scholarly journals THE INFLUENCE OF USER ACTIVITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS DIMENSIONS ON SENSE OF PLACE IN CITY PARKS

Author(s):  
Ivan Danny Dwiputra ◽  
Angela Christysonia Tampubolon ◽  
Hanson E. Kusuma

City parks have certain environmental characteristics and accommodate various types of activities that affect the sense of place of the user. This study was conducted with the aim of identifying the dimensions of user activities and environmental characteristics, and sense of place levels related to city parks, as well as the causal relationships between them. Qualitative research was done using an online survey with open-ended questions. The collected text data were analyzed using content analysis. Quantitative research was done using an online survey with closed-ended questions that were compiled based on the results of the qualitative research analysis. The collected numerical data were analyzed by factor analysis and multivariate regression analysis. The analysis revealed four user activity dimensions (recreation, social interaction, work, and sports and hobby), seven environmental characteristics dimensions (natural environment, design, facilities, comfort, location, proximity, and entertainment), and two sense of place dimensions (compatibility with a place and dedication to a place). The dimension compatibility with a place tended to be influenced by the accessibility and visual quality of a park (location, natural environment, and park design), while the dimension dedication to a place tended to be influenced by user engagement (sport and hobby, and facilities).

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Grimley

One of the most poignant scenes in Ken Russell’s 1968 film Delius: Song of Summer evocatively depicts the ailing composer being carried in a wicker chair to the summit of the mountain behind his Norwegian cabin. From here, Delius can gaze one final time across the broad Gudbrandsdal and watch the sun set behind the distant Norwegian fells. Contemplating the centrality of Norway in Delius’s output, however, raises more pressing questions of musical meaning, representation, and our relationship with the natural environment. It also inspires a more complex awareness of landscape and our sense of place, both historical and imagined, as a mode of reception and an interpretative tool for approaching Delius’s music. This essay focuses on one of Delius’s richest but most critically neglected works, The Song of the High Hills for orchestra and wordless chorus, composed in 1911 but not premiered until 1920. Drawing on archival materials held at the British Library and the Grainger Museum, Melbourne, I examine the music’s compositional genesis and critical reception. Conventionally heard (following Thomas Beecham and Eric Fenby) as an imaginary account of a walking tour in the Norwegian mountains, The Song of the High Hills in fact offers a multilayered response to ideas of landscape and nature. Moving beyond pictorial notions of landscape representation, I draw from recent critical literature in cultural geography to account for the music’s sense of place. Hearing The Song of the High Hills from this perspective promotes a keener understanding of our phenomenological engagement with sound and the natural environment, and underscores the parallels between Delius’s work and contemporary developments in continental philosophy, notably the writing of Henri Bergson.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Smith ◽  
Helen E. Foster ◽  
Sharmila Jandial

Abstract Background The PMM Portfolio is comprised of the Paediatric Musculoskeletal Matters (PMM) website, the paediatric Gait, Arms, Legs and Spine (pGALS) app and e-learning modules (ELM). The target audiences are non-specialists in paediatric musculoskeletal medicine. Our study aimed to evaluate impact on learning and clinical practice. Methods Mixed methods (analytics, online survey, interviews) were used with PMM and ELM registered users and purposive sampling of users using international contacts within paediatrics and paediatric rheumatology. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics and qualitative techniques. A Paired T-Test compared self-rated confidence before and after use of the PMM Portfolio. Results There has been wide reach for all the e-resources; PMM website (662,827 hits, 262,476 users, 214 countries, data 31st July 2020); pGALS app (12,670 downloads, 70 countries, data 31st July 2020); ELM (150 users, 30 countries, data 30th May 2019). There were 164 responses (students, trainees and health care professionals) to the survey from 25 countries. Most responders deemed the PMM Portfolio useful / very useful for their learning with significantly increased self-rated confidence in their clinical examination and reasoning skills following access to the PMM website, p = < 0.01, pGALS app, p = < 0.01 and ELM, p = < 0.01. The most popular PMM website pages related to clinical assessment techniques (especially pGALS). There was high uptake of the pGALS app and pGALS ELM especially from trainees and allied health professionals. Many clinicians reported the PMM Portfolio to be useful when used to teach others. User feedback reported that easy navigation, open access, clinical images and cases were the most valued features. User feedback highlighted need to increase awareness of the e-resources through training programmes. Conclusions The PMM Portfolio was developed to aid learning for clinicians who are not specialists in paediatric MSK medicine. Our evaluation demonstrates wide international reach and positive feedback on learning. The PMM Portfolio is a highly useful e-resource for paediatric rheumatologists in their teaching of others to raise awareness, facilitate early diagnosis and referral of children with suspected disease. The wide user engagement informed future PMM Portfolio development and the mixed method of evaluation is transferable to other e-resources.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 38-51
Author(s):  
Pierre-Alexandre Beylier

