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Powell, Aaron Wiatt. "Online Support for Intentional, Teacher Community of Practice." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/30253.
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The term Community of Practice (CoP) is often used rather loosely to describe many types of instructional settings that support more constructivist or social learning settings. This study differentiates CoP from other learning communities with greater discipline in defining CoP, as characterized by sustained self-organization for example. Such a CoP sits quite apart from the typical intent of instructional settings. The literature on intentional CoP suggests that the greatest challenges are a sense of interdependence among CoP members, the authenticity of the practice or purpose, and a trajectory for the CoPâ s future. The purpose of this case study was to attend to these issues with an online initiative to nurture CoP among practicing teachers in a reading-specialist, graduate program. For the course under study, learners engaged only in cooperative projects with the support of a community worksite (Sakai). Throughout the term, the worksite was promoted as a community place independent of the course and program, a place where they could continue to share indefinitely; and they were encouraged to think of what formal and informal activities the system could support, and how. The study explored how participants responded verbally and behaviorally to the community worksite and the other technologies employed to better support their group work and sharing of knowledge in general. The groupâ s technical skills, competing cultures and practices, and the level of authenticity were all significant challenges. The studyâ s findings challenge the application of this learning theory at the course level of academics, and they inform future design of online support for intentional CoP.Ph. D.
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Carter, John D. N. "GOING GAGA: POP FANDOM AS ONLINE COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE." UKnowledge, 2018. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/ltt_etds/27.
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Among various fan sites dedicated to pop stars, GagaDaily is one prominent online collective that centers around Lady Gaga. This study is a piece of ethnographic research focused on two claims – GagaDaily constitutes a Community of Practice (Eckert, 2006) in an online setting, and the regular use of humor by users fulfills social and pragmatic roles in the discourse. Communicative phenomena (both textual and graphic) that characterize the linguistic repertoire of GagaDaily members were catalogued from the first 100 pages of one thread within the forums. These data were grouped into categories corresponding to different dimensions of language use as well as media/literary devices. Alongside a quantitative analysis of various tokens and types of data, a qualitative examination of selected excerpts from the sample confirm the veracity of the two main claims. When analyzed with regard to Wenger’s definition of a Community of Practice (Wenger, 2009), GagaDaily meets all three of his requirements. Likewise, the analysis of humor reveal that GagaDaily users regularly engage in the first dichotomy of the tactics of intersubjectivity, adequation and distinction (Bucholtz & Hall, 2004) and incorporate GIF images in their humor to express their alignment with stance objects (DuBois, 2007) and other members.
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Hamel, Candyce. "Determinants of participation in an online community of practice (OCoP)." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/28383.
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In 2008, a cohort of Inuit researchers met in Ottawa for a two-week training course on Inuit health research and planning. A means for ongoing communication after the course was necessary to build on their acquired knowledge. Research shows that online communities of practice (OCoPs) are often unsuccessful due to factors such as a lack of time and a lack of member involvement in design of the OCoP. The objective of this research was to find the determinants that impact participation in an OCoP of members from a cohort of Inuit researchers. An open-ended interview questionnaire was developed and members were interviewed. Results show lack of time as the main barrier to participation. Involvement in the development of an updated OCoP is of interest to many members. In a culture that has been built and sustained by knowledge sharing, an OCoP is a legitimate tool.
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Alghatas, Fathalla M. "Understanding Knowledge Sharing Within Communities of Practice. A Study of Engagement Patterns and Intervention within Community of Practice." Thesis, University of Bradford, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/4243.
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Online Communities of Practices (CoPs) is emerging as a major form for knowledge sharing in this era of information revolution. Due to the advancement of technology and ease of internet access in every part of the world, people began to get more and more involved in online CoPs to share knowledge. The defining characteristic of a Community of Practice is the interaction between members in order to jointly determine and embrace goals, eventually resulting in shared practices. Crucial to the success of a Community of Practice is the engagement between community members. Without engagement, a Community of Practice can not share knowledge and achieve its negotiated goals. To that end, there is a need to examine, why do people engage in an online discussion, what role domain experts play to keep on-line discussion alive and how to develop a ''right intervention'' to maintain and stimulate participants for engagement in on-line community. This thesis studied eight Communities of Practices that are being deliberately formed to facilitate knowledge sharing in the online community and describes an exploratory study of knowledge sharing within Communities of Practices (CoPs) by investigating eight CoPs - Start up Nation, All nurses, Young Enterpener, Teneric, SCM Focus, Systems Dynamics, Mahjoob and Alnj3 CoPs. The CoPs under investigation shared the following characteristics: permanent life span, created by interested members (i.e. bottom-up rather than top-down management creation), have a high level of boundary crossing, have more than 700 members who come from disparate locations and organizations, have voluntary membership enrollment, high membership diversity, high topic's relevance to members, high degree of reliance on technology, and are moderated. Data were gathered on the eight CoPs through online observations and online questionnaire survey. Results show that in each of the case study the most common type of activity performed by members of each CoP was sharing knowledge, followed by socialsing. Regarding the types of knowledge shared, the most common one across all CoPs was practical and general knowledge. The types of practical knowledge, however, varied in each CoP. The study also discovered that storytelling extensively enhances knowledge transfer and participants' interpersonal communications in eight communities under investigation. What were also notable in this study were the stories discussed in a CoP remains in the archive, what are more likely to generate interest and curiosity on the topic among inactive members who ultimately facilitates knowledge transfer. In this study it is also evident that successful topics with successful conclusion (in terms that the original query was answered) will not necessary get high responses and vice versa. An analysis of selected topics in the eight case studies has shown that some successful topics have few replies and vice versa, where many topics ended with open conclusion or they were unsuccessful in terms that the original query was not answered satisfactory. Therefore, it is not necessary that successful topic will get high number of responses as there are some successful topics which have limited number of replies. Overall, it is found that, topic may play a major role in the success of online discussion. It is observed in the study that members normally use short messages rather long messages and usually discusses more than one topic within one thread. Practical implications for knowledge sharing in online communities of practice were discussed, along with some recommendations for future research.
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Thomas, Danielle. "Knowledge, support & serveblog.org building an online AmeriCorps community of practice /." Connect to Electronic Thesis (CONTENTdm), 2009. http://worldcat.org/oclc/457179257/viewonline.
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Weatherby, K. E. "Teacher participation in online communities of practice : a mixed-methods study of community, context and practice." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2017. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1566655/.
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The primary objective of this doctoral research is to understand the relationship between teachers’ participation in online communities of practice and the development of their teaching practice. The online community at the centre of this research is the Computing at School (CAS) community, created to support the computing curriculum in the United Kingdom. A mixed-methods methodology was employed that included a survey of CAS member teachers as well as semi-structured interviews with a subset of surveyed teachers. A content analysis of interactions between members on the CAS online community aided in development of maps of teacher context and in understanding whether CAS exhibits characteristics of a COP. Findings indicate that some teachers report significant changes to their teaching, classroom management, lesson planning or personal understanding of computing concepts as a result of their participation in the CAS community. CAS exhibits characteristics of a COP, according to Wenger’s (1998) framework, but not all CAS teachers use CAS in this manner. Other CAS members use CAS simply as a resource bank, from which to download activities for classroom use. Findings also reveal that a computing teacher’s background characteristics, notably his or her professional experience prior to teaching computing, play an important role in their attitudes toward and preparedness for teaching computing as well as influencing the professional development resources to which they have access.
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Tull, Susan Pamela Benjie Cornah. "Enabling e-learning professional development through a blended community of online practice." Thesis, University of Canterbury. School of Educational Studies and Leadership, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/10157.
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Communities of practice that occur naturally within an organisation enable the members to learn through participation in practice together (Lave & Wenger, 1991). However, when a community lacks expertise in 21st century practices, learning these skills through shared practice becomes difficult. E-learning is often marketed as if the tools were easy to adopt and adapt, but effective professional development is required to support educators in learning to employ e-learning tools in their practice. Research shows that effective professional development is timely, relevant, flexible, and often collaborative in nature with examples of good practice. The research presented in this thesis describes the design and implementation of professional development which supports a community of practitioners in building the expertise to incorporate e-learning within its professional practice. The research was informed by a comprehensive review of literature on professional development, with a focus on the area of e-learning, the theory behind the communities of practice concept, and the application of that theory. A design-based methodology was employed to gather data from a range of sources of evidence, over two years, in four iterative cycles of collaborative design, implementation, evaluation and redesign. The context in which the research took place was a small educational organisation with an average of twenty staff members over the duration of the study. This staged implementation of an online environment, designed in collaboration with the community, supported the development of a blended community of online practice and provided timely, relevant professional development in e-learning. Analysis of the research findings produced two instruments: (1) a matrix of strategies for enabling and supporting the development of a blended community of online practice, and (2) a heuristic model to guide the investigation of the learning taking place within the online aspect of a blended community of online practice. These instruments are recommended to designers, developers or researchers supporting the development of a blended community of online practice and the professional development taking place in its online environment.
