Simulation of User Participation and Interaction in Online Discussion Groups

2012 ◽  
pp. 138-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Else Nygren
Keyword(s):  
Online Discussion ◽  
User Participation ◽  
Discussion Groups

scholarly journals ONLINE COLLABORATIVE ACTION RESEARCH IN AN EFL CONTEXT: THE EFFECT ON TEACHERS’ REFLECTIVE PRACTICE

2021 ◽  
Vol 84 (4) ◽  
pp. 158-175
Author(s):  
Zahra Fathian ◽  
Majid Farahian
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Reflective Practice ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Collaborative Action Research ◽  
Discussion Groups ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Collaborative Action ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
The Impact

Technology can be integrated in teacher education and, hence, be used to empower teachers to extend learning beyond their classrooms. Therefore, the present study was an attempt to investigate English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ perceptions of action research and explore the impact of their collaborative action research in an online discussion group on their reflective practice. In addition, we were interested to know how online collaborative research action research contributes to their promotion of reflective thinking.The participants of this study were 23 Iranian EFL teachers who were recruited based on convenience sampling. The design of the study was a pre-test post-test design. As such, two questionnaires were given to the participants at the beginning and end of the study. As the next step, the participants took part in online discussion groups for 10 sessions in which they read and watched some essays and videos, wrote about some topics, and shared their ideas and experiences. To consolidate the findings, semi-structured interviews were held with 12 participants. The result of the study indicated that most of the participants of the study had optimistic views regarding action research. In addition, participating in online discussion groups enabled them to think more about their teaching practice and gain higher levels of reflectivity. The results of the qualitative phase indicated that the online courses had effect on the teachers’ practice and reflectivity in different ways. Despite all studies conducted on action research in Iran, contradictory results have been found regarding teachers’ perception of action research. In addition, to the researchers’ knowledge, no study has investigated the use of online collaborative action research on teachers’ reflection. As such, it seemed necessary to conduct a study to explore the role of action research as a framework for improving reflective practice.

Is Political Participation Online Effective?

2014 ◽  
pp. 345-366
Author(s):  
Patrícia G. C. Rossini ◽  
Rousiley C. M. Maia
Keyword(s):  
Internet Use ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
User Participation ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Draft Bill ◽  
Legislative Activities ◽  
Political Decisions

The Brazilian Chamber of Deputies (Câmara dos Deputados) conducts an e-democracy initiative that enables people to participate in political decisions regarding legislation. “Portal E-Democracia” is the name of this website in which people can participate in several different ways to speak their minds regarding legislative activities. This chapter analyses the effectiveness of citizens' engagement in the e-democracy initiative through the case study of the discussion of the Internet Civilian Landmark – a bill to regulate Internet use in Brazil. The authors analyse two types of participation: comments to the draft bill and suggestions. To measure the effectiveness of user-participation in such a case of collaborative lawmaking, the authors compare the content of the first draft, the final draft, and the suggestions made through the wikilegis in order to assess whether the discussions maintained within the e-democracy platform were or were not taken into account. This procedure also reveals to what extent online discussion was able to reach political decision-makers and effectively change the Internet's Bill of Rights.

Online Learning in Discussion Groups

2011 ◽  
pp. 276-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Schaefer ◽  
Brenda Dervin
Keyword(s):  
Online Discussion ◽  
User Interaction ◽  
Discussion Group ◽  
Discussion Groups ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Democratic Quality ◽  
Situational Information ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Pedagogical Discussion

Recently, theorists concerned about the democratic quality of electronic group discussions have advocated the incorporation of situational information to facilitate consensus/dissensus activity. In this chapter, we demonstrate the utilization of a discussion group design and analytical process informed by Sense-Making Methodology to highlight the relationship between situational aspects of online dialogue and consensus/dissensus activity. We analyzed 1,360 messages submitted to three pedagogical discussion groups. The postings fell into two broad situational modes: (a) dialogic, which coincided with an outward orientation and a greater number of agreeing/disagreeing micro-practices, and (b) contemplative, which demonstrated more inwardly-focused personalized observations and far fewer agreeing/disagreeing micro-practices. These findings suggest that, counter to received theories advocating the privileging of user-to-user interaction within online discussion groups, both modes appeared to be important for robust communicative activities.

Cancer Patient-to-Patient Online Discussion Groups

2011 ◽  
pp. 18-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy Rada
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Discussion Groups ◽  
Care Givers ◽  
Patterns Of Use ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Use Of The Internet ◽  
Discussion System ◽  
Extended Group ◽  
E Mail

Three high-level observations set the stage: • Cancer is a major cause of death • Health-related concerns drive the greatest use of the Internet (Eysenbach, 2003) • Cancer patients may find support from online discussion groups. Actually, these discussion groups are for more than patients. Definitions of the users of the discussion systems and the types of systems are presented next. Care givers are those people who help a patient as friends or family of the patient (this is in contrast to care providers, who are healthcare professionals). The discussion systems to be addressed here serve both care givers and patients, and sometimes a more extended group of people who want to help or otherwise be involved in cancer support. This extended group of people will be denoted by the term ‘patient’ throughout the remainder of this article. The first patient online discussion system benefited from early technology to exploit e-mail connections known as e-mail list servers (listservs). A listserv allows a group of people to communicate by e-mail through a common email address. The listserv stores the messages received and participants can either receive e-mails one by one as they are sent, or in digests at daily, weekly or monthly intervals. Moderators are typically assigned to listservs and may determine conditions for membership in the listserv. The listserv itself has features for people to request enrollment and search the archives. Following the popularity of the World Wide Web (Web), technologists implemented Web discussion systems that allow people to register on the Web and gain access to Web-based archives of messages. These Web discussion systems typically also incorporate all the features of a listserv. Cancer patients participating in various online discussion systems will next be studied according to: • Patient patterns of use • Impact of the discussion systems on the patients • The extent to which patients might make scientific discoveries • The role of different healthcare industry entities in the management of these discussion systems The reader will see the opportunities for extended use of these discussion systems.

Online Discussion Groups as Socal Networks

2006 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 6-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Steyer ◽  
Renaud Garcia-Bardidia ◽  
Pascale Quester
Keyword(s):  
Online Discussion ◽  
Discussion Groups
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