scholarly journals A Web-Based Intervention for Youth With Physical Disabilities: Comparing the Role of Mentors in 12- and 4-Week Formats

10.2196/15813 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. e15813
Author(s):  
Sally Lindsay ◽  
Elaine Cagliostro

Background Youths with physical disabilities face many barriers in society, including social exclusion, stigma, and difficulties finding employment. Electronic mentoring (e-mentoring) offers a promising opportunity for youths with disabilities and has the potential to improve their inclusion while enhancing career outcomes. However, little is known about the role of mentors in a Web-based e-mentoring format to improve employment outcomes. Objective This study aimed to explore the role of mentors in engaging youths in an e-mentoring intervention and to compare and contrast mentors’ engagement strategies within a 12- and 4-week format. Methods This paper drew on a pilot feasibility study, which is a group, Web-based employment readiness intervention involving a discussion forum for youths with physical disabilities. Our intervention involved having trained youth mentors (ie, near-peers who also had a disability) lead Web-based discussion forums while offering peer support and resources, which involved 12 modules completed over both a 12- or 4-week format. We used a mixed method approach including qualitative data (mentor interviews and discussion forum data) and quantitative data (pre-post survey data) comparison. Results A total of 24 youths participated across 3 e-mentoring intervention groups: 9 in the 12-week format (mean age 17.7 years [SD 1.7]) and 15 in the 4-week format (mean age 19.5 years [SD 2.6]), led by 3 trained youth mentors with disabilities, 2 males and 1 female (mean age 22 years [SD 2.64]). Our findings revealed that mentors engaged youths in the e-mentoring program by providing informational, emotional, and tangible support. We noted more instances of mentors providing advice, empathy, and encouragement in the 12-week format compared with the 4-week format. We also found fewer examples of providing advice, developing a rapport, and social support from mentors in the 4-week format. Our findings revealed no significant differences between the 2 groups regarding time spent in the forum, number of logins, number of posts, and self-rated engagement. Conclusions Mentors in the 12-week and 4-week format engaged participants differently in providing informational and emotional support, although there were no differences in tangible support provided. Mentors reported that the 12-week format was too long and lacked interaction between participants, whereas the 4-week format felt rushed and had fewer detailed responses from mentees. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) RR2-10.2196/resprot.8034

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally Lindsay ◽  
Elaine Cagliostro ◽  
Jennifer Stinson ◽  
Joanne Leck

BACKGROUND Youth with disabilities are more likely to live in poverty and be unemployed compared with youth without disabilities. Such trends are often a result of a lack of support, inaccessible jobs, environmental barriers, and discriminatory attitudes toward people with disabilities. Youth with disabilities also face barriers in accessing vocational preparation programs. One encouraging way that could help address challenges that youth encounter is by providing support through electronic mentoring (e-mentoring). OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to assess the feasibility of a 4-week Web-based peer e-mentoring employment intervention for youth with physical disabilities. METHODS We conducted a pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate our intervention, Empowering youth towards employment. Participants included youth aged 15 to 25 years who were randomly assigned to an experimental (mentored) or control (nonmentored) group. Our intervention involved having trained youth mentors (ie, near peers who also had a disability) lead Web-based discussion forums while offering peer support and resources, which involved 12 modules (3 topics a week for 4 weeks). Primary outcomes focused on implementation (ie, feasibility and acceptability), whereas secondary outcomes focused on effectiveness (ie, measures of self-determination, career maturity, and social support). RESULTS A total of 28 youth (mean age 19.62, SD 3.53; 14/28, 50% female) completed the RCT in 3 intervention groups and 2 control groups (intervention n=18, control n=10). Participants reported satisfaction with the program and that it was feasible and acceptable. Youth’s mean engagement level with the program was 6.44 (SD 2.33) for the experimental group and 5.56 (SD 3.53) for controls. Participants in the intervention group did not demonstrate any significant improvements in social support, career maturity, or self-determination compared with those in the control group. No adverse events were reported. CONCLUSIONS The Empowering youth towards employment e-mentoring intervention needs further testing with a larger sample and different length of formats to understand how it may have an impact on employment outcomes for youth with disabilities. CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02522507; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02522507 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/77a3T4qrE)


2012 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Rakesh Biswas ◽  
Joachim Sturmberg ◽  
Carmel M. Martin

This chapter is an introduction to user driven learning that initially dwells on features that are unchanged such as the role of collaborative social interactions in human learning and certain aspects that are evolving and helping create a learning transformation through web based technologies. The chapter is interspersed with user driven learning narrative examples taken from the authors’ own experience of sharing data over the web to accumulate learning points as well as the experience of a significant population of other web based learners in discussion forums, blogs and other networking sites. This is an attempt to create a background that may help illustrate the evolution of user driven health care, which is another form of user driven learning on the web with particular reference to individual user clinical problem solving, be it initiated by patients, health professionals or other actors in a care giving collaborative network across a web interface.


Author(s):  
Min Liu ◽  
Jina Kang ◽  
Emily McKelroy ◽  
Jason Harron ◽  
Sa Liu

Given MOOCs being a relatively new format of online instruction, evidence-based research is needed to understand the role of MOOCs in changing the educational landscape, especially how students use the tools provided in MOOCs. This study investigated how students interacted with the discussion forum in a MOOC, and how they utilized Facebook and Twitter as an additional external space associated with this MOOC. Through both quantitative and qualitative data, the findings showed that MOOC participants found these tools to be helpful and can help create an active, collaborative, and participatory learning environment where they could share ideas and connect with other participants. The finding also indicated a poor interface design and low quality or low response to feedback can impact students' participation and perception of the usefulness of these tools. Results are discussed in the context.