By applying a theoretical framework based on different models proposed in border studies literature, this article analyzes the morphological, functional, institutional and identity characteristics that make Point Roberts—an American exclave in the Pacific Northwest—a “cross-border town”. Using an online survey and face-to-face interviews, the author combines both quantitative and qualitative research methods in order to examine the forces that link Point Roberts and the Canadian city of Delta that lies across the Canada–US border. This paper highlights the specificities of this unique geographic configuration as well the challenges that the border represents.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 574-588
Author(s):  
Zaure Shagataeva ◽  
Yernazar Kaspaevich Sarbassov ◽  
Erkegul Seminar ◽  
Marianna Amangeldyevna Sydykbekova ◽  
Ardak Tolegenovna Kydyrbaeva

Like in many Global South countries, the vocational education and training system in Kazakhstan has some weaknesses, including low-competent educators poorly applying digital technologies in their instructional repertoire, which highlights the need for motivating teachers towards incorporating technologies representing students' everyday life in the educational process. Meanwhile, there are no practically applicable competency frameworks for Kazakhstani vocational teachers to date. This paper aimed to gather students’ opinions on which skills are more or less important for vocational educators to outline a technological competency framework for Kazakhstani vocational teachers based on Digital Competency Profiler, with content validity tested by five experts. A set of nineteen items measured on a five-point Likert scale, organized into technical, communicational, informational, and epistemological domains, was uploaded to an online survey platform and distributed among Master degree students enrolled in vocational programs in Kazakhstan. Based on survey data, the construct validity of the model was assessed by confirmatory factor analysis, which yielded high entire reliability and internal consistency. The learners assigned importance to all the four domains. However, they estimated vocational teacher’s ability to utilize productivity tracking tools as almost futile, which allegedly indicates the surveyees’ insufficient awareness about those applications and their purposes. Generally, the participants tend to prioritize vocational educators’ capacities to process mathematical computations, visualize numerical data, and operate with electronic text files and projectors, as well as their readiness for effective communication through messengers and electronic mail. The framework that emerged from this research can be used as a blueprint for synchronizing and improving educational programs in Kazakhstan.   Keywords: education; survey; technology; ICT; vocational education and training.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 39-41
Author(s):  
Nur Fazriya Masfufa ◽  
Muhlasin Amrullah

Non-formal education is practical education or training for the community that is still carried out by the community to increase knowledge and increase interest in talent in themselves. The purpose of this study is to find out about Muhammadiyah non-formal education, the goals and benefits of non-formal education, the characteristics of Muhammadiyah non-formal education and forms of non-formal education of Muhammadiyah. The data collection techniques were interviews and observations, interviews with resource persons Mrs. Sumjiana (managers) and observations and research at the Muhammadiyah branch of the Muhammadiyah College in Gedangan District. This study uses descriptive qualitative research methods. A qualitative approach is a research process to understand social or human problems by analyzing words to create a complex and comprehensive picture, as well as reporting detailed information views obtained from information sources in the natural environment. Muhammadiyah non-formal education during the COVID-19 pandemic took various forms. Muhammadiyah non-formal education such as TK Aisyah 1 Gedangan and TPQ Tunas Jasmine in Gedangan District.


Author(s):  
Rebecca Lynn Chism ◽  
Carine Graff

Qualitative research enables flexible designs unlike quantitative research, but those designs can be modified up to a point. It sometimes happens that the study at hand takes an unexpected turn of events and the researchers have then to find ways to cope with the changes. When the matter being investigated involves online surveys, there is even more leeway for uncertainty, as difficulties such as finding participants and time constraints may arise. This chapter presents a study conducted by two researchers in an American midwestern university and the challenges they encountered after answering a call for papers about technology and language learner psychology. They used an online survey to inquire about students' experience in an online language course. However, the lack of time intertwined with unexpected events involved readjustments and a need for more research and training. In the current article, the researchers share their project timeline, the issues they encountered, and offer some solutions.


