6 research outputs found
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What if the company’s “Charity of the Year” deals with severe to moderate mental disability? A case study of fundraising problems and possibilities
Purpose: This paper explores the use of an ABC social marketing intervention to rescue a failing corporate “charity of the year” exercise that involved a mental disability charity. It describes the improvements experienced consequent to the introduction of volunteer “charity ambassadors” appointed to champion the charity’s cause.Design/methodology/approach: The study revolved around company employees’ responses to an open-ended question concerning their attitudes towards people with mental disabilities. A semi-automated qualitative research technique (structural topic modelling [STM]), was used to analyse the replies both pre- and post-intervention. Regression analyses were undertaken to explain whether employees’ replies to the question fell in specific categories.Findings: The intervention was successful. Employees’ attitudes regarding mentally impaired people shifted substantially away from fear and towards feelings of benevolence and compassion. Employees’ financial donations to the charity increased significantly consequent to the intervention. Levels of benevolence and compassion depended significantly on participants’ prior exposure to people with mental disabilities, gender, and degree of involvement in activities associated with the intervention.Research limitations: Stakeholders other than employees were not sampled. Open-ended responses to a single question can oversimplify complex issues.Practical implications: Outcomes to the research demonstrate how charity ambassadors can induce positive attitudes and behaviour towards an “unpopular cause”.Originality and value: The results highlight some of the problems attached to corporate sponsorship of unpopular causes. A relatively recently developed open-ended qualitative research technique, STM, was used to examine employees’ attitudes. Classifications of findings emerged from the data and did not depend on a predetermined coding scheme
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Digital Intervention in Loneliness in Older Adults: Qualitative Analysis of User Studies
Background: Loneliness is a significant well-being issue that affects older adults. Existing, commonly used social connection platforms do not contain facilities to break the cognitive cycle of loneliness, and loneliness interventions implemented without due processes could have detrimental effects on well-being. There is also a lack of digital technology designed with older adults.Objective:We aimed to iteratively design a user-centered smartphone app that can address loneliness in older adults. The aim of this study was to investigate the loneliness-related psychological processes that our conceptual smartphone app promotes. We also identified the emergent needs and concerns that older adults raised regarding the potential benefits and detriments of the app.Methods: We used technology probes to elicit older adults' reflections on the concept of using the app in 2 studies as follows: concept focus groups (n=33) and concept interviews (n=10). We then conducted a prototype trial with 1 week of use and follow-up interviews (n=12).Results: Thematic analysis explored the experiences and emergent challenges of our app through the design process. This led to the development of 4 themes as follows occurring in all 3 qualitative data sets: reflection on a digital social map is reassuring; app features encourage socializing; the risk of compounding loneliness; and individuals feel more control with mutual, socially beneficial activities.Conclusions: Smartphone apps have the potential to increase older adults' awareness of the richness of their social connections, which may support loneliness reduction. Our qualitative approach to app design enabled the inclusion of older adults' experiences in technology design. Thus, we conclude that the older adults in our study most desired functionalities that can support mutual activities and maintain or find new connections rather than enable them to share an emotional state. They were wary of the app replacing their preferred in-person social interaction. Participants also raised concerns about making the user aware of the lack of support in their social network and wanted specific means of addressing their needs. Further user-centered design work could identify how the app can support mutual activities and socializing
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Digital intervention in loneliness in older adults: A qualitative analysis of user studies
This is the final version. Available from JMIR Publications via the DOI in this record. Data Availability:
The qualitative study transcripts may contain confidential information and are stored privately in The Open University’s figshare
repository; these can be shared on reasonable request to the corresponding author. The technology probes and screen captures of
the application are available on internetBackground: Loneliness is a significant well-being issue that affects older adults. Existing, commonly used social connection
platforms do not contain facilities to break the cognitive cycle of loneliness, and loneliness interventions implemented without
due processes could have detrimental effects on well-being. There is also a lack of digital technology designed with older adults.
Objective: We aimed to iteratively design a user-centered smartphone app that can address loneliness in older adults. The aim
of this study was to investigate the loneliness-related psychological processes that our conceptual smartphone app promotes. We
also identified the emergent needs and concerns that older adults raised regarding the potential benefits and detriments of the
app.
Methods: We used technology probes to elicit older adults’ reflections on the concept of using the app in 2 studies as follows:
concept focus groups (n=33) and concept interviews (n=10). We then conducted a prototype trial with 1 week of use and follow-up
interviews (n=12).
Results: Thematic analysis explored the experiences and emergent challenges of our app through the design process. This led
to the development of 4 themes as follows occurring in all 3 qualitative data sets: reflection on a digital social map is reassuring;
app features encourage socializing; the risk of compounding loneliness; and individuals feel more control with mutual, socially
beneficial activities.
Conclusions: Smartphone apps have the potential to increase older adults’ awareness of the richness of their social connections,
which may support loneliness reduction. Our qualitative approach to app design enabled the inclusion of older adults’ experiences
in technology design. Thus, we conclude that the older adults in our study most desired functionalities that can support mutual
activities and maintain or find new connections rather than enable them to share an emotional state. They were wary of the app
replacing their preferred in-person social interaction. Participants also raised concerns about making the user aware of the lack
of support in their social network and wanted specific means of addressing their needs. Further user-centered design work could
identify how the app can support mutual activities and socializing.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research CouncilEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Counci
Proceedings of the International Workshop on EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching (IWEPLET 2013)
"This book contains the proceedings of the International Workshop on EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching (IWEPLET) 2013 which was held on 16.-17.September 2013 in Paphos (Cyprus) in conjunction with the EC-TEL conference. The workshop and hence the proceedings are divided in two parts: on Day 1 the EuroPLOT project and its results are introduced, with papers about the specific case studies and their evaluation. On Day 2, peer-reviewed papers are presented which address specific topics and issues going beyond the EuroPLOT scope. This workshop is one of the deliverables (D 2.6) of the EuroPLOT project, which has been funded from November 2010 – October 2013 by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) of the European Commission through the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLL) by grant #511633. The purpose of this project was to develop and evaluate Persuasive Learning Objects and Technologies (PLOTS), based on ideas of BJ Fogg. The purpose of this workshop is to summarize the findings obtained during this project and disseminate them to an interested audience. Furthermore, it shall foster discussions about the future of persuasive technology and design in the context of learning, education and teaching. The international community working in this area of research is relatively small. Nevertheless, we have received a number of high-quality submissions which went through a peer-review process before being selected for presentation and publication. We hope that the information found in this book is useful to the reader and that more interest in this novel approach of persuasive design for teaching/education/learning is stimulated. We are very grateful to the organisers of EC-TEL 2013 for allowing to host IWEPLET 2013 within their organisational facilities which helped us a lot in preparing this event. I am also very grateful to everyone in the EuroPLOT team for collaborating so effectively in these three years towards creating excellent outputs, and for being such a nice group with a very positive spirit also beyond work. And finally I would like to thank the EACEA for providing the financial resources for the EuroPLOT project and for being very helpful when needed. This funding made it possible to organise the IWEPLET workshop without charging a fee from the participants.