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Hanif, Hafiz. "Helping as participation in an open online community : an exploratory study." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2016. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/81938/.
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The study explores the issues of participation, and to an extent, learning in an open online community of independent game developers, GameSalad.com. GameSalad is a firm-hosted online support forum for a desktop application of the same name. It is geared to provide members and users with a platform for sharing of information pertaining to their game development, and a place to seek and provide help. It is a large community with over 114,000 registered members (as of March 2015), with an average of 106,000 monthly active unique users, and a high degree of activity such as the posting of tutorials and tips, sharing game development progress, and announcing the launch of a new game. However, the majority of the interactions on the forum are concerned with seeking and providing help. This study focuses on issues around community, participation, and learning within online networks and is underpinned by a concern for participatory and social experiential perspectives on learning. In order to explore participation, an exploratory mixed-method approach was used. This involved a three-phase data collection procedure. First, observation of interaction in the community was carried out (noting the pattern of threads opened, weekly leader boards, resources, and general practices) coupled with document analysis to identify threads that reflected high participation or were deemed beneficial by interviewees. Second, online survey of 35 items including five demographic items, twenty forced 2-point semantic differential scale items, and ten 5-point Likert scale items was carried out, to measure members’ perceptions of the community and identity (n = 110 responses). Third, semi-structured sequential interviews were carried out with 21 volunteer interviewees online, using the forum’s own private messaging system over a period from August 2014 to March 2015. Although originally conceived as an overarching study of online participation, the study became focused on the more active members of the community, and on the question as to why and how some members of online communities appear to take on helping roles. The findings from both survey and interviews showed a strong sense of community among active members, and that active members saw their identity in the online community as an extension of their off-line self. Although open to all members, participants who volunteered to be interviewed tended to be among the more active members and many had adopted ‘caretaker’ or helper role in the community. The interviews showed that giving help was motivated by a mix of extrinsic and intrinsic elements, in particular, helpers were aware of the need to sustain the community and in many cases felt an obligation to offer help as a return or ‘pay it forward’ for the help they had received in the past. They were motivated by community mindedness, empathy, self-confidence and sense of identity. The giving of help depends on ‘mood’, this mood is generated not only when helpers feel they have the available time and relevant expertise in order to help, but also when those asking for help have asked in an appropriate manner and provided sufficient contextualisation. In part, learning in the community is seen as a social exchange, and members put a value on the discussions they saw useful. However, this study reveals some of the problems experienced by the company behind the community, tensions among some members of the community, as well as issues pertaining to shared knowledge and artefacts. This study improves our understanding of community of practice, the provision of help, the motivation for helping, as well as the dynamics of participation in an open online community. It gives insight into the sustainability of online community by showing the motivation, strategies for, and consequences of helping. It also gives insight into how informal learning is embedded in social interactions and perceived value. The study is not a unique case but it is one of an underreported area, a highly participative community. Methodologically, this study offers mixed method approach with a strong focus on qualitative data and analysis methods, with an innovative way of triangulating data.
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Bone, Tonda Jenean. "Bridging the Theory-to-practice Gap: a Multivariate Correlational Study Exploring the Effects of a Graduate Online Learning Environment As a Community of Practice Framework." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2013. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc407763/.
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In this multivariate correlational study, the researcher examined the course culture of an online graduate course whose environment exhibited characteristics of a Community of practice (CoP). An online survey captured data used to explore the relationships among variables shown to describe a CoP in field environments and among student perceptions of their experience in the course culture. A canonical correlation analysis (CCA) and commonality analysis (CA) were conducted using five predictor variables and three criterion variables to evaluate the degree and direction of the relationships. The CCA revealed that the full model was significant, explaining approximately 74% of the variance among the two synthetic variates. Impact, faculty leadership, and connection were the largest contributors to the predictor variate. The criterion variate was primarily explained by value and perceived CoP, with exposure to the profession providing a smaller contribution. The CA confirmed these findings. Results from this study indicate that a CoP could be fostered in an online graduate course. The overall significance of the model indicates teachers can nurture an environment wherein graduate students will take the initiative to work with others to create and acquire knowledge that creates a sense of professional connection with each other and with the profession overall. The results of this study suggest further empirical research in implementing and assessing CoPs in online graduate courses is warranted.
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Stuckey, Bronwyn. "Growing online community core conditions to support successful development of community in internet-mediated communities of practice /." Access electronically, 2007. http://www.library.uow.edu.au/adt-NWU/public/adt-NWU20080911.092048/index.html.
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Pisa, Sheila Saden. "In search of a practice| Large-scale moderation in a massive online community." Thesis, Pepperdine University, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3592427.
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People are increasingly looking to online social communities as ways of communicating. However, even as participation in social networking is increasing, online communities often fail to coalesce. Noted success factors for online communities are linked to the community's purpose and culture. They are also related to structures that allow for increased volume of exchange and quality of conversation. Ravelry.com provides a case of a successful, large-scale, online community that has information exchange and conversation as its foci. These activities are supported through the work of thousands of volunteer moderators who sometimes manage groups with more than 3 million members. However, little is known about organizing and supporting volunteer groups to allow for such large-scale growth.
To find information on moderators' roles and tasks, and how they are supported in the Ravelry community, a study was conducted in 2 sequential phases. Phase I consisted of a survey of 73 moderators who led large, active groups. Phase II consisted of interviews with 8 moderators who led different types of groups within Ravelry, having purposes that range from purely social conversation to technical forums on craft-related work.
Findings indicated that the tasks moderators performed did not vary greatly, despite differences in their group's purpose and culture. Common among most moderators' duties were encouraging group participation through stimulating discussion or organizing craft-based activities, resolving conflict between group members, and maintaining their site through routine housekeeping tasks. Moderators are motivated to volunteer to do these tasks by love of their group members, and are united by a common interest in their craft. Moderators are most often supported by informal networks of moderators in their own or in similar groups.
These findings give insight into how to structure large, asynchronous, online conversation-based groups, and how to define a role for people to manage them. It provides an understanding of the work that moderators do, and how their work allows a sense of place to be established for informal learning.
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Tsai, I.-Chun Laffey James M. "The social nature of an online community of practice for learning to teach." Diss., Columbia, Mo. : University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10355/6087.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008.The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on June 22, 2009) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.
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Beavers, Loretta Roberts. "A Case Study of Community College Students' Perceptions Regarding Faculty's Practice of Online Course Delivery: Virginia Community College." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2009. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1842.
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This case study focused on students who had matriculated in online courses in the Business Management Program. The setting for the study was a Virginia community college. The purpose of this study was to examine the social, faculty and administrative, and technology influences on students' perceptions of online learning. Students' conveyed experiences and perceptions of the tools and practices faculty used to implement online learning were coded and categorized to generate grounded theory that may be used to govern distance learning implementation.
Data were collected through document reviews, semi-structured interviews, and field studies. The interview participants were selected from the 2008 graduates of the Business Management Program. Data from personal memos and field studies were collected through students' comments on individual courses. Interview data included descriptions of all the distance learning courses in which the interviewees had participated. The constant comparative method was used to analyze and code the data into themes that emerged and were applied to establish grounded theories that may prove to be useful in governing the tools and practices of distance learning in higher education.
The findings of the study indicated that as the number of online courses that a student successfully completed increased, so did the student's preference of distance learning over the traditional classroom environment. The study also revealed that students were reluctant to participate in distance learning if their first experiences in this method of delivery had been negative; therefore, administrators should be more supportive and evaluative in selecting online faculty. Findings also indicated that even though students enjoyed the time and place flexibility and convenience of distance learning, they still expected instructors to create and implement an environment that cultivated students' social and academic success within the educational environment.
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Henderson, Susan. "The Hunger Games fanfiction as a community of practice : forming identities in online communities." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/54488.
