More than communities: organizing in online interaction spaces

This dissertation examined four online forums for evidence of organizing in order to evaluate the accuracy of the term "online community" for describing all online interaction spaces. The Four Flows Model (McPhee & Zaug, 2000) was used as a guiding theoretical framework during a content analysis of the messages within each forum in order to identify the type and amount of organizational processes enacted through forum members' interactions. Mintzberg's (1979) conceptualization of the organization and the Four Flows Model were used to interpret the results of the content analysis and a network analysis of the forums' communication networks in order to determine whether any of the forums functioned and were constituted as organizations. Evidence of all four types of organizing processes were found within each of the forums, and two forums were determined to function as organizations. The definition of online community was revised in light of the results, and a definition was offered for the new concept, "online organization" that describes how larger communities of shared interest can organize within online interaction spaces to accomplish members' shared goals. A theoretical model was also developed to situate all online interaction spaces relative to one another according to the prevalence of organizational and social messages within them

From Produsers to Shareaholics: Changing Models of Reader Interaction in Women’s Online Magazines

Women’s online magazines have been constantly proliferating and increasingly supplanting print publications. Contributing to their success, these sites offer similar content free of change and significantly greater opportunities for interaction – often in the form of discussion forums. However, these interactive spaces are currently disappearing, being replaced by an ever-escalating emphasis upon social network sites (SNSs). This article critically examines this changing model of reader interaction in women’s online magazines, drawing on a study of 68 interviews with industry insiders, forum user-generated content, and a variety of trade material. The analysis demonstrates how the decision to close the forums and embrace SNSs responds to multiple determinants, including a corporate doctrine of control over users’ discourse and outsourcing new modalities of free consumer labour, constituting a new ideal worker-commodity online: “the shareaholic”. This exercise of power has varying levels of success, and potentialities remain for users to exercise some transformative subversion, for example through what the article theorises as “labour of disruption”. Nonetheless, the emergent SNS-based magazine model of reader interaction poses a serious challenge to ongoing celebrations both in the industry and in some scholarly work about an increasingly democratic and user-led digital media ecosystem

The Role of Connectors in Supporting Knowledge Construction in xMOOC Learning Networks:A Mixed Methods Case Study

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a relatively new phenomenon in the field of online education. The literature has both praised the potential for xMOOCs, highly structured courses that centre around a series of short video lectures, automated marking, and peer evaluation, enhancing learning outcomes and condemned them for not being innovative at all, with some suggesting that xMOOCs reinforce a teacher-centred approach to teaching and learning. Empirical research on xMOOCs is still relatively new, ranging from the subject of attrition rates, communication patterns, , and learning analytics. Yet, there is still little empirical evidence showing how learning occurs in xMOOCs. More specifically, it’s not understood how participants engage in collaborative dialogue and knowledge construction. Furthermore, the literature is lacking in describing how or who influences the sequence of knowledge construction in xMOOCs. Recent research suggests that a social network analysis approach to MOOC research may provide insight on how participants engage with each other, and whether some are more influential than others in how knowledge is shared, understood or constructed. This thesis adopts a mixed methods case study design using (1) social network analysis, and (2) Interaction Analysis Model (IAM) to explore how xMOOC participants with high centrality measures support knowledge construction. The results show that SNA of xMOOC discussion forums can identify participants who are in the position to be connectors, highly influential in a social network; however, IAM of the discussion forums suggest that they play a minimal role in the sequence of knowledge construction among participants. This suggests connectors are not influential in an xMOOC learning network, despite the power of their position. The implications of these findings informs both researchers of how engagement and knowledge construction does not happen automatically, and that instructor or instructional design intervention may be needed

A tale of six fish: Achieving social presence through discussion forums in an offline learning environment

It is widely held, through the Socratic tradition, that discussion is at the heart of learning. Moderated discussion forums have been shown to replicate the debate, argument and verbal defence of viewpoints that we have come to expect in face-to-face learning environments and that we generally accept to underpin learning. While much has been written about discussion forums in educational settings, particularly in how to moderate and promote effective interaction with students at a distance, this paper takes a different approach. It looks at how forums may be used to support face-to-face learning in the contemporary context of the massification of on-campus classes. Further to this, it will argue for discussion forums as an indicator of social presence in the learning environment. It will cautiously conclude that, through purposeful design, this form of asynchronous communication has a valuable role to play in creating a positive and supportive environment for students entering university. Discussion forums are tools with a versatility yet to be fully exploited

Why forums? An empirical analysis into the facilitating factors of carding forums

Over the last decade, the nature of cybercrime has transformed from naive vandalism to profit-driven, leading to the emergence of a global underground economy. A noticeable trend which has surfaced in this economy is the repeated use of forums to operate online stolen data markets. Using interaction data from three prominent carding forums: Shadowcrew, Cardersmarket and Darkmarket, this study sets out to understand why forums are repeatedly chosen to operate online stolen data markets despite numerous successful infiltrations by law enforcement in the past. Drawing on theories from criminology, social psychology, economics and network science, this study has identified four fundamental socio-economic mechanisms offered by carding forums: (1) formal control and coordination; (2) social networking; (3) identity uncertainty mitigation; (4) quality uncertainty mitigation. Together, they give rise to a sophisticated underground market regulatory system that facilitates underground trading over the Internet and thus drives the expansion of the underground economy

Understanding Communication Patterns in MOOCs: Combining Data Mining and qualitative methods

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) offer unprecedented opportunities to learn at scale. Within a few years, the phenomenon of crowd-based learning has gained enormous popularity with millions of learners across the globe participating in courses ranging from Popular Music to Astrophysics. They have captured the imaginations of many, attracting significant media attention - with The New York Times naming 2012 "The Year of the MOOC." For those engaged in learning analytics and educational data mining, MOOCs have provided an exciting opportunity to develop innovative methodologies that harness big data in education.Comment: Preprint of a chapter to appear in "Data Mining and Learning Analytics: Applications in Educational Research