What is Engagement and How Do We Measure It? Toward a Domain Independent Definition and Scale

An engaging experience draws in and holds our attention. Engagement is a critical phenomenon of interest in a variety of disciplines and application domains and has been shown to lead to positive outcomes, such as enhanced learning, task performance, or job satisfaction. However, existing measures of engagement are typically specific to the domain in which the research is conducted. This paper builds on the synergies of various disciplines and proposes a discipline-independent definition of engagement and measurement scale. In this paper, we distinguished between the three temporal levels of engagement in terms of the expected length of the engagement (task/activity, initiative, and continuous). We further explored the differences in the conceptualization of engagement, viz. affective, behavioral, and cognitive engagement. We then offered a comprehensive definition of engagement. We finally developed a measurement scale that can be used across domains and contexts which we derived by iteratively refining the items in this scale through a series of five data samples to arrive at the final scale. Our results provide evidence for the scale’s validity in two domains (online learning and work engagement)

Echoes of power: Language effects and power differences in social interaction

Understanding social interaction within groups is key to analyzing online communities. Most current work focuses on structural properties: who talks to whom, and how such interactions form larger network structures. The interactions themselves, however, generally take place in the form of natural language --- either spoken or written --- and one could reasonably suppose that signals manifested in language might also provide information about roles, status, and other aspects of the group's dynamics. To date, however, finding such domain-independent language-based signals has been a challenge. Here, we show that in group discussions power differentials between participants are subtly revealed by how much one individual immediately echoes the linguistic style of the person they are responding to. Starting from this observation, we propose an analysis framework based on linguistic coordination that can be used to shed light on power relationships and that works consistently across multiple types of power --- including a more "static" form of power based on status differences, and a more "situational" form of power in which one individual experiences a type of dependence on another. Using this framework, we study how conversational behavior can reveal power relationships in two very different settings: discussions among Wikipedians and arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court.Comment: v3 is the camera-ready for the Proceedings of WWW 2012. Changes from v2 include additional technical analysis. See http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~cristian/www2012 for data and more inf

Experiencing the digital world: The cultural value of digital engagement with heritage

Since the late 1990s the potential of the digital world for generating new ways of engaging with heritage, broadly defined, has been a key focus of academic work and cultural practice. At times, the emphasis has been on how the internet can provide a ‘shop window’ for the sector, and how this might be translated into physical visits to sites. Elsewhere, scholars have argued that the digital sphere can provide a dynamic space for two-way engagement with heritage culture, aimed at providing a complementary experience to physical visits through a range of phenomena (e.g. user-generated content, online communities, crowdsourcing projects). Alongside such discussions, questions have also been raised about how to measure the value of this activity and what we mean by value in this context. This paper brings together key literature on digital engagement, interactivity and participation within heritage, case studies of current digital heritage practice, and an online survey of heritage professionals to focus on six key areas: 1. Financial resources 2. Relative value of the digital experience 3. The location of culture value 4. Cultural value and time 5. Enhanced value through participation 6. Cultural value, space and place By exploring these themes we present strategies which heritage organisations of different scales might consider incorporating into new digital resources to enhance their public offering, whilst also suggesting further areas for research. Primarily, we suggest that there is substantial untapped potential to better understand the experience of end users by harnessing the vast amount of data available within heritage institutions, but which organisations frequently do not have the resources to exploit

Understanding performance through organizational culture

Today’s businesses world is characterized by its constant rapidly changing environment, facing a very competitive economic context, making it crucial for business success to understand, timely, what drives its results, namely its performance. Organizational performance may be affected by a several number of variables and the understandment of these variables is decisive for business management. Therefore, this research aims to address and measure organizational performance, understanding if and how much it is influenced by organizational culture, specifically by its types, in case clan culture, adhocracy culture, hierarchy culture and market culture, as well as if employee work engagement mediates the mentioned relationship. That is accomplished through formulation and testing of four research hypotheses. For that purpose we applied a questionnaire, preceded by a pre-test procedure, to a sample composed by security professionals, receiving a total of 629 valid answers, aiming to measure organizational culture through the application of FOCUS questionnaire, based on the competing values framework, as well as employee work engagement through UWES questionnaire and organizational performance through a perceptual organizational performance questionnaire. Our results evidence that more than one organizational culture type positively and significantly influences both organizational performance and employee work engagement, as well as that employee work engagement partially mediates the influence of all organizational culture types on organizational performance.O mundo dos negócios de hoje é caracterizado por um ambiente de constante e rápida mudança, num contexto económico de grande competitividade, tornando-se crucial para o sucesso dos negócios o entendimento, atempadamente, do que estimula os seus resultados, nomeadamente a sua performance. A performance organizacional pode ser afetada por várias variáveis e o entendimento destas é decisivo para a gestão de empresas. Assim sendo, esta pesquisa tem como objetivo abordar e medir a performance organizacional, bem como perceber se e quanto esta é influenciada pela cultura organizacional, especificamente pelas suas tipologias, no caso a cultura de clã, a cultura de adhocracia, a cultura hierárquica e a cultura de mercado, bem como se o engagement1 dos funcionários medeia a referida relação. Isso será concretizado através da formulação e verificação de quatro hipóteses de investigação. Com esse propósito, aplicámos um questionário, precedido por um procedimento de pré-teste, a uma amostra constituída por profissionais de segurança, tendo recebido um total de 629 respostas válidas, com o objetivo de medir a cultura organizacional através da aplicação do questionário FOCUS, baseado no modelo de valores competitivos, bem como o engagement dos funcionários através do questionário UWES e a performance organizacional por via de um questionário de performance organizacional percecionada. Os nossos resultados evidenciam que mais que uma tipologia de cultura organizacional influencia positiva e significativamente a performance organizacional e o engagement dos funcionários bem como que o engagement dos funcionários medeia parcialmente a influência de todas as tipologias de cultura organizacional na performance organizacional