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This research investigates expressions of identity and formation of identity found in an online fanfiction forum based on the young adult novel, The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. Using Wenger’s neo-Vygotskian socio-cultural learning theorem from his book, Communities of Practice I observed, then coded posts by authors and respondents using a rubric I operationalized from Wenger’s five characteristics of identity in practice. I employed a deductive coding scheme and used Wenger’s community of practice as a framework. During the coding process, I found many examples of what seem to be expressions of identity in practice and what appear to be examples of identity in formation. I discuss how this online fanfiction forum operates as a community of practice and consider how this fanfiction space informs other educational applications. There are different instructional strategies that could be gleaned from the coding and analysis process that practicing teachers and librarians could implement into their current online or offline practices. This fanfiction forum is an example of a self-selected online activity with a high level of reading and writing engagement. There are many exciting signs of educational and developmental activities occurring in this fanfiction forum, which suggests further investigation is needed.Arts, Faculty of
Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), School of
Graduate
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Johnson, Christopher M. "Establishing an Online Community of Practice for Instructors of English as a Foreign Language." NSUWorks, 2005. http://nsuworks.nova.edu/gscis_etd/614.
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Communities of practice are entities that emerge for the purposes of learning and advancement of knowledge in a particular area. They emerge under all circumstances, even adverse situations. Because they can spawn great innovation and knowledge advancement, organizations need to cultivate and establish environments that allow them to develop. Currently, communities of practice have moved into the online world, in which their members use computer mediated communication to collaborate with each other.
In January, 2002, a virtual community was formed to enable teachers of English as a Foreign Language to collaborate on learning and applying various computing technologies in language teaching. This community is known as Web heads in Action. Because many teachers with this interest are geographically disbursed, this distributed community allows the members to contact others with similar interests in this field. This virtual community also considers itself a community of practice because some of its core members are interested in the research and literature in this area.
The literature presents communities of practice as falling within a range of attributes and characteristics. However, this presentation of ranges causes the concept of "communities of practice" to be elusive for members and stakeholders alike. In addition, the difference between communities of practice and virtual communities needs to be delineated.
This dissertation established criteria that distinguish distributed communities of practice from other types of virtual communities. The author derived the criteria from theory, and conducted a case study that compared communities of practice theory with the virtual community of Web heads in Action. Based on this analysis, this dissertation refined and furthered develop theory of distributed communities of practice.
This case study opened the debate on general criteria, as well as a benchmarking system, for communities of practice. It provided guidelines for future study in the areas of methodology and criteria refinement with respect to multiple case studies.
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Mugliett, Karen. "ICT integration in home economics classrooms : a study using an online community of practice." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2009. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/14988/.
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The aim of this study was to explore the use of an online community of practice that would support Home Economics teachers in gaining the experience and knowledge necessary in order to integrate ICT effectively in their classroom practice. The project, which was conducted on a virtual learning environment, provided a channel and opportunity for teachers to acquire the knowledge and skills required to encourage ICT use. Rogers' (2003) diffusion of innovation process was the principal framework utilised and structured the process on the online community of practice. The participants, who were teachers and student-teachers of Home Economics, were led systematically from one phase to another of the framework in order to implement and confirm this innovation in the Home Economics class. The effectiveness of the online community of practice for the dissemination of knowledge, for improving classroom practice and hence as a professional development medium were researched in this study. A mixed-method approach was used in the methodology of this case study. In this study I undertook a reflective process into my own pedagogical practices and Rogers' (2003) framework and through this method I tried to offer support and confidence to Home Economics teachers to expose them to effective technology integration. Analysis and evaluation were obtained from data collected through both quantitative and qualitative methods. A questionnaire was used to map out main responses whilst interviews and the forum discussions were used to draw out more in depth findings in order to answer the research questions. The data were analysed both inductively and deductively drawing from Rogers' (2003) theoretical model view and a content analysis method was utilised for the discussion forums and interactions on the online community of practice. The applicability of Rogers' model for this professional development exercise was also analysed as a result of the effectiveness of the community of practice and its implications for the educational community. The findings show that through this online activity teachers' knowledge relating to the positive use of ICT in education can be confirmed. Teachers also gained confidence in use through the sharing of ideas, through online feedback and through exposure to a community which brought teachers together in an asynchronous learning environment. The findings show that what teachers need most is the 'how-to' knowledge when an innovation is being diffused into set practice and this online community seems to have been an effective medium to deliver this. However, there were barriers which hindered more active participation, which greatly affected the knowledge construction on the online community of practice. In conclusion one can say that support for technology integration should be provided for teachers from more formal policy driven and monitored professional development settings. An online community of practice can be the ideal medium to offer this even if not exclusive and over a long span of time, to provide the ongoing support which is necessary for technology integration. Teachers must also take up the challenge to make a significant paradigm shift in practice but also in training in order to maintain a more flexible and autonomous approach to professional development in technology and pedagogic practices.
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Coria, Erica. "Information sharing in an online community of urban gardeners." Thesis, Malmö högskola, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS), 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-22458.
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This research investigates how a communication system could support urban gardeners intheir activities. By looking at agriculture not as a mere activity for food production but as arich social practice, this research addresses gardeners dual need of acquiring knowledge and develop social relationship.Findings from an ethnographic research of two local agriculture communities are described.Participatory design has been used to identify design opportunities and co-create conceptideas. Prototypes have been used to evaluate key aspects and refine the final concept. Byinviting intended users to take an active role during the entire design process, the result of this research is grounded not only in the theory but also on people's aspirations and realexperience.
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Mafereka, Moeketsi. "Analysis and Development of an Online Knowledge Management Support System for a Community of Practice." Master's thesis, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30918.
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The purpose of this study was to investigate how particular business practices, focusing on those occurring in multi-site non-governmental organization (NGOs), could be enhanced by use of a knowledge management system (KMS). The main objective of this KMS is to enhance business processes and save costs for a multi-site NGO through streamlining the organizational practices of knowledge creation, storage, sharing and application. The methodology uses a multiple perspective approach, which covers exploration of the problem space and solution space. Under exploration of problem space, interviews with employees of the NGO are done to identify core problem that the organization faced. Still under exploration of problem space, organization’s knowledge management maturity was assessed through an online questionnaire. The methodology then moved on to exploration of problem space. During the exploration of problem space, the requirements gathering and definition process was done through a combination of interviews with company employees and by completing a systematic literature review of best practices. The requirements were used to design system architecture and use-case models. The prototype for a Community of Practice (COP) support website was developed and investigated in test cases. The tests showed that the prototype system was able to facilitate asynchronous communication through the creation and management of events, creation and management of collaboration groups, creation of discussion topics and creation of basic pages. Furthermore, security capabilities were tested in terms of login functionality. Lastly page load times were tested for eight different scenarios. The system performance was found to be satisfactory because the scenarios covering crucial system requirements aspects had a response time of below 11 seconds. An exception was the landing page, which after login took 26 seconds to load. It is believed that creation of a platform that enables, and records, user interaction, easy of online discussions, managing groups, topics and events, are all major contributors to a successful knowledge management approach.
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Kapanjie, Darin. "Sense of Community of Practice in Online Education: A Case Study of an MBA Program." Diss., Temple University Libraries, 2011. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/141698.
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CITE/Mathematics and Science EducationEd.D.
Situated cognition and engagement in a community of practice in online education has been difficult to attain through the information and communication technologies deployed throughout higher education. Effective real-time collaboration is a key component to the development of a community of practice and what has been missing in online business education. This study examined the integration of web conferencing tools and discussion boards to determine whether a community of practice formed in the Fox Online MBA program at Temple University. The investigation examined 13 students' interactions throughout a compressed five-week online marketing course delivered primarily through WebEx and Blackboard. Results show that the students were consistently actively engaged in the course throughout the real-time classes as well as the discussion board. Further, students' active participation focused primarily on how the course content related to personal and professional experiences. Evidence suggests that the students developed strong social bonds and a community of practice was present.
Temple University--Theses
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Witten, Kimberly Ann. "Sociolinguistic variation and enregisterment in an online community of practice : a case study of MetaFilter.com." Thesis, University of York, 2014. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/8677/.
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With the emergence of communities that are primarily based in computer-mediated communication (CMC) environments, we see the prevalence of internet-derived neologisms, i.e., netologisms. Often these netologisms are acronyms (e.g., ‘LOL’), blends (e.g., ‘weblog’), or other forms of abbreviation. These new forms may present challenges for English phonotactics, which must be spontaneously resolved by first-time speakers of the netologisms. If the forms contain orthographic characters or sequences that do not directly or consistently correlate to specific English phonemes or phoneme sequences, it is likely that these new forms display phonetic variation. Netologisms can also be used as linguistic resources in taking stances or asserting aspects of identity, especially where phonetic variation is possible. These stances may represent the identity of the group, or they may become associated with particular identities within the group. The process by which sounds, features and word forms become associated with particular identities is known as enregisterment (Agha, 2003, 2005; Squires, 2010). Enregisterment has traditionally been studied in sociolinguistics as a function of individuals interacting in face-to-face (FtF) environments (Johnstone, Andrus and Danielson, 2006; Beal, 2009). However, as more of our daily interactions are mediated by computers and technology, attention must be paid to how enregisterment may take place in primarily text-based social environments. This research presents the first large-scale mixed-methods study of enregisterment occurring in CMC. The varying pronunciations of two netologisms — the community’s nickname (‘MeFi’, from MetaFilter.com) and the collective nickname for its participants (‘MeFites’) — are naturally-occurring sociolinguistic variables that showcase the ongoing negotiation of community conventions and the development of group identity. An exploration of this kind adds an important piece to our broader understanding of linguistic interaction in CMC, while also exhibiting one of the many new directions of sociolinguistic research today.
