAIMER Regional Institute fellows and faculty was carried out. Forty-four health professionals exchanged approximately 492 email messages during the discussion. One main concern expressed within the group was that the medical curriculum was not in tune with the health care needs of the society and reforms in the curriculum should be based on research. Most fellows felt that their work in education research was not appreciated in their schools. Participants felt that education research was done for altruistic reasons and only by self-motivated faculty. Participants also said that regulatory bodies were not concerned about the quality of education and its related research. Measures that could improve education research also emerged during the discussions. Interactive online discussions elicited important issues about education research in India. Participants noted that there is no recognition or rewards to encourage faculty to conduct education research. They also said that there is need to educate faculty about changes elsewhere in medical education and to make them more aware of education research generally.

Expanding beyond Our Library Walls: Building an Active Online Community through Facebook

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Ganster, Ligaya; Schumacher, Bridget

2009-01-01

This article demonstrates how Facebook, a popular social networking Web site, provides libraries with the opportunity to develop an outreach presence and information portal within an online community. While much of the recent literature examines Facebook and defines its potential use within libraries, this article focuses on the use of Facebook's…

Self-control in Online Discussions: Disinhibited Online Behavior as a Failure to Recognize Social Cues.

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Voggeser, Birgit J; Singh, Ranjit K; Göritz, Anja S

2017-01-01

In an online experiment we examined the role of self-control in recognizing social cues in the context of disinhibited online behavior (e.g., flaming and trolling). We temporarily lowered participants' self-control capacity with an ego depletion paradigm (i.e., color Stroop task). Next, we measured participants' sensitivity to social cues with an emotional Stroop task containing neutral, negative, and taboo words. Sensitivity to social cues is represented by the increase in reaction time to negative and especially taboo words compared to neutral words. As expected, undepleted participants were slower to process the color of negative and taboo words. By contrast, depleted participants (i.e., those with lowered self-control capacity) did not react differently to taboo or negative words than they did to neutral words. The experiment illustrates that self-control failure may manifest itself in a failure to recognize social cues. The finding underlines the importance of self-control in understanding disinhibited online behavior: Many instances of disinhibited online behavior may occur not because people are unable to control themselves, but because they do not realize that a situation calls for self-control in the first place.

Self-control in Online Discussions: Disinhibited Online Behavior as a Failure to Recognize Social Cues

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Birgit J. Voggeser

2018-01-01

Full Text Available In an online experiment we examined the role of self-control in recognizing social cues in the context of disinhibited online behavior (e.g., flaming and trolling. We temporarily lowered participants' self-control capacity with an ego depletion paradigm (i.e., color Stroop task. Next, we measured participants' sensitivity to social cues with an emotional Stroop task containing neutral, negative, and taboo words. Sensitivity to social cues is represented by the increase in reaction time to negative and especially taboo words compared to neutral words. As expected, undepleted participants were slower to process the color of negative and taboo words. By contrast, depleted participants (i.e., those with lowered self-control capacity did not react differently to taboo or negative words than they did to neutral words. The experiment illustrates that self-control failure may manifest itself in a failure to recognize social cues. The finding underlines the importance of self-control in understanding disinhibited online behavior: Many instances of disinhibited online behavior may occur not because people are unable to control themselves, but because they do not realize that a situation calls for self-control in the first place.

Online Social Support for Patients with Multiple Sclerosis: A Thematic Analysis of Messages Posted to a Virtual Support Community

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Masoumeh Abbasi Shavazi

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Background: Currently with the emergence of the Internet, patients have an opportunity to exchange social support online. However, little attention has been devoted to different dimensions of online social support exchanged in virtual support communities for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS. Methods: To provide a rich insight, the aim of this qualitative study was to explore and categorize different dimensions of online social support in messages exchanged in a virtual support community for patients with MS. A total of 548 posted messages created during one year period were selected using purposive sampling to consider the maximum variation sampling. Prior-research-driven thematic analysis was then conducted. In this regard, we used the Cutruna and Suhr’s coding system. The messages that could not be categorized with the used coding system were thematically analyzed to explore new additional social support themes. Results: The results showed that various forms of social support including informational, emotional, network, esteem and tangible support were exchanged. Moreover, new additional social support themes including sharing personal experiences, sharing coping strategies and spiritual support emerged in this virtual support community. Conclusion: The wide range of online social support exchanged in the virtual support community can be regarded as a supplementary source of social support for patients with MS. Future researches can examine online social support more comprehensively considering additional social support themes emerging in the present study.

