76,838 research outputs found

    Designing Adaptive Engagement Approaches for Audience-bounded Online Communities

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    Audience-bounded online communities require innovative user engagement techniques. Without special efforts focus- ing on engagement, the contribution volume will likely to be insufficient to maintain a sustainable community-driven sys- tem. This paper presents an adaptive approach for user en- gagement that aims to apply alternative engagement strate- gies to users with different behavior in the online community. We report the results of the first experiments testing the fea- sibility of such approach. We discuss further design options that can be explored and the implications of the approach

    Competing or aiming to be average?: Normification as a means of engaging digital volunteers

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    Engagement, motivation and active contribution by digital volunteers are key requirements for crowdsourcing and citizen science projects. Many systems use competitive elements, for example point scoring and leaderboards, to achieve these ends. However, while competition may motivate some people, it can have a neutral or demotivating effect on others. In this paper we explore theories of personal and social norms and investigate normification as an alternative approach to engagement, to be used alongside or instead of competitive strategies. We provide a systematic review of existing crowdsourcing and citizen science literature and categorise the ways that theories of norms have been incorporated to date. We then present qualitative interview data from a pro-environmental crowdsourcing study, Close the Door, which reveals normalising attitudes in certain participants. We assess how this links with competitive behaviour and participant performance. Based on our findings and analysis of norm theories, we consider the implications for designers wishing to use normification as an engagement strategy in crowdsourcing and citizen science systems

    MoodBar: Increasing new user retention in Wikipedia through lightweight socialization

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    Socialization in online communities allows existing members to welcome and recruit newcomers, introduce them to community norms and practices, and sustain their early participation. However, socializing newcomers does not come for free: in large communities, socialization can result in a significant workload for mentors and is hard to scale. In this study we present results from an experiment that measured the effect of a lightweight socialization tool on the activity and retention of newly registered users attempting to edit for the first time Wikipedia. Wikipedia is struggling with the retention of newcomers and our results indicate that a mechanism to elicit lightweight feedback and to provide early mentoring to newcomers improves their chances of becoming long-term contributors.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted for presentation at CSCW'1

    Epistemic and Social Scripts in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning

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    Collaborative learning in computer-supported learning environments typically means that learners work on tasks together, discussing their individual perspectives via text-based media or videoconferencing, and consequently acquire knowledge. Collaborative learning, however, is often sub-optimal with respect to how learners work on the concepts that are supposed to be learned and how learners interact with each other. Therefore, instructional support needs to be implemented into computer-supported collaborative learning environments. One possibility to improve collaborative learning environments is to conceptualize scripts that structure epistemic activities and social interactions of learners. In this contribution, two studies will be reported that investigated the effects of epistemic and social scripts in a text-based computer-supported learning environment and in a videoconferencing learning environment in order to foster the individual acquisition of knowledge. In each study the factors "epistemic script" and "social script" have been independently varied in a 2×2-factorial design. 182 university students of Educational Science participated in these two studies. Results of both studies show that social scripts can be substantially beneficial with respect to the individual acquisition of knowledge, whereas epistemic scripts apparently do not lead to the expected effects.Unter kooperativem Lernen in computerunterstĂŒtzten Lernumgebungen versteht man typischerweise, dass Lernende Wissen erwerben indem sie gemeinsam Aufgaben bearbeiten und dabei ihre individuellen Perspektiven mittels textbasierter Medien oder in Videokonferenzen diskutieren. Kooperatives Lernen scheint aber hĂ€ufig suboptimal zu sein in Bezug auf die inhaltliche Bearbeitung der zu lernenden Konzepte sowie hinsichtlich der sozialen Interaktionen der Lernenden. Eine Möglichkeit kooperative Lernumgebungen zu verbessern besteht darin, Skripts zu konzeptualisieren, die epistemische AktivitĂ€ten und soziale Interaktionen von Lernenden unterstĂŒtzen. In diesem Beitrag werden zwei Studien berichtet, die die Wirkungen epistemischer und sozialer Skripts auf den individuellen Wissenserwerb in einer text- bzw. einer videobasierten computerunterstĂŒtzten Lernumgebung untersuchen. In beiden Studien wurden die Faktoren "epistemisches Skript" und "soziales Skript" unabhĂ€ngig voneinander in einem 2×2-faktoriellen Design miteinander variiert. 182 Studierende der PĂ€dagogik der LMU MĂŒnchen nahmen an diesen beiden Studien teil. Die Ergebnisse beider Studien deuten darauf hin, dass soziale Skripts individuellen Wissenserwerb substanziell fördern können, wĂ€hrend epistemische Skripts scheinbar nicht zu den erwarteten Ergebnissen fĂŒhren

    Epistemic and social scripts in computer-supported collaborative learning

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    Collaborative learning in computer-supported learning environments typically means that learners work on tasks together, discussing their individual perspectives via text-based media or videoconferencing, and consequently acquire knowledge. Collaborative learning, however, is often sub-optimal with respect to how learners work on the concepts that are supposed to be learned and how learners interact with each other. One possibility to improve collaborative learning environments is to conceptualize epistemic scripts, which specify how learners work on a given task, and social scripts, which structure how learners interact with each other. In this contribution, two studies will be reported that investigated the effects of epistemic and social scripts in a text-based computer-supported learning environment and in a videoconferencing learning environment in order to foster the individual acquisition of knowledge. In each study the factors ‘epistemic script’ and ‘social script’ have been independently varied in a 2×2-factorial design. 182 university students of Educational Science participated in these two studies. Results of both studies show that social scripts can be substantially beneficial with respect to the individual acquisition of knowledge, whereas epistemic scripts apparently do not to lead to the expected effects

    Knowledge Cartography for Open Sensemaking Communities

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    Knowledge Cartography is the discipline of visually mapping the conceptual structure of ideas, such as the connections between issues, concepts, answers, arguments and evidence. The cognitive process of externalising one's understanding clarifies one's own grasp of the situation, as well as communicating it to others as a network that invites their contributions. This sensemaking activity lies at the heart of the Open Educational Resources movement's objectives. The aim of this paper is to describe the usage patterns of Compendium, a knowledge mapping tool from the OpenLearn OER project, using quantitative data from interaction logs and qualitative data from knowledge maps, forums and blog postings. This work explains nine roles played by maps in OpenLearn, and discusses some of the benefits and adoption obstacles, which motivate our ongoing work

    How Much Versus Who: Which Social Norms Information Is More Effective?

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    We conduct an experiment to investigate how different types of information about social norms affect individuals’ stated contributions to a specific pro-environment program, a student ‘green fee’, in the context of a referendum. Compared to students that receive no information about peer contributions, on average, students that receive information about the dollar value range of contributions at peer institutions contribute less while students that learn about the high percentage of students voting ‘yes’ on green fee programs at peer institutions contribute more. The results are economically significant as the absolute values of both effects represent approximately 25% of average contributions. These results suggest that information about participation rates can be more effective than information about dollar amounts in encouraging contributions to environmental initiatives. Of interest to stated preference researchers, we find that results do not change when controlling for self-selection into survey completion
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