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Cameron, Nancy G. "Best Practices for Online Teaching: Building a Learning Community." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2018. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/7043.
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Dia, Uzezi. "Exploring value creative and value destructive practice through an online brand community: : The case of Starbucks." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, Avdelningen för företagsekonomi, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-38151.
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This paper explores value co-creation and value co-destruction with a focus on the social practices embedded in the online brand community “My Starbucks Idea (MSI).” The objectives of the research are accomplished through a detailed explanation of the study’s stages, starting with the Research design/Planning, and followed by the Community Entry (Entrée), Data collection, Limitations, and Ethical implications. Since the study is exploratory in character, the qualitative research strategy was used. As Bryman and Bell (2011) note, qualitative research gives particular attention to words rather than numbers in the gathering and interpretation of data. This study applied a modified ‘netnographic’ approach, a new qualitative method devised specifically to investigate consumer behaviour vis-à-vis cultures and communities present on the Internet (Kozinets 1998). This study identifies three elements of practice: stalking, gossip, and exhibitionism. It also supports the idea stated by Echeverri & Skålén (2011) that there is no positive without a negative in interactive value formation. Although those authors’ work was focused on the provider-customer interface, the idea proves applicable to the online brand community (OBC) used for illustration in this study. The present study also draws attention to a vital characteristic of practice often forgotten: ‘Language’ as an enabler of all other elements (Whittington 2006). The paper contributes to the knowledge in the practice theory domain, and thus consumer culture, especially relating to OBCs. When using OBCs as a marketing tool, considerable ingenuity must be employed by business managers to gain strategic information and feedback from online forum discussions. Such information can help in the company’s strategic decision making. By building relationships and gaining new customers through the process of collaboration, managers can become more like brand storytellers. Also, such communication can be channelled as a means to create greater awareness, both of the brand and the users’ experiences, along with aiding in the development of better services and products to meet customers’ needs. In the current study, consent was an ethical concern that limited the scope and path taken by the paper. The ten-week research period was another limiting factor in properly covering all of the contextualized consumption activities and gaining sufficient experience within the MSI community.
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Rivera, Gonzalez Gibran. "The use of actor-network theory and a practice-based approach to understand online community participation." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.632822.
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Rivera, Gibran. "The use of actor-network theory and a practice-based approach to understand online community participation." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2013. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/4000/.
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Participation in online communities is problematic. Take up of community technologies is often patchy and subject to resistance, particularly in organisational settings. Previous literature, mainly influenced by a cognitive tradition, tends to explain this either through features of the technology such as interface design or through individual motivational structures. This study explores the insights Actor-Network Theory (Callon, 1986; Latour, 1986; Law, 1986c; Law, 1986b; Law, 1992) and a practice-based approach (Gherardi, 2000; Orlikowski, 2002; Reckwitz, 2002; Schatzki, 2002; Nicolini et al., 2003; Schatzki, 2005; Gherardi, 2009b; Feldman and Orlikowski, 2011; Nicolini, 2011; Cox, 2012) provide to more fully explain participation in online communities. The study focuses on the failure to establish an online community supported by a collaborative technology as part of a Human Resources project within a multi-campus University in Mexico. A range of methods for data collection were used, however semi-structured interviews were the main basis for analysis. Initially, analysing communication activity in the community showed low levels of participation, leading to conduct 30 interviews with actors playing different roles during the project; 17 interviews were conducted in the initial stage of the study and 13 interviews in the final stage. Work-related documentation and observation in online meetings were also used as sources of data. Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and a practice-based approach (PBA), both members of the praxeological family of theories (Reckwitz, 2002), were used in sequential order to inform the analyses. During the first stage of the research, ANT was used to explore how a group of actors aimed to promote participation in the online community by developing different strategies to enrol the collaborative technology supporting participation into their network. By strengthening the relations between the collaborative technology and other relevant actors within the network participation was expected to occur. The analysis reveals that lack of participation arose from an inability of the technology to develop strong relations with key actors; processes of betrayal from human actors to the technology; failure of strategies and lack of political power from the actors sponsoring the community; incomplete internal translation of the technology; and existence of competing actors. In the second stage of the research, insights from PBA were used to further explore how pre-existing practices shaped participation in the online community. This analysis showed that factors shaping participation included the interconnection of HR practices to other practices of the University; the existence of habits and the sense of routinisation and habituation reflected in HR practitioners´ patterns of interaction and media use; the concern of practitioners that participation in the online community did not support the enactment of shared knowings critical in the performance of HR practices; and the features of HR practices being at odds with participation at the online community. Although offering distinct accounts, the findings of ANT and PBA offered two perspectives that deepen our current understanding of participation by foregrounding the relational and collective, historical and emergent, and highly contextualised character of participation. On the basis of the findings, the study provides a series of considerations that might be of relevance when conducing praxeological research to study organisational phenomena. Bringing power issues to the fore of the analysis, the use of alternative approaches to better deal with power concerns, the use of ethnographic methods, the adoption of different angles from observation, acknowledging the emergent and historically-shaped character of phenomena, and the need to foreground the socio-material character of phenomena are highlighted as relevant considerations.
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Han, Jung-Min. "The consumer negotiation of brand meaning in online brand communities." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2015. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/the-consumer-negotiation-of-brand-meaning-in-online-brand-communities(d7db292d-1fa1-4314-a595-53a2febbab44).html.
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There has been much enthusiasm over the power of online brand communities (OBCs). Ensuring that OBCs achieve their potential, however, is a challenge. Adopting the view that an OBC is a social entity at its core, this study examines consumers’ perceptions of OBCs and how consumers manage the continuous tension between social-related and brand-related aspects of OBCs through brand-related and non-brand-related social practices. The researcher took a symbolic interactionist approach and qualitative data were collected using ethnography and in-depth interviews from OBC participants in South Korea. The study was divided into two phases: the exploratory phase and the main study. In the first stage the researcher inspected OBCs and focused on understanding the social context by investigating four OBCs in the fashion and digital camera categories. Evidence of an OBC as a virtual third place (VTP) in the consumer’s mind was revealed. A typology was developed and social practices were revealed and defined. In the main study the researcher developed the framework of brand meaning negotiation and revealed how consumers symbolically interact and negotiate brand meaning through social practices. The tension between social-related and the brand-related aspects during this process was illustrated. The key contributions of this research are as follows. Firstly, the study reveals that an OBC has a strong VTP quality, whereby consumers hate to leave. Second, the study extends our understanding of an OBC by categorising consumers’ different perceptions of OBCs according to their attachment to the brand, the OBC and other participants. Third, the study reveals underlying social practices within OBCs that show the characteristics of a collectivistic culture. The study also fills the research gap by examining the brand meaning negotiation process and suggesting a framework that shows how underlying practices link brand and social-related aspects of an OBC together, which was formerly a “black box”. Lastly, it demonstrates that social bonds, regardless of their importance for making an OBC thrive, can be a double-edged sword and should be balanced carefully with brand-related practice.
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Yilmaz, Beyza Nur. "Beliefs Of Members Of An Online Community Of Practice Onthe Effects Of Membership On Teaching And Professionaldevelopment." Master's thesis, METU, 2012. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12614255/index.pdf.
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This study investigated beliefs of members of an online Community of Practice (WIA) on the role of the community on professional development, teaching, and on Web 2.0 use. Through the analyses of the questionnaire, it was aimed at finding out the members&rsquoideas about the group as an online CoP and benefits of belonging to an online CoP. The data were collected from seventy nine members of the Webheads in Action from various countries by using an online questionnaire. Then, the responses to the multiple choice items were analyzed using PASSW. The data collected from the last section of the questionnairre were analyzed through content analysis and pattern coding. The findings revealed that the members believe that WIA plays an important role in the process of developing multiltiteracies skills and the Web 2.0 tools used in classroom teaching and for professional development. The findings also revealed that the participants believe that being a WIA member leads to motivation, collaboration and discovery. These beliefs are thought to provide insights about the advantages and disadvantages of learning in online CoPs and their effects on the members&rsquo
Web 2.0 use. The findings can also be beneficial for researchers, teacher trainers, and teachers wishing to join CoPs for professional development. They can understand the advantages and disadvantages, and the participation process in more detail. Moreover, these findings can indicate that online CoPs can provide a medium for coping with the increasing amount of information thanks to the recent technological developments, and acquiring new skills.