"Pervy Role-Play and Such": Girls' Experiences of Sexual Messaging Online

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Nielsen, Silja; Paasonen, Susanna; Spisak, Sanna

2015-01-01

Sexting is one of the recurring causes of concern in public discussion of young people and network media. This paper builds on findings from a survey with 1269 Finnish female respondents aged 11-18 conducted using a popular online community for girls on their experiences of and views on online messages concerning sex and sexuality. Sixty-five per…

Essays on Korean online game communities: A sense of place: Media and motivation in Korea by the Wang-tta effect; Order and chaos in an ethnography of Korean online game communities

OpenAIRE

Chee, Florence

2005-01-01

Essay 1 : This paper presents an ethnographic analysis of the different ways Korean game players establish community. I look at Korean PC game rooms as "third places,", and peer relations associated with online video gaming activities. A synthesis of the Korean concept "Wang-tta" and application of the TEDA Ethos protocol provides extra insight into the motivations to excel at digital games and one of the strong drivers of such community membership. Essay 2: This paper explores the dichotomy ...

Cohort Learning Online in Graduate Higher Education: Constructing Knowledge in Cyber Community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gabriele I. E. Strohschen

2004-01-01

Full Text Available This paper discusses a qualitative participatory action research study, which examined the nature of the cohort learning experience in an online master’s program, from both faculty and student perspectives. After describing this online master’s program in adult education designed from a social constructivist theoretical frame, this paper discusses two primary areas of findings related to cohort learning. First, were those related to the ongoing negotiation of the learning process: the importance of an opening residential; a consistent but flexible cohort structure; and building ongoing relationships. Second, were those related to the ongoing construction of knowledge: the role of team-teaching and the cohort model in transformative learning; the application of theory to real life practice, and the value of group support and collaboration in conducting research and constructing knowledge. Implications for practice are discussed.

Barriers and Facilitators for the Implementation of an Online Clinical Health Community in Addition to Usual Fertility Care: A Cross-Sectional Study

OpenAIRE

Aarts, Johanna WM; Faber, Marjan J; den Boogert, Anne G; Cohlen, Ben J; van der Linden, Paul JQ; Kremer, Jan AM; Nelen, Willianne LDM

2013-01-01

BACKGROUND: Online health communities are becoming more popular in health care. Patients and professionals can communicate with one another online, patients can find peer support, and professionals can use it as an additional information channel to their patients. However, the implementation of online health communities into daily practice is challenging. These challenges relate to the fact that patients need to be activated to (1) become a member (ie, subscription) and (2) participate active...

Tools for Scientist Engagement in E/PO: NASA SMD Community Workspace and Online Resources

Science.gov (United States)

Dalton, H.; Shipp, S. S.; Grier, J.; Gross, N. A.; Buxner, S.; Bartolone, L.; Peticolas, L. M.; Woroner, M.; Schwerin, T. G.

2014-12-01

The Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Science Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) Forums are here to help you get involved in E/PO! The Forums have been developing several online resources to support scientists who are - or who are interested in becoming - involved in E/PO. These include NASA Wavelength, EarthSpace, and the SMD E/PO online community workspace. NASA Wavelength is the one-stop shop of all peer-reviewed NASA education resources to find materials you - or your audiences - can use. Browse by audience (pre-K through 12, higher education, and informal education) or topic, or choose to search for something specific by keyword and audience. http://nasawavelength.org. EarthSpace, an online clearinghouse of Earth and space materials for use in the higher education classroom, is driven by a powerful search engine that allows you to browse the collection of resources by science topic, audience, type of material or key terms. All materials are peer-reviewed before posting, and because all submissions receive a digital object identifier (doi), submitted materials can be listed as publications. http://www.lpi.usra.edu/earthspace. The SMD E/PO online community workspace contains many resources for scientists. These include one-page guides on how to get involved, tips on how to make the most of your time spent on E/PO, and sample activities, as well as news on funding, policy, and what's happening in the E/PO community. The workspace also provides scientists and the public pathways to find opportunities for participation in E/PO, to learn about SMD E/PO projects and their impacts, to connect with SMD E/PO practitioners, and to explore resources to improve professional E/PO practice, including literature reviews, information about the Next Generation Science Standards, and best practices in evaluation and engaging diverse audiences. http://smdepo.org.