Publications ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uchendu Chigbu

Qualitative research involves scientific narratives and the analysis and interpretation of textual or numerical data (or both), mostly from conversations and discussions, to uncover meaningful patterns that describe a particular phenomenon. It is important to know other ways of framing and explaining these nuanced scientific narratives so that they can convey scientific knowledge. A qualitative hypothesis can play this role. The testing of hypotheses in qualitative research—which does not strictly mean the same thing as testing of hypotheses in quantitative research—always comes with challenges that provoke concerns. The questions that scholars, especially undergraduate and postgraduate students, have had to deal with are: Is it possible to “test” hypotheses using a qualitative method? If it is possible, how can this be done? This study deconstructs the concept, notion, and use of the hypotheses. It presents the “how-to” aspect of hypothesising (in qualitative research and inquiries) by using creative diagramming within post-positivist research, and also contributes to the literature on visual communication and qualitative research. The study is a guide to early career scholars (including undergraduate and post-graduate students) on how to formulate and “test” hypotheses qualitatively using visual or diagrammatical approaches.


1994 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amedeo Giorgi

AbstractIn this article the phenomonelogical approach to qualitative research is compared with certain other qualitative approaches following other paradigms. The thesis is that a deepened understanding of phenomenological philosophy can provide the alternative framework that many of these authors have been seeking. The comparison with other approaches is made in terms of theoretical and methodical consistency. Theoretically, the argument is that the situation known as "mixed discourse" exists because practitioners have not sufficiently freed themselves from the criteria and practices of traditional paradigms in which most qualitative researchers have been trained. The shift from the collection of numerical data to linguistic data takes place without appropriate shift in theoretical context. This state of affairs should be overcome in order to strengthen qualitative research. On the other hand, many qualitative researchers carry on practices that seem to be analogous to phenomenological prescriptions which are explicitly usually misunderstood or resisted when stated directly and generically. Thus, greater theoretical clarity and consistency as well as deeper reflection or better utilization of imaginative possibilities still seem to be called for in order to bring better theoretical conceptualization and more consistent practices to qualitative research.


2010 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 499-507 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uğur Batı ◽  
Bünyamin Atıcı

The developments that were experienced in the communication and technology area made Internet an important part of the daily life. In this respect, with the development of Internet, the changes in the social structure are closely connected with the lifestyles, attitudes, and behaviors of the people. In the study, the phenomena of virtual fellow wife and polygamy are researched and analyzed. A qualitative research, which is based on the observation fundamentally and richened with a survey and in-depth interviews, is carried out in accordance with the ethnographic research that is used in this study. The behavior-oriented observations are performed and the oral reports are arranged with the requirements that the research is performed in the natural environment. In the research, we see that two arguments such as “I have been never remorseful because I am brought/I come as a fellow wife virtually” and “Bringing a fellow wife is not a question, it is our tradition” showed the highest attitudes.


2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiabing Zheng ◽  
Christy M. K. Cheung ◽  
Matthew K.O. Lee ◽  
Liang Liang

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of user engagement in the context of online brand communities. A research model is proposed to explain how brand loyalty is developed through user engagement. Design/methodology/approach – The research model was empirically tested with an online survey study of 185 current Facebook users. Findings – Results revealed that user engagement influenced brand loyalty both directly and indirectly through online community commitment. Users tend to focus on the benefits (rather than the costs) derived from the usage when they engage in an online brand community. Research limitations/implications – The selection of respondents is bound to the Hong Kong area, while Facebook members are globally distributed. In addition, this study involved a cross-sectional design instead of investigating the development of brand loyalty from a long-term perspective. Practical implications – The results inform e-marketers the importance of user engagement behaviors for building brand loyalty through online communities. Strategies that encourage members to engage in online brand communities on social networking sites such as Facebook are also provided. Originality/value – The concept of user engagement in online brand communities is still poorly understood, underscoring the need for theoretically based research of user engagement. This paper enriches the knowledge in the area of brand engagement by presenting a research model that introduces the concept of user engagement in social media research and empirically examines its role in building brand loyalty in online brand communities.


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