scholarly journals Influence Without Metrics: Analyzing the Impact of Far-Right Users in an Online Discussion Forum

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512110088
Author(s):  
Mathilda Åkerlund
Keyword(s):  
Online Discussion ◽  
Discussion Forum ◽  
Online Forums ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Online Discussion Forum ◽  
Echo Chamber ◽  
Influential Users ◽  
The Impact

The study presented in this article explores the processes through which influence takes shape in eclectic online forums with few vanity metrics. Using a dataset of 7.5 million posts in the large Swedish online discussion forum Flashback, it explores who becomes influential, their strategies for appealing to the community, and others’ support of them. While it has been known that Flashback hosts far-right users and content, the current study shows that these sentiments are not fringe or obscure, but instead seemingly widely supported and influential in the forum. It illustrates that the influential users—those who are supported and acknowledged by others as important—exclusively and continuously expressed far-right ideas and displayed an embeddedness within the far-right, as well as in the forum’s culture. The study finds that despite few visible markers, many users learned to recognize influential users and their far-right content as worthy of support. In the absence of built-in functions, some users engaged in manual “liking” and “sharing” of influential users’ content via their replies, acknowledging it as a way to legitimize them. At the same time, the analysis showcased how a lack of vanity metrics countered potential echo chamber effects in the forum as disliked users—advocating progressive gender and immigration ideas—were unintentionally amplified by those who attempted to silence them. The article also discusses the role of Flashback as a platform in the proliferation of hate.

scholarly journals DON'T JUST SAY THANK YOU: EXPLORATION OF TYPES OF POSTS INSPIRING AND HINDERING DEEP CONVERSATIONS ONLINE

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Devayani Tirthali ◽  
Yumiko Murai
Keyword(s):  
Learning Community ◽  
Sequential Analysis ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Discussion Forum ◽  
Online Course ◽  
Online Discussion Forum ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Fixed Structure ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Given

In an open online discussion forum, where there is no fixed structure or a facilitator like a course forum without any assigned themes, every participant is a facilitator shaping the direction and depth of a conversation. How can we as designers then make sure it leads to an engaging learning community that learners keep coming back to beyond the given course period? This paper reports on sequential analysis of 172 posts in 32 threads and close reading of two threads from an open online discussion forum in a free open online course, specifically looking at the impact of participant actions as facilitative moves, to gain better understanding of the types of actions that lead to deeper and sustained engagement with the ideas of interest. Sequential analysis is an approach that estimates which types of sequences of posts or interactions are most likely to occur in a threaded discussion. The results showed that sharing personal experiences attracted most responses, implying that it is important to encourage participants to share questions or cases connected to their personal experiences. In addition, somewhat paradoxically, we found that posts acknowledging responses tend to conclude and close down the conversation while posts that ask diverging questions tend to attract more discussion.

scholarly journals Quantifying and Incentivizing Exploration of Reputable Sources for Argument Formation in an Online Discussion Forum

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. pp209-219
Author(s):  
L Square ◽  
V Van der Heyde ◽  
D. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Discussion Forum ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Learning Tools ◽  
Online Discussion Forum ◽  
The Impact

Nuclear power forms part of the first-year physics undergraduate course work in the extended curriculum program at the University of the Western Cape. This investigation intends to assist students in mastering their understanding of how nuclear power works through the development of critical thinking skills around the topic and to create awareness among students of the implications of expanding a nuclear power footprint. Through debate, students in this course investigate the impact of South Africa increasing its nuclear footprint within a global context. In this work, students were encouraged to explore publications and reputable websites surrounding this topic and based on their findings formulate arguments. The authors conceptualized and developed a Sakai tool (based on Learning Tools Interoperability), called Reference Register (RR) to compliment the work. RR stores the reference uploaded by each student, shares uploaded literature resources to the group members, and quantifies the number of times a student uses a reference when presenting their argument. The incorporation of the RR was intended to encourage students to formulate arguments based on well-founded literature. Authors sort to investigate in which ways and to what extent does an online discussion forum facilitate students becoming ethically, environmentally, and socially aware in the area of nuclear energy and to assist students in becoming better in their professional communication skills. The outcome of this student engagement included students becoming familiar with what constitutes a well-formulated scientific argument based on a literature review, group engagement, becoming aware of South African current affairs regarding nuclear power, and its social and economic impact.