Author(s):  
Rakesh Biswas ◽  
Joachim P. Sturmberg ◽  
Carmel M. Martin

This chapter is an introduction to user driven learning that initially dwells on features that are unchanged such as the role of collaborative social interactions in human learning and certain aspects that are evolving and helping create a learning transformation through web based technologies. The chapter is interspersed with user driven learning narrative examples taken from the authors’ own experience of sharing data over the web to accumulate learning points as well as the experience of a significant population of other web based learners in discussion forums, blogs and other networking sites. This is an attempt to create a background that may help illustrate the evolution of user driven health care, which is another form of user driven learning on the web with particular reference to individual user clinical problem solving, be it initiated by patients, health professionals or other actors in a care giving collaborative network across a web interface.


2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Reneland Forsman

<p>Higher Education (HE) needs to handle a diverse student population. The role of student expectations and previous experience is a key to fully participate. This study investigates student meaning making and interaction in a course designed to stimulate student as co-creators of course content and aims. Results revealed that rich communication added structure for students, that open-ended design challenged student approaches and constructed students as subjects. Analysis was made using recorded webinars, asynchronous discussion forums and e-mails. Data was categorised as communicative actions based on their orientations in the course i.e., what further actions they provoked. Analysis was guided by theories on participation and framing (Wenger &amp; Bernstein). The influence of dominating discourses for the didactics of HE risk excluding some perspectives and experiences when students’ experiences and expectations are not regarded as contributing to the meaning making of their own participating in academic educational practices. Finally, the study suggests that a move into web-based contexts more easily challenges students’ preconceptions of studying.</p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-49
Author(s):  
Nur Azizah ◽  
Dedeh Supriyanti ◽  
Siti Fairuz Aminah Mustapha ◽  
Holly Yang

In a company, the process of income and expense of money must have a profit-generating goal base. The success of financial management within the company, can be monitored from the ability of the financial management in managing the finances and utilize all the opportunities that exist with as much as possible with the aim to control the company's cash (cash flow) and the impact of generating profits in accordance with expectations. With a web-based online accounting system version 2.0, companies can be given the ease to manage money in and out of the company's cash. It has a user friendly system with navigation that makes it easy for the financial management to use it. Starting from the creation of a company's cash account used as a cash account and corporate bank account on the system, deletion or filing of cash accounts, up to the transfer invoice creation feature, receive and send money. Thus, this system is very effective and efficient in the management of income and corporate cash disbursements.   Keywords:​Accounting Online System, Financial Management, Cash and Bank


Author(s):  
Haidar Moukdad

Sample contributions by Arab contributors to a discussion forum were analyzed to study the role of the Web in promoting free speech and demystifying long held views of Arab public opinion. The findings of the study highlight the importance of the role played by the Web in promoting free speech among traditionally repressed populations, and provide insights that will help in correcting misconceptions about Arab public opinion.Un échantillonnage d’interventions par des participants arabes à un forum de discussion a été analysé afin d’étudier le rôle du Web dans le développement de la liberté de parole et la démystification des préjugés concernant l’opinion publique arabe. Les résultats de l’étude mettent en lumière l’importance du rôle joué par le Web dans le développement de la liberté de parole parmi les populations traditionnellement réprimées et offrent des idées qui aideront à corriger les idées préconçues concernant l’opinion publique arabe. 


Public Voices ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 89
Author(s):  
Amy Probsdorfer Kelley ◽  
John C. Morris

The process to win approval to build a national memorial on the National Mall inWashington, DC is both long and complex. Many memorials are proposed, but few are chosen to inhabit the increasingly scarce space available on the Mall. Through the use of network analysis we compare and contrast two memorial proposals, with an eye toward understanding why one proposal was successful while the other seems to have failed. We conclude that the success of a specific memorial has less to do with the perceived popularity of the person or event to be memorialized, and more to do with how the sponsors use the network of people and resources available to advocate for a given proposal.


2021 ◽  
pp. 0734242X2198941
Author(s):  
Athanasios Angelis-Dimakis ◽  
George Arampatzis ◽  
Tryfonas Pieri ◽  
Konstantina Solomou ◽  
Panagiotis Dedousis ◽  
...  

The SWAN platform is an integrated suite of online resources and tools for assessing industrial symbiotic opportunities based on solid industrial waste reuse. It has been developed as a digital solid waste reuse platform and is already applied in four countries (Greece, Bulgaria, Albania and Cyprus). The SWAN platform integrates a database with the spatial and technical characteristics of industrial solid waste producers and potential consumers, populated with data from these countries. It also incorporates an inventory of commercially implemented best practices on solid industrial waste reuse. The role of the SWAN platform is to facilitate the development of novel business cases. Towards this end, decision support services, based on a suitable matching algorithm, are provided to the registered users, helping them to identify and assess potential novel business models, based on solid waste reuse, either for an individual industrial unit (source/potential receiver of solid waste) or a specific region.


Author(s):  
Bing Wu

AbstractAlthough some studies have explored massive open online courses (MOOCs) discussion forums and MOOC online reviews separately, studies of both aspects are insufficient. Based on the theory of self-determination, this paper proposes research hypotheses that MOOC learning progress has a direct impact on MOOC online reviews and an indirect influence on MOOC online reviews through social interactions in discussion forums, as well. Coursera the largest MOOC platform, is selected as the empirical research object, and data from learners who participated in the MOOC discussion forum and provided MOOC online reviews from August 2016 to December 2019 are obtained from the most popular course, “Machine Learning”. After processing, data from 4376 learners are obtained. Then, according to research hypotheses, multi regression models are constructed accordingly. The results show that the length of MOOC online review text is affected by the MOOC learning progress, the number of discussion forum posts, the number of follow, the online review sentiment and MOOC rating. This study highlights the main factors that affect MOOC online reviews. As a result, some suggestions are put forward for the construction of MOOC.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document