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Lane, Marty. "An instructional module template for orientation to the situated practice of oral communication online in the community college." Thesis, Gonzaga University, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1538660.
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The community college serves a diverse student population with numerous programs and degrees designed to complete general education requirements and prepare students for job placement. As these students enter their anticipated occupation, most are unprepared for the oral skill requirements of their new job. They lack confidence to navigate any number of scenarios demanding interpersonal poise, teamwork, conflict resolution, presentation skills, and other occupation-specific speaking tasks. Since many of these degrees and certificates are offered partially or completely online, this Project presents a practical means of introducing speaking skills into the coursework of the growing online learning environment. The research examined the ethos of the community college and the impact of oral proficiency on the academic, personal, and occupational lives of students. Expanding on the core required speaking course, the study and resultant project informed by a genre study, presented genre-specific oral skill activities in online coursework integrating the application of multimedia tools. Constructivist learning theory was foundational to the experiential and dialogical instructional design. Interviews and ethnographic studies in online and live courses informed the teaching and assessment rubrics integrated into the Project. Reducing perceived transactional distance in online learning is critical to student success and a relational approach to teaching engenders favorable student responses.
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Nyathi, Sihle. "The Iindaba Ziyafika project: a new community of practice?" Thesis, Rhodes University, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002932.
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This study sought to investigate the practices of citizen journalists in the Iindaba Ziyafika project. The objectives of the research were to explore the evolving practices of citizen journalism in Grahamstown and to extrapolate how citizen journalists are securing a discursive space in relationship to conventional journalism. The study investigated whether the citizen journalists based at Grocotts Mail and Radio Grahamstown are developing practices and patterns that can be distinguished from the practices of conventional journalism. It also evaluated whether the content that is produced by citizen journalists differs from the content that is produced by professional journalists, so that it can be understood as "alternative" and as promoting engaged citizenship. A sub goal was also to explore whether citizen journalism does enable the practice of citizenship through expanding the public sphere. The findings of the research are that in the Iindaba Ziyafika project, citizen journalists see news as a process and not as a series of news events. This is clear departure from event-based news conceptualisation associated with mainstream journalism. They view news as unfolding social processes, allowing citizen journalists to question the factors which would have precipitated the event and investigate the causal factors of particular phenomena. The research also reveals that citizen journalists in the project are engaging in pro-am journalism. Part of the practice of citizen journalists involves a very significant amount of collaboration between professional journalists and citizen journalists. The collaboration is in the production of content and in the presentation of radio broadcasts. Part of the findings of the study are that journalists in the Iindaba Ziyafika project work in different mediums and this calls for them to acquire the competencies of the different mediums. The same citizen journalists produce content for print, radio and for online media. The diction used in the stories published by citizen journalists is couched in struggle and revolutionary language which seems to pit the community against the authorities. The citizen journalists also make use of every daily language in their radio broadcasts and borrow from their cultural expression. This they do through populist methods. The citizen journalists have also integrated communication brokering as part and parcel of their practice. This is because the citizen journalists have also made it their mandate to enable the flow of information between the residents and the local authority. In terms of sourcing there is a deliberate stance to include those who are not ordinarily given a voice in the mainstream media. Women and the poor appear frequently in stories as sources and this is a different scenario from that prevalent in mainstream journalism which frequently covers the rich and the powerful. The citizen journalists in the Iindaba Ziyafika project have also borrowed practices from professional journalism and this has been integrated into their daily practice. This includes following strategic rituals of journalism objectivity and balance.
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Hart, Susan Jean Beckley. "LITERACYGROWS.ORG CULTIVATING AN ONLINE PLATFORM FOR TEACHING PROFESSIONALS: A FORMATIVE EXPERIMENT EXPLORING THE EFFECTIVENESS, EFFICIENCY, AND APPEAL OF A CO-CONSTRUCTED ONLINE PLATFORM FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT." UKnowledge, 2012. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/edc_etds/1.
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The purpose of this formative experiment (Reinking & Bradley, 2008) was to describe the stages of development of an online platform that cultivated the growth of an online community of practice for teaching professionals. One hundred and forty-eight elementary school professionals participated in this study. Relying primarily on qualitative data, an iterative process of data gathering, analysis, and reflection was used prior to, during, and after the implementation of the intervention, LiteracyGrows.org, to describe performance and determine progress toward the pedagogical goal.
Qualitative data were coded for recurring themes derived from the following sources: interview data, user-profile information, Google Analytics, email correspondence and open-rates, webinar archives, heat map data, and a researcher reflection journal. Micro-analysis revealed that the success of the intervention was related to the usability and sociability of the platform. It was easy to navigate and appealed to teachers as a social networking tool that was only for education professionals where they could share information and attend live or archived webinars to extend learning. Reflection on a macro-level was used as a tool to further explore LiteracyGrows.org as a model of professional development. Specifically, how it was situated within the larger landscape of professional development and what it offered in terms of alignment between learning theory, epistemology, and model of professional development and communication, worldview, and knowledge. These constructs were important factors to consider in creating a platform for meaningful dialogue and professional growth to take place.
LiteracyGrows.org provides the foundation for future research to further explore how online professional platforms can be utilized to make professional development an on-going and sustainable component of support and growth for education professionals. The growth of online professional platforms by educators will also shift the conversation of professional development further away from delivery and more toward meaningful engagement by educators as active participants in their own knowledge construction. Recommendations include the continuation of the discussion of professional development in terms of epistemological alignment. This study highlights disconnect between teachers and their professional development experiences when expectations, perceptions, and understanding of what they are engaging in for growth do not align. Furthermore, reconstructing the way professional development is embedded within practice to better engage the 21st Century teacher using up-to-date technology.
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Yagodzinski, Elizabeth. "Formative Research on an Instructional Design Theory for Online Learning Communities: A Higher Education Faculty Development Case." NSUWorks, 2012. http://nsuworks.nova.edu/gscis_etd/341.
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The steady and consistent growth of online learning and the rapid development of Web 2.0 technologies such as wikis and blogs have led to innovative methods of training and instruction. As a result, continuing research is needed to develop and validate instructional design theories and models that support teaching and learning in today's technology-rich learning environment.
The goal of this research was to refine the Creating Online Learning Communities for Adults (COLCA) instructional design (ID) theory by using the theory to design an online faculty development course. A formative research design guided the investigation. Formative research seeks to identify improvements for an instructional design theory based on a designed instance of the theory, in this case an online faculty development course in Web 2.0 tools and techniques. This research is a designed case applying the COLCA instructional design theory to an online faculty development course. Data sources included course documents and observations, email messages, and participant interviews. These data were used to determine which methods prescribed by the COLCA ID theory work well, what methods could be improved, and in which specific situations each method works best.
As an original contribution to the discipline of information technology as applied to teaching and learning, this study sought to improve upon an instructional design theory currently in its early stages of development and informs the design of online learning communities for adults. This research is important to continued growth and advancement of contemporary instructional design theories that provide support for emerging technologies, adult learners, and online learning methods that facilitate the development of online learning communities and communities of practice.
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Richard, M. (Magalie). "Building virtual learning communities:a qualitative study of an online community of practice on the language-learning website Duolingo." Bachelor's thesis, University of Oulu, 2016. http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-201606102493.
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The use of online language-learning tools for independent learning has been growing in the past years thanks to free websites and applications like Duolingo. The overall objective of this thesis is to demonstrate how the users of Duolingo constitute a growing community of practice. Through a qualitative study, this thesis explores the content of Duolingo’s main discussion section to locate typical activities that communities do to develop their practice. For the purpose of this study, a survey was also conducted among Duolingo users to determine if these activities were reflected in their answers about their own experience among the community.
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Krumwiede, Kimberly A. H. "Using Situated Learning, Community of Practice, and Guided Online Discourse in Healthcare Education for Learning Effective Interprofessional Communication." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2016. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc955043/.
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The problem exists that there are no education initiatives focused on teaching and taking into practice the skills of effective interprofessional discourse in this online, asynchronous, professional environment. The purpose of this study was to examine whether it is possible for students in the health professions to learn to practice effective interprofesssional online discourse in an electronic health record. This was a mixed methods study that included both quantitative ad qualitative inquiry underpinned by post positivism and used a method triangulation research design model. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed from an educational intervention and simulated electronic health record exercise. The students' perceptions of their practice in an electronic health record did not necessarily match their knowledge and skills in this group of students. Emergent themes from the study pointed in the possible direction of perceived value of the exercise, prior experience in an electronic health record, and logistical barriers to the activity. Perceived time constraints was a particularly strong concern of the students. The emergent themes might be valuable considerations for other interprofessional programs looking to implement similar activities concerning the electronic health record.
