scholarly journals Online forum discussion interactions as an indicator of student community

Author(s):  
Shane Dawson

<blockquote>Given the current diversity of communication tools at an educator's disposal, what role (if any) does the discussion forum play in the development of a strong sense of community among students? This study sought to investigate the relationship between discussion forum interaction and perceived student sense of community. The results of the study demonstrate that while mere quantity of discussion forum postings is not an indicator of community development, a significant relationship is observed when contributions are codified into the various discussion interaction types (learner - learner; learner - content; system). An implication emerging from these findings is the ability for the institution to implement evaluative measures to gauge levels of student sense of community in a just in time environment. As discussion interactions are automatically captured and reported, the data provides an indication of the degree of community developing among the student population at a specific snapshot in time. As multiple snapshots provide an ongoing indicator of community development, practitioners have the capacity to develop intervention activities designed to promote further peer to peer discussion and therefore, facilitate the development of a strong sense of community.</blockquote><p> </p>

Author(s):  
Aleksandra Rakhmanova ◽  
Georgiy Loginov ◽  
Vladimir Dolich ◽  
Nataliya Komleva ◽  
Galina Rakhmanova

The relevance of the article is determined by the existence of contradictions between the need to introduce innovative technologies into the educational process at school, as an integral attribute of modern education, and the negative influence of factors on the physical and psycho-emotional state of health of students related to the use of information and communication tools (computers, phones, headphones). The goal of the study was to assess the relationship between the timing of the use of information and communication tools and the frequency of functional and psycho-emotional complaints in groups of middle and high school schoolchildren. 400 schoolchildren of the Saratov Region, the Moscow Region, Leningrad Region and the Republic of Dagestan were surveyed, who made up two groups of research: middle-school schoolchildren (grades 5–6) and high-school schoolchildren (grades 10–11 The survey was carried out by means of the standardized formalized cards which included the questions considering usage time of computers and mobile phones, complaints to a headache, hands pain, other pain and/or feeling of discomfort from visual organ and the organs of hearing, as well as a psycho-emotional state. Statistical analysis of the data was performed using the STATISTICA application software program by StatSoft Inc (USA). To compare the frequencies of a binary feature, a fourfold table of absolute frequencies was constructed and the level of statistical significance for the exact Fisher’s two-tailed test criterion was determined. The study was conducted according to the requirements of bioethics, after signing informed consent statement by teenagers and their parents. The study examined the relationship between the timing of the use of information and communication tools and the frequency of complaints in groups of schoolchildren. The results of the study should be taken into account when developing and implementing preventive measures to prevent negative effects of computers and mobile devices on the body of students.


2021 ◽  
pp. 107808742110326
Author(s):  
Noli Brazil ◽  
Amanda Portier

Place-based policies commonly target disadvantaged neighborhoods for economic improvement, typically in the form of job opportunities, business development or affordable housing. To ensure that investment is channeled to truly distressed areas, place-based programs narrow the pool of eligible neighborhoods based on a set of socioeconomic criteria. The criteria, however, may not be targeting the places most in need. In this study, we examine the relationship between neighborhood gentrification status and 2018 eligibility for the New Markets Tax Credits, Opportunity Zones, Low Income Housing Tax Credits, and the Community Development Financial Institutions Program. We find that large percentages of gentrifying neighborhoods are eligible for each of the four programs, with many neighborhoods eligible for multiple programs. The Opportunity Zone program stands out, with the probability of eligibility nearly twice as high for gentrifying tracts than not-gentrifying tracts. We also found that the probability of eligibility increases with a greater percentage of adjacent neighborhoods experiencing gentrification.


2011 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 438-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel D. Brody ◽  
Joshua Gunn ◽  
Walter Peacock ◽  
Wesley E. Highfield

The rising cost of floods is increasingly attributed to the pattern and form of the built environment. Our study empirically tests this notion by examining the relationship between development intensity and property damage caused by floods. We examine five years of insured flood loss claims across 144 counties and parishes fringing the Gulf of Mexico. Results indicate that clustered, high-intensity development patterns significantly reduce amounts of reported property damage, while increasing percentages of sprawling, low-intensity development involving recent conversion of open space greatly exacerbate flood losses. These findings demonstrate the importance of community development design in fostering flood-resilient communities.


2016 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 591-596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hazalina Mat Soha ◽  
Abdullah Osman ◽  
Shahrul Nizam Salahuddin ◽  
Safizal Abdullah ◽  
Nor Faizzah Ramlee

2021 ◽  
pp. 073563312110273
Author(s):  
Zhi Liu ◽  
Ning Zhang ◽  
Xian Peng ◽  
Sannyuya Liu ◽  
Zongkai Yang ◽  
...  

In the field of learning analytics, mining the regularities of social interaction and cognitive processing have drawn increasing attention. Nevertheless, in MOOCs, there is a lack of investigations on the combination of social and cognitive behavioral patterns. To fill in this gap, this study aimed to uncover the relationship between social interaction, cognitive processing, and learning achievements in a MOOC discussion forum. Specifically, we collected the 3925 participants’ forum data throughout 16 weeks. Social network analysis and epistemic network analysis were jointly adopted to investigate differences in social interaction, cognitive processing between two achievement groups, and the differences in cognitive processing networks between two types of communities. Finally, moderation analysis was employed to examine the moderating effect of community types between cognitive processing and learning achievements. Results indicated that: (1) the high- and low-achieving groups presented significant differences in terms of degree, betweenness, and eigenvector centrality; (2) the stronger cognitive connections were found within the high-achieving group and the instructor-led community; (3) the cognitive processing indicators including insight, discrepancy, and tentative were significantly negative predictors of learning achievements, whereas inhibition and exclusive were significantly positive predictors; (4) the community type moderated the relationship between cognitive processing and learning achievements.


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