Glad to Have Taken the STEPS

2009 ◽  
pp. 455-469
Author(s):  
Geoff Danaher ◽  
Violeta Todorovic
Keyword(s):  
Adult Learners ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Discussion Forum ◽  
Teaching Process ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Online Discussion Forum ◽  
Role Of Teachers

This chapter focuses on aspects that contribute to successful online learning in the Skills for Tertiary Education Preparatory Studies (STEPS) bridging program at CQUniversity in Australia. The program, which aims to instill the aptitudes, values and attitudes for effective university study in interrupted adult learners, has been running for 22 years and has had an online component for off campus students since 2006. Among the challenges involved in developing the online program have been promoting the value of critical reflection, recognizing the importance of learning as process to complement a focus on learning as product, and configuring an effective constructive alignment between factors shaping the learning and teaching process. The role of teachers’ reflective practices and students’ use of an online discussion forum in meeting these challenges is explored.

The impact of collective action and market prices

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 565-583
Author(s):  
Elif Özcan-Tok ◽  
Mustafa Utku Özmen ◽  
Ertan Tok ◽  
Tuba Yılmaz
Keyword(s):  
Information Sharing ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Discussion Forum ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Standard Deviation Increase ◽  
Market Prices ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Online Discussion Forum ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Potato Onion

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the information sharing in an online discussion forum, over an agricultural market characterized by a large number of small-scale farmers, has an impact on the market prices. Design/methodology/approach All the comments posted by farmers and traders on four storable items (potato, onion, lemon and apple) in an online discussion forum over 2013–2017 are collected. By using text mining techniques and regression analysis, words characterizing the actions and expectations of farmers and traders on the course of the market price are identified. Then, summary indicators pointing to positive and negative views on prices are calculated. Finally, the relation between these indicators and market prices is analyzed. Findings The results point to economically significant impacts, as one standard deviation increase in the share of net positive comments is associated with 20, 22, 13 and 10 percent increase in the consumer prices of potato, onion, lemon and apple, respectively within three months. Originality/value Overall, this study provides an evidence for the link between information sharing of farmers on online domain and their collaboration in the physical domain. Thus, the study implies that the information synthesized from online discussion forums may actually contain valuable information for researchers and policy makers regarding the behavior of agents even on traditional domains such as agriculture.

The impact of ‘super-participants’ on everyday political talk

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Wright
Keyword(s):  
Online Discussion ◽  
Third Space ◽  
Discussion Forum ◽  
Online Discussion Forum ◽  
Political Talk ◽  
The Impact

Abstract This article analyses the impact of “super-participants” – people who create lots of content, set the agenda, or moderate debates – on everyday online political talk in a non-political online discussion forum – or “third space”. The article finds that there was extensive evidence of super-participation in the forum, and that they did impact the nature of political talk.

Using Traditional Classroom Facilitation Methods in Online Discussion

2013 ◽  
pp. 255-267
Author(s):  
Maura Valentino
Keyword(s):  
Online Courses ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Discussion Forum ◽  
Traditional Classroom ◽  
Online Discussions ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
Online Discussion Forum ◽  
The Impact

This chapter studies the impact of the facilitator on the effectiveness of an online discussion forum. The study examined, categorized, and statistically analyzed 224 discussions from eight online courses. The results demonstrated that facilitators are presented with many opportunities to increase the probability of a successful learning experience and that facilitators should be encouraged to develop new approaches to improve the quality of online discussions by leveraging the unique qualities of an online discussion environment.

scholarly journals The Impact of Contact Sessions and Discussion Forums on the Academic Performance of Open Distance Learning Students

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Olivier
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Distance Learning ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Discussion Forum ◽  
Discussion Forums ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Online Discussion Forums ◽  
Online Discussion Forum ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Examination Preparation

<p class="3">This study investigated the impact of face-to-face contact sessions and online discussion forums on the academic performance of students at an Open Distance Learning (ODL) university (N = 1,015). <em>t</em>-Tests for independent samples indicated that students who attended a written assignment preparation contact session performed significantly better in the written assignment than those students who did not attend this contact session [<em>t</em>(813) = 4.64, p = 0.00]; students who attended an examination preparation contact session did not perform significantly better in the examination than those students who did not attend this contact session [<em>t</em>(892) = 1.12, p = 0.26]; while students who used an online discussion forum performed significantly better in the final examination than those students who did not use this forum [<em>t</em>(1,013) = 4.04, p = 0.00]. Reasons for these mixed results are subsequently discussed. The study also found that the attendance of contact sessions and the utilisation of an online discussion forum by students were extremely low, and possible reasons for this are also given. Implications for the use of contact sessions and online discussion forums to improve the academic performance of ODL students are also discussed.</p>

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