The Public Library on the Electronic Frontier: Starting a Community Online Information System.

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Fox, Carol J.

1995-01-01

Details the Rockford (Illinois) Public Library's activities involved with developing a community online information system and the not-for-profit organization established to run the system. Includes mission statement; guiding principles, policy statements; standing committees and goals for first year of operation; funding; adding users and…

Identifying gender-preferred communication styles within online cancer communities: a retrospective, longitudinal analysis.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kathleen T Durant

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: The goal of this research is to determine if different gender-preferred social styles can be observed within the user interactions at an online cancer community. To achieve this goal, we identify and measure variables that pertain to each gender-specific social style. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We perform social network and statistical analysis on the communication flow of 8,388 members at six different cancer forums over eight years. Kruskal-Wallis tests were conducted to measure the difference between the number of intimate (and highly intimate dyads, relationship length, and number of communications. We determine that two patients are more likely to form an intimate bond on a gender-specific cancer forum (ovarian P = <0.0001, breast P = 0.0089, prostate P = 0.0021. Two female patients are more likely to form a highly intimate bond on a female-specific cancer forum (Ovarian P<0.0001, Breast P<0.01. Typically a male patient communicates with more members than a female patient (Ovarian forum P = 0.0406, Breast forum P = 0.0013. A relationship between two patients is longer on the gender-specific cancer forums than a connection between two members not identified as patients (ovarian forum P = 0.00406, breast forum P = 0.00013, prostate forum P = .0.0003. CONCLUSION: The high level of interconnectedness among the prostate patients supports the hypothesis that men prefer to socialize in large, interconnected, less-intimate groups. A female patient is more likely to form a highly intimate connection with another female patient; this finding is consistent with the hypothesis that woman prefer fewer, more intimate connections. The relationships of same-gender cancer patients last longer than other relationships; this finding demonstrates homophily within these online communities. Our findings regarding online communication preferences are in agreement with research findings from person-to-person communication

Building the Community Online Resource for Statistical Seismicity Analysis (CORSSA)

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Michael, A. J.; Wiemer, S.; Zechar, J. D.; Hardebeck, J. L.; Naylor, M.; Zhuang, J.; Steacy, S.; Corssa Executive Committee

2010-12-01

Statistical seismology is critical to the understanding of seismicity, the testing of proposed earthquake prediction and forecasting methods, and the assessment of seismic hazard. Unfortunately, despite its importance to seismology - especially to those aspects with great impact on public policy - statistical seismology is mostly ignored in the education of seismologists, and there is no central repository for the existing open-source software tools. To remedy these deficiencies, and with the broader goal to enhance the quality of statistical seismology research, we have begun building the Community Online Resource for Statistical Seismicity Analysis (CORSSA). CORSSA is a web-based educational platform that is authoritative, up-to-date, prominent, and user-friendly. We anticipate that the users of CORSSA will range from beginning graduate students to experienced researchers. More than 20 scientists from around the world met for a week in Zurich in May 2010 to kick-start the creation of CORSSA: the format and initial table of contents were defined; a governing structure was organized; and workshop participants began drafting articles. CORSSA materials are organized with respect to six themes, each containing between four and eight articles. The CORSSA web page, www.corssa.org, officially unveiled on September 6, 2010, debuts with an initial set of approximately 10 to 15 articles available online for viewing and commenting with additional articles to be added over the coming months. Each article will be peer-reviewed and will present a balanced discussion, including illustrative examples and code snippets. Topics in the initial set of articles will include: introductions to both CORSSA and statistical seismology, basic statistical tests and their role in seismology; understanding seismicity catalogs and their problems; basic techniques for modeling seismicity; and methods for testing earthquake predictability hypotheses. A special article will compare and review