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Kalev, Jaana. "Ownership of Englishas a multi-linguafranca : Linguistic identity and innovation in online multilingual practice." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-193744.
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In recent years, some of the research within the field of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) seems to have gone through a re-orientation, shifting focus from form to practice. This has highlighted the dynamic nature of languages and identities performed in interaction, leading to the conceptualization of ‘English as a multi-lingua franca’, which refers to placing emphasis on multilingualism in ELF interactions. While much of ELF research has favored in-person spoken interaction, the increasing presence of electronically mediated intercultural communication (EMIC) in society encourages a consideration of online communication as a setting for ELF usage. Online interactions veer between written and spoken communication, thus providing many ways for speakers to express their linguistic identities and show ownership of the language produced. As such, in this paper a temporary multilingual social configuration was observed with regards to participants’ linguistic behavior. Six participants were asked to engage in discussion throughout one week in an online group chat, with the aim of acquiring further insight into how linguistic identity is performed in relation to language ownership and linguistic innovation by ELF speakers within the context of an online environment. The EMIC data was supported by individual interviews that took place prior to the group discussion, and follow-up interviews after the chat had ended. Through a qualitative thematic analysis, the research questions were discussed in relation to the three main focal issues of the study, i.e., linguistic identity, language ownership and linguistic innovation. The findings are in line with recent research that indicate that ELF is a multilingual practice that is shaped by its speakers, as well as the specific context of the interaction.
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McDonald-Kenworthy, Nancy Ann. "How To Be A Widow: Performing Identity in Grief Narratives of an Online Community." The Ohio State University, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1325091105.
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Yilmaz, Beyza Nur. "Beliefs Of Members Of An Online Community Of Practice On The Effects Of Membership On Teaching And Professional Development." Master's thesis, METU, 2011. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12614288/index.pdf.
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This study investigated beliefs of members of an online Community of Practice (WIA) on the role of the community on professional development, teaching, and on Web 2.0 use. Through the analyses of the questionnaire, it was aimed at finding out the members&rsquoideas about the group as an online CoP and benefits of belonging to an online CoP. The data were collected from seventy nine members of the Webheads in Action from various countries by using an online questionnaire. Then, the responses to the multiple choice items were analyzed using PASSW. The data collected from the last section of the questionnairre were analyzed through content analysis and pattern coding. The findings revealed that the members believe that WIA plays an important role in the process of developing multiltiteracies skills and the Web 2.0 tools used in classroom teaching and for professional development. The findings further revealed that the participants believe that being a WIA member leads to motivation, collaboration and discovery. These beliefs are thought to provide insights about the advantages and disadvantages of learning in online CoPs and their effects on the members&rsquo
Web 2.0 use. The findings can also be beneficial for researchers, teacher trainers, and teachers wishing to join CoPs for professional development. They can understand the advantages and disadvantages, and the participation process in more detail. Moreover, these findings can indicate that online CoPs can provide a medium for coping with the increasing amount of information thanks to the recent technological developments, and acquiring new skills.
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Jernlund, Per, and Martin Stenberg. "Functional and Imperative Object-Oriented Programming in Theory and Practice : A Study of Online Discussions in the Programming Community." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för informatik och media, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-387881.
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Functional programming (FP) has progressively become more prevalent and techniques from the FP paradigm has been implemented in many different Imperative object-oriented programming (OOP) languages. However, there is no indication that OOP is going out of style. Nevertheless the increased popularity in FP has sparked new discussions across the Internet between the FP and OOP communities regarding a multitude of related aspects. These discussions could provide insights into the questions and challenges faced by programmers today. This thesis investigates these online discussions in a small and contemporary scale in order to identify the most discussed aspect of FP and OOP. Once identified the statements and claims made by various discussion participants were selected and compared to literature relating to the aspects and the theory behind the paradigms in order to determine whether there was any discrepancies between practitioners and theory. It was done in order to investigate whether the practitioners had different ideas in the form of best practices that could influence theories. The most discussed aspect within FP and OOP was immutability and state relating primarily to the aspects of concurrency and performance . This thesis presents a selection of representative quotes that illustrate the different points of view held by groups in the community and then addresses those claims by investigating what is said in literature. It was shown that there were no direct discrepancies between the practitioners and the theory.
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Hou, Heng. "Exploring the role of an online learning community in supporting preservice English language teachers’ school placement in a Chinese normal university." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2012. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/exploring-the-role-of-an-online-learning-community-in-supporting-preservice-english-language-teachers-school-placement-in-a-chinese-normal-university(b04765c8-db97-470e-94c6-ae37ce474a5e).html.
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In recent years there has been growing enthusiasm among researchers for the promotion of online learning communities designed to support professional learning in preservice teacher education. The primary purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the role of such an online community in supporting student teacher learning during the school placement in a Chinese Normal University, and hence to enrich the understanding of student teachers’ learning experiences in an online ecology. The study’s subjects included a cohort of 42 student teachers enrolled on a four-year preservice teacher education programme, along with two university supervisors at one of China’s teacher-training universities. Primary data were collected from six weeks of online threaded discussions and from semi-structured group interviews. Supplementary data were taken from an end-of-school-placement evaluation and web-tracking logs. Data analysis has been informed and illuminated by the theoretical proposition of communities of practice. The findings of the study indicate that the online learning community is a valuable resource for supporting student teachers both personally and professionally. Findings suggest that online communication not only helps student teachers tackle immediate teaching concerns and technical problems, but, more importantly, provides them with opportunities to reflect collectively, to co-construct new teaching ideas, and to gain professional discourse competence through articulating and negotiating their evolving thoughts on teaching as a profession. In this regard, student teachers are found to be more comfortable with online self-disclosure of their personal and professional encounters and critiquing each other than they are with face-to-face communication. The research also shows that university supervisors experience mixed feelings about the fact that student teachers are more able to take ownership of their learning and therefore become less dependent on supervisor guidance as time wears on. Furthermore, these findings provide evidence suggestive of a possibly reciprocal relationship between Chinese view of learning and the building of online learning communities. Based on the results of the study, I provide recommendations as to how the significance of the school placement can be reinforced in fostering distributed student teachers’ professional growth. The results also contribute to a better understanding of the key factors in the design and implementation of effective online learning communities within preservice teacher education in China. Finally, the analytical approach used in this study provides fresh methodological insight into an alternative means of analysing online postings. It thus contributes both to the theorisation of learning communities in the context of computer-mediated communication, and to the further development of concepts drawn from the communities of practice literature.
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Herndon-Stallings, Monica. "Online Doctoral Students and the Importance of Social Network Connections." ScholarWorks, 2018. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/5346.
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University personnel offering online doctoral degrees struggle to address high attrition of students in the dissertation phase; these students can feel isolated, disconnected, and unmotivated. The purpose of this study was to explore ways online doctoral students in the dissertation phase used social networking sites (SNS) to overcome isolation and to increase persistence. The conceptual framework was situated in communities of practice (CoP) and the theory on self-determination. Research questions explored participants' experiences with using SNS to remain connected and persistent. Data were collected from in-depth interviews with 7 online doctoral students, who met the criteria of being in the dissertation phase for a minimum of 2 quarters and using at least 1 social networking site; the participants were from 4 online institutions in the United States. An interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to examine themes and interpret the lived experiences of participants. Findings revealed that online doctoral students in the dissertation phase valued working with peers and with doctoral graduates from other institutions as a strategy to remain persistent in completing their dissertations. They focused on learning and on sharing with others for social and emotional support in a safe environment. Other elements included being held accountable and being challenged to keep moving. The results could influence instructional design for online doctoral candidates emphasizing the use of SNS for support from a CoP. Implications for positive social change include higher education personnel supporting unmonitored SNS interactions and increasing trust within school-created SNS spaces for students in the dissertation phase.
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Mahrous, Doaa S. "BUILDING A COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE FOR ENGLISH-AS-A-FOREIGN LANGUAGE TUTORS DURING PRIVATE TUTORING." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2015. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/260.
