A Visual Analysis of Phases of Police Brutality Against Unarmed African Americans From 1979 to 2014

This report describes the process used to create an online resource that compiles a sample dataset regarding police brutality incidents against African Americans between 1979 to the present and also analyzes the similarity between these incidents by contextualizing them into "phases of police brutality." However, this dataset is only a small sample of the total population and may not be entirely representative of that population. Data regarding these incidents were collected from various news sources including crowdsourced database efforts, local news websites, and national news websites.Master of Science in Information Scienc

The Effectiveness of Creating a Sense of Community in Online Learning with Social Awareness Information

Online social interactions differ from face to face interactions and lack the non-verbal cues leading a learner to procrastinate, decreased motivation, feelings of isolation and high drop out rates. Existing research illustrates a need for social awareness information in online education, and this research studied the impact of the visual presence of social information on a learner\u27s sense of connectedness and learning using Rovai\u27s (2002) classroom community scale (CCS). Specifically, the study examined if a learners\u27 sense of connectedness is improved with the exposure to others\u27 social awareness information; and if and to what degree learning advanced due to the improved sense of connectedness. Two, 5 X 1 between-subjects one-way analyses of covariances compared connectedness and learning scores of five social awareness information disclosure groups (appearance, educational, contact and personal information disclosure groups and control group). Although the study did not find evidence of exposure to social awareness information having an impact on learning, the findings confirm the claim that social awareness provides a sense of connectedness. The type of social information presented in the educational category (last degree earned, major and educational year) provided a strong relationship compared to other categories studied. Educators, course designers and content management companies will benefit in recognizing that social awareness information positively impacts online educational participants by providing a sense of connectedness when presented with educational related materials. The development of social awareness support within a learning management system can improve an online learner\u27s experience and enhance the quality of online education. This social awareness support in a learning management systems infrastructure is thus recommended