140,060 research outputs found
The Impact of Geographic Distance on Online Social Interactions
Online social networking services entice millions of users to spend hours every day interacting with each other. The focus of this work is to explain the effect that geographic distance has on online social interactions and, simultaneously, to understand the interplay between the social characteristics of friendship ties and their spatial properties. We analyze data from a large-scale online social network, Tuenti, with about 10 million active users: our sample includes user profiles, user home locations and online social interactions among Tuenti members. Our findings support the idea that spatial distance constraints whom users interact with, but not the intensity of their social interactions. Furthermore, friendship ties belonging to denser connected groups tend to arise at shorter spatial distances than social ties established between members belonging to different groups. Finally, we show that our findings mostly do not depend on the age of the users, although younger users seem to be slightly more constrained to shorter geographic distances. Augmenting social structure with geographic information adds a new dimension to social network analysis and a large number of theoretical investigations and practical applications can be pursued for online social systems, with many promising outcomes. As the amount of available location-based data is increasing, our findings and results open the door to future possibilities: researchers would benefit from these insights when studying online social services, while developers should be aware of these additional possibilities when building systems and applications related to online social platforms
The effect of disruptive events on spatial and social interactions: An assessment of structural changes in pre-and post-COVID-19 pandemic networks
Disruptive events significantly alter spatial and social interactions among
people and places. To examine the structural changes in spatial and social
interaction networks in pre- and post-periods of the COVID-19 pandemic, we
employ the Louvain method to algorithmically detect regions (communities)
within the county-to-county networks of the SafeGraph mobility and Facebook
social connectedness. We then utilize a range of partition similarity metrics,
including adjusted Rand, z-Rand, Normalized Mutual Information (NMI), and
Jaccard indices, to quantitatively measure the similarity of regions between
the pre- and post-periods partitions of each network. Our findings reveal that
in the post-pandemic period, spatial interactions led to the formation of
localized geographic communities or regions characterized by higher modular
activity within each region. In contrast, online social interactions shifted
towards longer distance connections, resulting in the emergence of larger
regions marked by strong friendship ties that often encompassed multiple
states. By understanding these changes, we contribute to a better comprehension
of the pandemic's impact on our interconnected physical-virtual world,
providing valuable insights for future research and informing strategies to
adapt to the evolving dynamics of human interactions.Comment: Proceedings of GIScience 2023 Workshop on Disruptive Movement
Analysis, September 12, 2023, Leeds, U
Learner-centered social support: enhancing online distance education for underserved rural high school students in the United States
Over the past decade, federal programs in the United States have largely addressed the well-documented problem of differences in basic access to technology between rural schools and their suburban and urban counterparts. Consequently, rural schools are better able to prepare their students for post-secondary education and the workplace where digital literacy is essential. As technology access improves, online distance education (ODE) is seen as a solution to significant challenges faced by rural schools, including a lack of highly-qualified teachers and declining population. However, ODE has high attrition rates, partly because participantsâ social needs are often neglected. Additionally, students' success depends on their abilities to engage in self-regulated learning, effective time management and self-reflection, skills that many high school students are still developing. This paper describes an experimental research study funded by the U.S. Department of Education, currently underway in rural high schools across the U.S. The research adds to a growing body of work that attempts to expand understanding of the digital divide. Increasingly, schools realise that this is no longer an issue of mere access to equipment; education technology projects should incorporate strategies that ensure the success of previously marginalised communities. Our intervention, based on the APAâs Learner- Centered Principles, involves training on-site facilitators to provide social support for students involved in ODE. Preliminary findings indicate that the intervention group has a significantly lower dropout rate
Defining Geographic Communities
The purpose of this paper is to provide a guide to concepts, ideas, and measurements of geographic communities. The paper investigates the various concepts of geographic communities found in the literature and reviews existing studies to determine how researchers measure geographic communities in practice.Geographic communities, Local labour markets
Defining Geographic Communities
The purpose of this paper is to provide a guide to concepts, ideas, and measurements of geographic communities. The paper investigates the various concepts of geographic communities found in the literature and reviews existing studies to determine how researchers measure geographic communities in practice.Geographic communities, Local labour markets
Maximising Social Interactions and Effectiveness within Distance Learning Courses: Cases from Construction
Advanced Internet technologies have revolutionised the delivery of distance learning education. As a result, the physical proximity between learners and the learning providers has become less important. However, whilst the pervasiveness of these technological developments has reached unprecedented levels, critics argue that the student learning experience is still not as effective as conventional face-to-face delivery. In this regard, surveys of distance learning courses reveal that there is often a lack of social interaction attributed to this method of delivery, which tends to leave learners feeling isolated due to a lack of engagement, direction, guidance and support by the tutor. This paper defines and conceptualises this phenomenon by investigating the extent to which distance-learning programmes provide the social interactions of an equivalent traditional classroom setting. In this respect, two distance learning case studies were investigated, covering the UK and Slovenian markets respectively. Research findings identified that delivery success is strongly dependent on the particular context to which the specific distance learning course is
designed, structured and augmented. It is therefore recommended that designers of distance learning courses should balance the tensions and nuances associated with commercial viability and pedagogic effectiveness
Maximising social interactions and effectiveness within distance learning courses : cases from construction
Advanced Internet technologies have revolutionised the delivery of distance learning education. As a result, the physical proximity between learners and the learning providers has become less important. However, whilst the pervasiveness of these technological developments has reached unprecedented levels, critics argue that the student learning experience is still not as effective as conventional face-to-face delivery. In this regard, surveys of distance learning courses reveal that there is often a lack of social interaction attributed to this method of delivery, which tends to leave learners feeling isolated due to a lack of engagement, direction, guidance and support by the tutor. This paper defines and conceptualises this phenomenon by investigating the extent to which distance-learning programmes provide the social interactions of an equivalent traditional classroom setting. In this respect, two distance learning case studies were investigated, covering the UK and Slovenian markets respectively. Research findings identified that delivery success is strongly dependent on the particular context to which the specific distance learning course is designed, structured and augmented. It is therefore recommended that designers of distance learning courses should balance the tensions and nuances associated with commercial viability and pedagogic effectiveness
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