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The creation of a community of practice of tutors--a shared practice among a group of people who share the same domain--enables second-language learners to facilitate their acquisition of English by embracing new learning strategies while they learn the target language. The community of tutors’ perspective allows for the incorporation of the individual’s particular second-language-acquisition needs and goals. This presentation presents a proposed study that took place at the Yasuda Center at California State University, San Bernardino in the summer of 2015. Students in the English Language Program housed in the College of Extended Learning were asked to participate in tutoring sessions offered by tutors who participated in a community of tutors. Tutors embraced new teaching strategies that they acquired through participating within a community of practice, sharing their background knowledge and teaching experience, and demonstrating new teaching techniques to each other by using collaborative and hybrid strategies during activities embedded in a rich learning context. The provision of community of practice for tutors in the English Language Program enabled learners to develop meaning-making and communication skills as well as language and literacy skills to address the informational and problem-solving needs of their tasks and assignments.
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Albrecht, Steffen, Nina Kahnwald, and Thomas Köhler. "Social Software an der Hochschule: Studentische Communities of Practice." Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2014. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-143180.
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Porthouse, Gillian. "Developing an online learning community of practices with ten-year-old pupils." Thesis, University of Hertfordshire, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2299/4528.
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This submission sets out a narrative of how a practitioner in the field of education identified and implemented the changes required, both in research methodology and in practice, in order to answer the question ‘how do I improve my practice?’ (Whitehead and McNiff, 2004) while remaining true to a personal value system by not teaching or researching in ‘a living contradiction’ (Ibid: 5) where a value system and a practice are not working in harmony. This submission chronicles a self-study journey to improve practice by identifying and reflecting on the changes required to improve that practice when ‘teaching’ ten-year-old pupils historical enquiry online. The narrative demonstrates how a practice can be reconceptualised and illustrates the outcomes of that re-conceptualisation. The particular practice in question was set within the context of technological advances in the Internet over the last half decade: in the early research the pupils used the Internet as an online encyclopaedia while in the later stages of the research they used the Internet as a means to access online authoring sites on the read-write resource Web 2.0. The journey of change follows the practitioner from teaching historical enquiry within a classroom setting to that of teaching historical enquiry within an online authoring site, called a wiki. To achieve those changes many key concepts (that had informed teaching practices at the beginning of the research journey) had to be deconstructed and subsequently restructured using an alternative design. The learning process was one of the key concepts teased apart and reconstructed using Wenger’s ‘communities of practice’ approach as a template for designing a small community of practices. It was the emerging small community of practices on the wiki that developed into a new perspective on how to promote the learning process most effectively in an online context. The submission also narrates the ontological dimension to the journey where the practitioner’s key personal values were used in the change process to create a living theory. This value driven methodology created living standards of judgement. The submission identifies, then critically reflects on, the two voices representing the significance of the developing perspectives of the writer as researcher and as practitioner. It then uses journal entries, articles and interviews to follow the practitioner journey from perspective point one to perspective point two. It reflects critically on the change process being experienced and the growing confidence that emerged as the practitioner and researcher voices began, in combination, to challenge accepted practice and develop a new single voice that impacts upon both the professional context and the field of educational theory. It leads to the acceptance of some of Wenger’s assertions that underpin his notion that meaning is negotiated in communities of practice and examines the changes in thinking that eventually led to this model being interpreted as a reference point only and to the suggestion of a new perspective on the learning process. The contribution to knowledge is, then, to be found in this new perspective of what is meant by a community of practices and the learning processes it generates with reference to teaching historical enquiry skills to ten-year-old pupils on an online authoring site called a wiki.
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Yang, Chia-chi Laffey James M. "Understanding participation and its relationship with arthritis self-efficacy in a computer-supported community of practice for rheumatoid arthritis patients." Diss., Columbia, Mo. : University of Missouri--Columbia, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10355/6877.
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Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Feb. 24, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Dissertation advisor: Dr. James Laffey. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.
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Wallace, Ruth. "Supporting Nutrition for Australian Childcare (SNAC): The development, implementation and evaluation of an online nutrition education intervention." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2016. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1771.
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The provision of a nutritious diet in a child’s early years can have an immense effect on their future health and wellbeing. Due to the increasing number of children attending child care, this setting is strategically placed for teaching children important food literacy skills and establishing positive eating habits, which remain through to adulthood. However, food served in child care facilities is often not of the best nutritional quality (Zuercher, Grace, & Kranz, 2011) and there is lack of positive role modelling among staff. Both of these factors pose obstacles to a health-promoting environment for the children who attend.
The nutritional needs of young children are well known. This research sought to identify the child care specific nutrition education resources currently available, and to understand the broader needs of Australian child care staff that would enable them to provide a healthy eating environment. The findings of this research phase informed the design and development of a website to increase child care staff nutrition knowledge and confidence in providing a healthy eating environment, facilitating ongoing continuous improvement in their professional development. Discussion boards to promote a sense of community and provide ‘information wrapped in support’ were a key website feature.
Qualitative interviews were conducted with child care facility staff and key industry stakeholders. Although positive attitudes towards promoting healthy eating were demonstrated, data revealed that recommended nutrition resources were not well known or utilised by the childcare sector and staff reported a lack of confidence and workplace support. Guided by the Spiral Technology Action Research model (H. Skinner, Maley, & Norman, 2006), a health promotion project management tool, these findings informed the development of the website, “Supporting Nutrition in Australian Childcare” (SNAC), containing a range of resources, recipes, discussion boards and links.
Use of the website, staff nutrition knowledge, attitudes, confidence and sense of community were evaluated using a qualitative, netnographic approach, through conversation threads, interviews and observations. Quantitative data collection methods including pre- and post-intervention surveys and web analytics were utilised to triangulate these findings.
Despite the “netnographic slog”, that is, the persistence and continued attempts to recruit educators and encourage them to engage with the website, findings suggest that the SNAC website was well utilised and valued by more than 1200 SNAC members, attracting over 90,000 page views and 600 posts/comments. Educators valued the ‘information wrapped in support’ offered by the website, and a sense of community developed, particularly around shared emotional connection. Educators reported positive attitudes and high self-efficacy towards providing a healthy eating environment. However, evaluation results demonstrated disparity between reported knowledge and behaviours, such as high self-efficacy, and those observed, such as poor quality menu plans.
This research has shown the need for changes in public health policy to reprioritise a healthy eating environment in Australian childcare facilities; changes that foreground optimal nutrition in the early years as vital for future health and wellbeing. However, given that high-level policy change is often difficult and time consuming, the demonstrated disparity between reported and observed knowledge and behaviours highlights the need for shorter term strategies that address the support so badly needed, to ensure the long-term sustainability of these changes.
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Davey, Bradford Thomas. "The role of a facilitated online workspace component of a community of practice| Knowledge building and value creation for NASA." Thesis, Pepperdine University, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3588584.
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The purpose of this study was to examine the role of an online workspace component of a community in the work of a community of practice. Much has been studied revealing the importance of communities of practice to organizations, project success, and knowledge management and some of these same successes hold true for virtual communities of practice. Study participants were 75 Education and Public Outreach community members of NASA's Science Mission Directorate Earth Forum. In this mixed methods study, online workspace metrics were used to track participation and a survey completed by 21 members was used to quantify participation. For a more detailed analysis, 15 community members (5 highly active users, 5 average users, and 5 infrequent users) selected based on survey responses, were interviewed. Finally, survey data was gathered from 7 online facilitators to understand their role in the community. Data collected from these 21 community members and 5 facilitating members suggest that highly active users (logging into the workspace daily), were more likely to have transformative experiences, co-create knowledge, feel ownership of community knowledge, have extended opportunities for community exchange, and find new forms of evaluation. Average users shared some similar characteristics with both the highly active members and infrequent users, representing a group in transition as they become more engaged and active in the online workspace. Inactive users viewed the workspace as having little value, being difficult to navigate, being mainly for gaining basic information about events and community news, and as another demand on their time. Results show the online workspace component of the Earth Science Education and Outreach Forum is playing an important and emerging role for this community by supporting knowledge building and knowledge sharing, and growing in value for those that utilizing it more frequently. The evidence suggests that with increased participation or "usage" comes increased value to the participant and the organization. This research illustrates the possible change in mindset held by participating community members when it comes to the nature of co-location. Additionally, it may be of particular importance in exploring changes in the community members' feelings of connection and belonging.
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Albrecht, Steffen, Nina Kahnwald, and Thomas Köhler. "Social Software an der Hochschule: Studentische Communities of Practice." Technische Universität Dresden, 2010. https://tud.qucosa.de/id/qucosa%3A28046.
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Turner, Simon. "Yaoi online : the queer and affective practices of a yaoi manga fan community." Thesis, Birkbeck (University of London), 2016. http://bbktheses.da.ulcc.ac.uk/166/.
