Gamification for Online Communities: A Case Study for Delivering Government Services

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (02) ◽  
pp. 1441002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanat Kumar Bista ◽  
Surya Nepal ◽  
Cécile Paris ◽  
Nathalie Colineau
Keyword(s):  
Online Communities ◽  
Human Services ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Formal Model ◽  
Welfare Recipients ◽  
User Engagement ◽  
Community Needs ◽  
Design And Implementation ◽  
Sustainable Operation

Gamification, the idea of inserting game dynamics into portals or social networks, has recently evolved as an approach to encourage active participation in online communities. For an online community to start and proceed on to a sustainable operation, it is important that members are encouraged to contribute positively and frequently. We decided to introduce gamification in an online community that we designed and developed with the Australian Government's Department of Human Services to support welfare recipients transitioning from one payment to another. We first defined a formal model of gamification and a gamification design process. In instantiating our model to the online community, we realised that our context applied a number of constraints on the gamification elements that could be introduced. In this paper, we outline the design and implementation of a gamification model for online communities and its instantiation into our context, with its specific requirements. While we cannot comment on the success of gamification to drive user engagement in our context (for lack of the possibility of a controlled experiment), we found our implementation of badges-based gamification a helpful way to provide a useful abstraction on the life of the community, providing feedback enabling us to monitor and analyze the community. We thus show how feedback provided by such gamification data has a potential to be useful to community providers to better understand the community needs and addressing them appropriately to maintain a level of engagement in the community.

scholarly journals Researching online communities of inquiry through digital ethnography

2021 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
pp. 01006
Author(s):  
Neil Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Digital Ethnography ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Communities Of Inquiry

Research into providing effective online education has suggested an important goal for instructors is the creation of an online community of inquiry (CoI) where social, cognitive, and teacher presence are all important aspects of successful online learning. With reference to a recent reflective practice case study, this paper describes ways that the research on online communities of inquiry may be enriched through the use of digital ethnography. In the target reflective case study, data analysis tasks were designed and presented in an online VoiceThread site, promoting dialogic and multimodal engagement with data from actual research studies that are central to the module theme in teacher education. Interaction around these tasks is coded using the CoI framework. Ethnographic data from the participants was collected and coded using qualitative research protocols to contextualise the interaction data and provide a clearer understanding of how participants had come together throughout the module. The ethnographic data revealed some interesting concerns with online learning, including the use of technology as a barrier to participation.

scholarly journals Online Communities and Open Innovation

Economics ◽  
2015 ◽  
pp. 652-666
Author(s):  
Alberto Francesconi ◽  
Riccardo Bonazzi ◽  
Claudia Dossena
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Absorptive Capacity ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Open Innovation ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Software Tool ◽  
Linear Process ◽  
Innovation Approach

Online communities are becoming an important way to support firms towards an open innovation approach. However, knowledge shared in an online community represents only a potential for firm's innovation aims. The effectiveness of exploration and exploitation of this knowledge depends on firm's absorptive capacity. In this work the authors focus on the time an idea, shared within an online community, takes to be transformed from a ‘potential' into a ‘realized' innovation by a firm. In particular, conceiving knowledge as a trajectory across pole of attraction rather than a linear process, the authors develop a model inspired by the solar system metaphor. Preliminary results from a case study are presented. They suggest firms may improve the effectiveness of absorptive capacity exploiting the mediation role of a software tool.

A Framework for Analyzing Online Communities

2012 ◽  
pp. 129-143
Author(s):  
M. Gordon Hunter ◽  
Rosemary Stockdale
Keyword(s):  
Online Communities ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Community Organizations ◽  
Value Proposition ◽  
Group Interactions ◽  
Community Needs ◽  
Important Stage ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Definition Of

This paper examines online communities and describes how they can be differentiated from other Internet supported group interactions. A definition of an online community is given and three generic types are identified. These types are defined by the community models based on the value proposition for the sponsors and members. The value proposition for members is strongly influenced by the model, as facilities and opportunities for interaction are structured by the site sponsors. Where online communities offer fulfillment of specific needs, people participate and become members. Additional benefits enhance the value of membership and encourage retention and greater interactivity. Significant benefits are gained from online communities for businesses, NGOs, other community organizations and individuals. Identifying the different types of communities and their characteristics is an important stage in developing greater understanding of how virtual communities can contribute to businesses, healthcare, community needs and a myriad of other contexts. Examples of the three generic types of online communities are included for further edification.

