Social Bots for Online Public Health Interventions

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in the United States hundreds of thousands initiate smoking each year, and millions live with smoking-related dis- eases. Many tobacco users discuss their habits and preferences on social media. This work conceptualizes a framework for targeted health interventions to inform tobacco users about the consequences of tobacco use. We designed a Twitter bot named Notobot (short for No-Tobacco Bot) that leverages machine learning to identify users posting pro-tobacco tweets and select individualized interventions to address their interest in tobacco use. We searched the Twitter feed for tobacco-related keywords and phrases, and trained a convolutional neural network using over 4,000 tweets dichotomously manually labeled as either pro- tobacco or not pro-tobacco. This model achieves a 90% recall rate on the training set and 74% on test data. Users posting pro- tobacco tweets are matched with former smokers with similar interests who posted anti-tobacco tweets. Algorithmic matching, based on the power of peer influence, allows for the systematic delivery of personalized interventions based on real anti-tobacco tweets from former smokers. Experimental evaluation suggests that our system would perform well if deployed. This research offers opportunities for public health researchers to increase health awareness at scale. Future work entails deploying the fully operational Notobot system in a controlled experiment within a public health campaign

Developing information architecture through records management classification techniques

Purpose – This work aims to draw attention to information retrieval philosophies and techniques allied to the records management profession, advocating a wider professional consideration of a functional approach to information management, in this instance in the development of information architecture. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws from a hypothesis originally presented by the author that advocated a viewpoint whereby the application of records management techniques, traditionally applied to develop business classification schemes, was offered as an additional solution to organising information resources and services (within a university intranet), where earlier approaches, notably subject- and administrative-based arrangements, were found to be lacking. The hypothesis was tested via work-based action learning and is presented here as an extended case study. The paper also draws on evidence submitted to the Joint Information Systems Committee in support of the Abertay University's application for consideration for the JISC award for innovation in records and information management. Findings – The original hypothesis has been tested in the workplace. Information retrieval techniques, allied to records management (functional classification), were the main influence in the development of pre- and post-coordinate information retrieval systems to support a wider information architecture, where the subject approach was found to be lacking. Their use within the workplace has since been extended. Originality/value – The paper advocates that the development of information retrieval as a discipline should include a wider consideration of functional classification, as this alternative to the subject approach is largely ignored in mainstream IR works

Using open source tools to support collaboration within CALIBRE

Abstract – This paper describes the deployment of Plone, an Open-Source content management system, to support the activities of CALIBRE, an EU-funded coordination action integrating research into Libre software. The criteria by which Plone was selected are described, and the goodness of fit to these criteria is analysed. As a coordination action, CALIBRE involves 12 partners with different requirements and characteristics. The CALIBRE Working Environment (CWE) must therefore support a variety of users with different levels of technical expertise and expectations. Implementation of the support infrastructure for CALIBRE is ongoing, and has provided some interesting insights into the benefits of the use of libre software. Although Plone has not been explicitly developed as a collaboration infrastructure, with its wealth of plugins, it has proven highly adaptable for this purpose

Building online employability: a guide for academic departments

This guide will help academic departments to support students to think about their careers and to use the online environment wisely. Used badly the array of social media and online technologies can seriously disadvantage a students’ career development, but if used well they can support students to find out about and transition into their future career.This work was funded by the University of Derby’s Research for Teaching and Learning programme

Evaluating an online learning community: Intellectual, social and emotional development and transformations.

Developing online learning communities is a promising pedagogical approach in online learning contexts for adult tertiary learners, but it is no easy task. Understanding how learning communities are formed and evaluating their efficacy in supporting teaching-learning involves a complex set of issues that have a bearing on the design and facilitation of successful online learning experiences. This paper presents findings of a case study of a semester-long online graduate course designed to facilitate a learning community at a New Zealand tertiary institution. It adopts a sociocultural analytical framework and argues for a multiple developmental analytical approach to evaluating learning that considers lecturer and student intellectual, social and emotional development and transformations. Implications are presented for online lecturers, course designers and institutional administrators

Improving the interfaces of online discussion forums to enhance learning support : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Information Science in Information Systems at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

This thesis describes a research work aimed at improving the interfaces of online discussion forums (ODFs) in relation to their functional support to enhance learning. These ODFs form part of almost all Learning Management Systems (LMSs) such as WebCT, Moodle and Blackboard, which are widely used in education nowadays. Although ODFs are identified as valuable sources to learning, their interfaces are limited in terms of providing support to students, such as in the areas of managing their postings as well as in facilitating them to quickly locate and obtain specified information. In addition, these systems lack features to support inter-institutional cooperation that could potentially increase knowledge sharing between students and educators of different institutions. The interface design objective of this study therefore was to explore and overcome the limitations identified as above, and enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of ODFs’ support to learning. Using a task centered design approach; the required features were developed, and implemented in a working prototype called eQuake (electronic Question answer knowledge environment). eQuake is a shared online discussion forum system developed as an add-on to a well-known open source e-learning platform (Moodle). This system was intended for use among interinstitutional students in New Zealand tertiary institutions that teach similar courses. The improved interface functionalities of eQuake are expected to enhance learning support in terms of widening communication among users, increasing knowledge base, providing existing matching answer(s) quickly to students, and exposing students to multiple perspectives. This study considers such improvements to ODF interfaces as vital to enable users to enjoy the benefits of technology-mediated environment. The perceived usefulness and ease-of-use of improved features in eQuake were evaluated using a quantitative experimental research method. The evaluation was conducted at three tertiary institutions in New Zealand, and the overall results indicated positive response, although some suggestions for improvement have been made in the evaluation. This thesis presents a review of the related literature, describes the design and development of a user interface, followed by its implementation in eQuake, and a description of the evaluation. The thesis concludes with recommendations for better interface design of ODFs and provides suggestions for future research in this area

The impact of Facebook use on micro-level social capital: a synthesis

The relationship between Facebook use and micro-level social capital has received substantial scholarly attention over the past decade. This attention has resulted in a large body of empirical work that gives insight into the nature of Facebook as a social networking site and how it influences the social benefits that people gather from having social relationships. Although the extant research provides a solid basis for future research into this area, a number of issues remain underexplored. The aim of the current article is twofold. First, it seeks to synthesize what is already known about the relationship between Facebook use and micro-level social capital. Second, it seeks to advance future research by identifying and analyzing relevant theoretical, analytical and methodological issues. To address the first research aim, we first present an overview and analysis of current research findings on Facebook use and social capital, in which we focus on what we know about (1) the relationship between Facebook use in general and the different subtypes of social capital; (2) the relationships between different types of Facebook interactions and social capital; and (3) the impact of self-esteem on the relationship between Facebook use and social capital. Based on this analysis, we subsequently identify three theoretical issues, two analytical issues and four methodological issues in the extant body of research, and discuss the implications of these issues for Facebook and social capital researchers