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This thesis examines the queer and affective aspects of an online yaoi fan community. Yaoi is a genre of Japanese manga focussing on homoerotic/homosexual themes. A key point of interest about yaoi is that it is largely created by and for women. Set within the context of yaoi fan studies, this thesis utilises queer theory to investigate how a diverse group of fans comes together in a fan community on the internet in order to explore alternative identities and develop new relationships with like-minded others. According to David Halperin, queer is “whatever is at odds with the normal, the legitimate, the dominant” (cited in Sullivan 2003, p.43). I queer yaoi studies and suggest that its fandom is not a homogenous group of heterosexual female fans as has become customarily thought. Expanding on the work of other scholars, I combine original ethnographic research in AarinFantasy (http://www.aarinfantasy.com), a yaoi manga community to demonstrate how, for many fans, an online community is a place to explore and discuss queer alternatives to heteronormative gender and sexuality. I also discuss how members of AarinFantasy invest into the site through affective connections with other fans. By creating and maintaining valued friendships with others members create not only a queer space but also a space where they feel accepted as yaoi fans. Relationships in the community are formed and maintained through communication that is grounded in the fans’ experiences and the contextual state that yaoi manga has in their lives.
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Kulavuz-Onal, Derya. "English Language Teachers' Learning to Teach with Technology through Participation in an Online Community of Practice: A Netnography of Webheads in Action." Scholar Commons, 2013. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/4713.
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The emergence of online learning environments and advances in web-based technologies enable teachers to interact and exchange ideas and experiences in online communities. However, these rapid technological advances also cause such online communities to disband quickly, before they have the opportunity to evolve into a community of practice, in which a group of teachers build a shared history, a shared repertoire of resources and activities, and mutually engage in collaborative professional development, over time. Moreover, rapid advances in technology necessitate on-going collaboration among teachers so that they develop meaningful technology integration practice. While such collaborations have taken place in face-to-face settings, how this might be achieved through participation in an online teacher community of practice has been under-researched. Therefore, the present study examines one long-standing, globally-distributed, online community of practice created by English language teachers, called "Webheads in Action", whose shared domain of interest centers on exploring the pedagogical uses of web-based technologies in English language teaching.
The study employs netnography, or online ethnography, in which the researcher collects data through participant observation, interviews, and archiving, all of which is conducted completely online. The aim of this study was to understand the broader culture of learning, collaboration, and mentoring in this online language teacher community by exploring and analyzing its shared repertoire of resources, and activities; ways members engage in the collective development of this technology integration practice; and the role of participation in such an online community of practice on developing language teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge when designing instruction.
The data for this study comes from various sources of data collected through online participant observation in this community's activities over a year, reflective observational fieldnotes, online interviews, and archived data. Throughout my online fieldwork, I participated in this online community's activities both synchronously and asynchronously. At the same time, I took reflective observational fieldnotes of my participation and observations during these activities, as well as community's spaces and email communications. As for archival data, I archived the email communication that occurred during my time in the field, as well as screenshots of the community spaces and platforms. I conducted in-depth interviews with four key people in this community in order to better understand the organization and background of this community and its activities, and interviewed five individual members in order to learn about their stories with and as Webheads.
Through qualitative data analysis procedures, namely coding, categorizing and finding themes, the study provides a rich and thick description as well as an analysis of this community and its culture in the light of my experiences and observations, as well as the experiences of others. The study reveals insights as to the culture of teacher learning in an online community of practice and the mediation of technological pedagogical content knowledge in online communities of practice.
Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are also presented, as well as an in-depth discussion of how ethnographic fieldwork practices are adapted in netnography with online communities of practice.
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Alhashem, Mohammed Adnan. "Prosumption as a discursive practice of consumer empowerment : integration of individual resources and co-prosumption of value in an online community." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2017. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/7520/.
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The purpose of this research is to explore the nature of an emerging practice known as ‘prosumption’, and interrogate its potential as a discursive practice which empowers consumers in an online community named Instructables. Prosumers combine the roles of consumers and producers to make their own products. A review of prosumption and closely-related practices (consumer co-creation) alongside discourses of consumer empowerment provides a guide to the research. A netnography-informed approach is used to collect data through a degree of participant observation and online depth interviews. Findings suggest that prosumption in Instructables is multidimensional in nature and benefits to prosumers. It suggests a typology of prosumers (assemblers, modifies, artists and inventors) to make a distinction between prosumer and co-creator roles. Findings also offer evidence of prosumption as a discursive practice of consumer empowerment through self-discipline and collective education in contrast to other exploitive practices such as consumer co-creation. This research finally contributes to the on-going evolution of consumer productivity and how consumers and producers participate as producers of value in market and society.
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Kinghorn, Varitha. "Developing and evaluating online education for dietitians to enhance learning of the Nutrition Care Process (NCP)." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2018. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2119.
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BACKGROUND: A consistent care process, clear and concise medical documentation, and standardised nutrition terminology is beneficial for dietetic practice. The Nutrition Care Process (NCP), a contemporary framework to promote critical thinking and systematically address nutrition problems, and its terminology (NCPT, formerly known as IDNT) was developed to suit these purposes. However, this framework has not yet been adopted globally. The basis for this lack of adoption relates to difficulties in traditional face-to-face implementation, including a lack of local NCP experts, time constraints, financial limitations and geographical isolation.
OBJECTIVE: To develop, implement and evaluate an online education portal for NCP implementation, tailored to dietitians in clinical settings internationally. This portal also seeks to develop an online community of practice to enhance the NCP learning experience.
METHOD: The study consisted of three stages and used a number of quantitative and qualitative methods. In Stage one, qualitative focus groups with clinical dietitians were conducted to identify gaps in NCP education and assess needs in relation to an online education portal. This formative research was used to inform the second stage of website development, which was set within the framework of Spiral Technology Action Research (STAR). This approach engaged participants to further inform website development and refine the site prior to launch and implementation of the NCP online education. In the third and final stage, the resulting ‘Dietitians Online Nutrition Care Process (DoNCP)’ www.doncp.com.au, was launched nationally and internationally. The effectiveness of the online education was evaluated and measured by change in knowledge and attitude of dietitians pre- and post-website intervention using the Attitudes, Support, Knowledge of Nutrition Care Process (ASK NCP) questionnaire. Data on country of practice, learning style preferences, work status (full-time vs part-time), years of dietetic experience, and sense of community were also investigated. Qualitative exit interviews were conducted with participants and were triangulated with quantitative outcomes.
RESULTS: A total of 444 dietitians from 35 countries attempted to register on the DoNCP website, with 372 registering successfully and completing the pre-ASK NCP questionnaire. Of these 372 dietitians, 68 (18.3%) completed both pre- and post-ASK NCP questionnaires, and were called ‘Questionnaire Completers (Q completers)’. The 304 dietitians (81.7%) who completed the pre- but not post-ASK NCP questionnaire were called ‘Questionnaire Non-Completers (Q non-completers)’. Q completers (n=68) were similar to Q non-completers (n=304) in aspects of gender, age, country of practice, highest education level, learning style preference, work position, work status, and geographical location of workplace (p>0.05 for all), with the exception of years of dietetic experience (p0.05 for all). After DoNCP website intervention, Q completers (n=68) reported significant improvements in their knowledge of NCP (p0.05 for all). Post intervention, the sense of community for Q completers (n=68) was not significantly associated with the change in NCP knowledge and attitudes scores (p>0.05 for all). The DoNCP website provided a sense of community for dietitians to a certain extent, however, a community of practice did not fully emerge during the finite data collection period.
CONCLUSIONS: The DoNCP website was confirmed as an effective portal to support NCP learning for dietitians at the national and international level, regardless of the sense of community. The knowledge and attitudes scores (value, confidence, support, and training) towards NCP model framework improved following the utilisation of the DoNCP website. The fact that learning style preference was not associated with differences in knowledge and attitude change suggested that the DoNCP website provided a wide range of educational resources to accommodate a range of different learning styles. Participants perceived the DoNCP website as a professional resource that met their needs and enhanced their learning of NCP.
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Hutchinson, Jonathon P. "Collaboration, connections and consequences : a study of cultural intermediation within the ABC Pool institutional online community." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2013. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/64476/1/Jonathon_Hutchinson_Thesis.pdf.
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This thesis addresses the question of what it means to be a public broadcaster in the context of a rapidly changing media landscape, in which audiences no longer only watch and consume but now also make and share media content. Through a close investigation of the ABC Pool community, this thesis documents how the different interests of the stakeholders within an institutional online community intersect and how those interests are negotiated within the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It demonstrates a new approach towards the cultural intermediation of user-created content within institutional online communities. The research moves beyond the exploration of the community manager role as one type of intermediary to demonstrate the activities of multiple cultural intermediaries that engage in collaborative peer production. Cultural intermediation provides the basis for institutional online community governance.