Understanding persistence in the use of online fitness communities : comparing novice and experienced users

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stragier, Jeroen; Vanden Abeele, Mariek; Mechant, Peter; De Marez, Lieven

2016-01-01

Mobile and wearable technologies facilitate physiological data collection for health and wellness purposes. Users typically access these data via Online Fitness Community (OFC) platforms (e.g., Fitbit, Strava, RunKeeper). These platforms present users with functionalities centered on

Social Presence and Interactivity in Online Courses: Enhancing the Online Learning Environment through Discussion and Writing

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Harrigan, Anne M.

2010-01-01

This study explored social presence and interactivity in an online undergraduate program designed for adult students. Although social presence and interactivity have been shown to be important contributors to student satisfaction, and therefore essential to student recruitment and retention in online programs, the ultimate goal for the examination…

An Empirical Study of Online Discussion Forums by Library and Information Science Postgraduate Students using Technology Acceptance Model 3

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Airen Adetimirin

2015-06-01

Full Text Available E-learning is an important trend globally that is believed to enhance the acquisition of knowledge by students within and outside the classroom to improve their academic pursuit. The Online Discussion Forum (ODF is one of the tools that are used for e-learning in Nigerian universities. It facilitates interaction among postgraduate students as they can communicate and share information sources with one another to promote learning. However, the optimum use of this forum is determined by anchor factors in TAM 3 such as computer self-efficacy, perceptions of external control, computer anxiety and computer playfulness. A conceptual model based on TAM 3 was proposed and empirically tested. Using a survey research design and an online questionnaire for 121 Library and Information Science (LIS postgraduate students, the paper demonstrated that computer self-efficacy, perceptions of external control, computer anxiety and computer playfulness have significant influence on the use of ODF. The paper therefore proposes that Online Discussion Forums should be encouraged for learning in postgraduate education.

“What Motivates Her”: Motivations for Considering Labial Reduction Surgery as Recounted on Women's Online Communities and Surgeons' Websites

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Sandra Zwier, PhD

2014-04-01

Conclusions: Feelings of emotional and psychosexual distress in addition to functional distress are a highly prevalent motivation among women considering labial reduction surgery. Emotional distress appears to be greater and more freely emphasized when women communicate on online communities, while functional issues appear to receive greater notice on surgery provider's websites. Zwier S. “What motivates her”: Motivations for considering labial reduction surgery as recounted on women's online communities and surgeons' websites. Sex Med 2014;2:16–23.

Eliciting and receiving online support: using computer-aided content analysis to examine the dynamics of online social support.

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Wang, Yi-Chia; Kraut, Robert E; Levine, John M

2015-04-20

Although many people with serious diseases participate in online support communities, little research has investigated how participants elicit and provide social support on these sites. The first goal was to propose and test a model of the dynamic process through which participants in online support communities elicit and provide emotional and informational support. The second was to demonstrate the value of computer coding of conversational data using machine learning techniques (1) by replicating results derived from human-coded data about how people elicit support and (2) by answering questions that are intractable with small samples of human-coded data, namely how exposure to different types of social support predicts continued participation in online support communities. The third was to provide a detailed description of these machine learning techniques to enable other researchers to perform large-scale data analysis in these communities. Communication among approximately 90,000 registered users of an online cancer support community was analyzed. The corpus comprised 1,562,459 messages organized into 68,158 discussion threads. Amazon Mechanical Turk workers coded (1) 1000 thread-starting messages on 5 attributes (positive and negative emotional self-disclosure, positive and negative informational self-disclosure, questions) and (2) 1000 replies on emotional and informational support. Their judgments were used to train machine learning models that automatically estimated the amount of these 7 attributes in the messages. Across attributes, the average Pearson correlation between human-based judgments and computer-based judgments was .65. Part 1 used human-coded data to investigate relationships between (1) 4 kinds of self-disclosure and question asking in thread-starting posts and (2) the amount of emotional and informational support in the first reply. Self-disclosure about negative emotions (beta=.24, Ponline support communities.