scholarly journals Developing Online Communities for Librarian Researchers: A Case Study

2017 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 512
Author(s):  
Lili Luo ◽  
Marie Kennedy ◽  
Kristine Brancolini ◽  
Michael Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Academic Librarians ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Conference Attendance

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 and a Facebook group page. A content analysis of their posts and an online survey among them identified different patterns of engagement and four primary types of content—posts related to completing the IRDL research project required for each cohort member, announcements about research-related resources and opportunities, posts reminiscing about the IRDL experience, and arrangements of conference attendance and meetups. Implications for successfully designing online communities for librarian researchers are discussed.

Creating and Sustaining Online Communities

2004 ◽  
pp. 132-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Online Communities ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Community Initiatives ◽  
Seed Funding ◽  
Rural Context ◽  
Initial Seed

This chapter explores the challenges of establishing and sustaining online communities and regional portals. Theory relevant to online communities, particularly in a regional and rural context, is introduced to provide a background for the MainStreet Regional Portal case study. The author hopes that the dissemination of information on the critical learnings from this project will assist in informing others about the diverse factors which can impact on creating and sustaining online community initiatives, long after initial seed funding has been expended.

scholarly journals Metrics Feedback Cycle: measuring and improving user engagement in gamified eLearning systems

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Atkins ◽  
Vanissa Wanick ◽  
Gary Wills
Keyword(s):  
User Engagement ◽  
Formal Process ◽  
Design And Implementation ◽  
Feedback Cycle ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Iterative Evaluation ◽  
Positive Effect

This paper presents the identification, design and implementation of a set of metrics of user engagement in a gamified eLearning application. The 'Metrics Feedback Cycle' (MFC) is introduced as a formal process prescribing the iterative evaluation and improvement of application-wide engagement, using data collected from metrics as input to improve related engagement features. This framework was showcased using a gamified eLearning application as a case study. In this paper, we designed a prototype and tested it with thirty-six (N=36) students to validate the effectiveness of the MFC. The analysis and interpretation of metrics data shows that the gamification features had a positive effect on user engagement, and helped identify areas in which this could be improved. We conclude that the MFC has applications in gamified systems that seek to maximise engagement by iteratively evaluating implemented features against a set of evolving metrics.

From Lurkers to Workers: Predicting Voluntary Contribution and Community Welfare

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 607-626 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marios Kokkodis ◽  
Theodoros Lappas ◽  
Sam Ransbotham
Keyword(s):  
Online Communities ◽  
Online Community ◽  
User Engagement ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Discussion Threads ◽  
Voluntary Contribution ◽  
User Activity

In an online community, users can interact with fellow community members by voluntarily contributing to existing discussion threads or by starting new threads. In practice, however, the vast majority of a community’s users (∼90%) remain inactive (lurk), simply observing contributions made by intermittent (∼9%) and heavy (∼1%) contributors. Our research examines increases and decreases of types of user engagement in online communities, characterizing user engagement based on trace user activity or lack of activity. Some lurkers later become workers (i.e., engaged in the community), but some will not. Differentiating lurkers who can be engaged from those who cannot enables managers to anticipate and proactively direct their resources toward the users who are most likely to become or remain workers (i.e., heavy contributors), thereby promoting community welfare. Our research, based on analysis of 533,714 posts from an online diabetes community, can thus guide managerial interventions to increase online community welfare.

scholarly journals Throwing Pebbles into a Dark Cave: A Study of Participation and Behaviour in the {act-km} Online Community

2007 ◽  
Vol 06 (02) ◽  
pp. 139-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg Timbrell ◽  
Patrick Lambe ◽  
Ørjan Taule
Keyword(s):  
Online Communities ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Activity Profile ◽  
Constituent Elements

This article defines online communities and their constituent elements. It provides a framework in which online communities can be discussed and compared irrespective of topic or content. It explores the notions of core and peripheral membership and behaviour and provides a set of metrics for determining the activity profile of the community. Finally it presents a case study of an online community and discusses it using the framework and metrics presented.

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