Adoption of Online Purchasing Methods in Communities and its Socio-Economic Implications in Regional Central Queensland, Australia

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W. J. Taylor

2004-05-01

Full Text Available This paper analyses the general trends of online purchasing in Central Queensland (CQ communities during 1999-2002 and identifies the socio-economic factors affecting online purchasing activities. The Online Purchasing Indicator, defined as a combination of percentages of online purchasers and of regular purchasers (>one item/month within a group, is applied to compare these activities between these two groups. The study identifies that four factors, namely ‘personal attributes’, ‘knowledge’, ‘trust’ and ‘need’ may play important roles in online purchasing decisions. The research found that regional economic bleeding associated with low local adoption failing to provide justification for local business to adopt electronic purchasing support has not yet reached significant levels.

Can I help you? Information sharing in online discussion forums by people living with a long-term condition

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Carol S Bond

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Background Peer-to-peer health care is increasing, especially amongst people living with a long-term condition. How information is shared is, however, sometimes of concern to health care professionals. Objective This study explored what information is being shared on health-related discussion boards and identified the approaches people used to signpost their peers to information. Methods This study was conducted using a qualitative content analysis methodology to explore information shared on discussion boards for people living with diabetes. Whilst there is debate about the best ethical lens to view research carried out on data posted on online discussion boards, the researchers chose to adopt the stance of treating this type of information as “personal health text”, a specific type of research data in its own right. Results Qualitative content analysis and basic descriptive statistics were used to analyse the selected posts. Two major themes were identified: ‘Information Sharing from Experience’ and ‘Signposting Other Sources of Information’. Conclusions People were actively engaging in information sharing in online discussion forums, mainly through direct signposting. The quality of the information shared was important, with reasons for recommendations being given. Much of the information sharing was based on experience, which also brought in information from external sources such as health care professionals and other acknowledged experts in the field. With the rise in peer-to-peer support networks, the nature of health knowledge and expertise needs to be redefined. People online are combining external information with their own personal experiences and sharing that for others to take and develop as they wish.

Online epistemic communities: theoretical and methodological directions for understanding knowledge co-elaboration in new digital spaces.

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Détienne, Françoise; Barcellini, Flore; Baker, Michael; Burkhardt, Jean-Marie; Fréard, Dominique

2012-01-01

This paper presents, illustrates and discusses a generic framework for studying knowledge co-elaboration in online epistemic communities ("OECs"). Our approach is characterised by: considering knowledge co-elaboration as a design activity; distinguishing discussion and production spaces in OECs; characterising participation via the notion of role; fine-grained analyses of meaning, content and communicative functions in interactions. On this basis, three key issues for ergonomics research on OECs are discussed and illustrated by results from our previous studies on OSS and Wikipedia. One issue concerns the interrelation between design (task) and regulation. Whereas design task-oriented activity is distributed among participants, we illustrate that OCEs function with specialised emerging roles of group regulation. However, the task-oriented activity also functions at an interpersonal level, as an interplay of knowledge-based discussion with negotiation of competencies. Another issue concerns the foci of activity on the (designed) knowledge object. Based on a generic task model, we illustrate asymmetry and distinctiveness in tasks' foci of participants. The last issue concerns how design-use mediation is ensured by specific forms of mediation roles in OECs. Finally we discuss the degree of generality of our framework and draw some perspectives for extending our framework to other OECs.

Understanding and Accommodating Online Social Communities: A Common Sense Approach

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Lennon, Sean M.

2013-01-01

Online social networks such as Facebook have changed the context and definitions of socialization. Focusing on teacher use, this article considers the size and impact of these forums and the importance many young professionals feel toward them. Themed as a common sense approach, the author uses anecdotal points and discussions with…

Online Resources for Engaging Students in Bioethical Discussions

OpenAIRE

Hawkins, Amy J.; Stark, Louisa A.

2015-01-01

This review highlights free online resources for teaching bioethics that will be useful for educators working with high school and undergraduate students. These materials provide frameworks of ethical analysis, curricula and lesson plans, case studies, and resources that have a special focus on protection of human research participants.

Navigating digital publics for playful production: A cross-case analysis of two interest-driven online communities

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