Are research-policy engagement activities informed by policy theory and evidence? 7 challenges to the UK impact agenda

“Impact” describes how research informs policy and societal change, and “impact agenda” describes strategies to increase engagement between research and policymaking. Both are notoriously difficult to conceptualize and measure. However, funders must find ways to define and identify the success of different research-policy initiatives. We seek to answer, but also widen, their implicit question: in what should we invest if we seek to maximize the impact of research? We map the activities of 346 organizations investing in research-policy engagement. We categorize their activities as belonging to three “generations” fostering linear, relational, and systems approaches to evidence use. Some seem successful, but the available evidence is not clear and organizations often do not provide explicit aims to compare with outcomes. As such, it is difficult to know where funders and researches should invest their energy. We relate these findings to studies of policy analysis, policy process research, and critical social science to identify seven key challenges for the “impact agenda”. They include: clarify the purpose of engagement, who it is for, if it is achievable in complex policymaking systems, and how far researchers should go to seek it. These challenges should help inform future studies of evidence use, as well as future strategies to improve the impact of research

Quantifying Biases in Online Information Exposure

Our consumption of online information is mediated by filtering, ranking, and recommendation algorithms that introduce unintentional biases as they attempt to deliver relevant and engaging content. It has been suggested that our reliance on online technologies such as search engines and social media may limit exposure to diverse points of view and make us vulnerable to manipulation by disinformation. In this paper, we mine a massive dataset of Web traffic to quantify two kinds of bias: (i) homogeneity bias, which is the tendency to consume content from a narrow set of information sources, and (ii) popularity bias, which is the selective exposure to content from top sites. Our analysis reveals different bias levels across several widely used Web platforms. Search exposes users to a diverse set of sources, while social media traffic tends to exhibit high popularity and homogeneity bias. When we focus our analysis on traffic to news sites, we find higher levels of popularity bias, with smaller differences across applications. Overall, our results quantify the extent to which our choices of online systems confine us inside "social bubbles."Comment: 25 pages, 10 figures, to appear in the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (JASIST

Building coalitions, creating change: An agenda for gender transformative research in agricultural development

The CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS) has developed its Gender Research in Development Strategy centered on a transformative approach. Translating this strategy into actual research and development practice poses a considerable challenge, as not much (documented) experience exists in the agricultural sector to draw on, and significant innovation is required. A process of transformative change requires reflecting on multiple facets and dimensions simultaneously. This working paper is a collation of think pieces, structured around broad the mes and topics, reflecting on what works (and what does not) in the application of gender transformative approaches in agriculture and other sectors, and seeking to stimulate a discussion on the way forward for CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs) and other programs to build organizational capacities and partnerships

Monitoring What Matters About Context and Instruction in Science Education: A NAEP Data Analysis Report

This report explores background variables in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to examine key context and instructional factors behind science learning for eighth grade students. Science education is examined from five perspectives: student engagement in science, science teachers' credentials and professional development, availability and use of science resources, approaches to science instruction, and methods and uses of science assessment

Fostering implementation of health services research findings into practice: a consolidated framework for advancing implementation science

Abstract Background Many interventions found to be effective in health services research studies fail to translate into meaningful patient care outcomes across multiple contexts. Health services researchers recognize the need to evaluate not only summative outcomes but also formative outcomes to assess the extent to which implementation is effective in a specific setting, prolongs sustainability, and promotes dissemination into other settings. Many implementation theories have been published to help promote effective implementation. However, they overlap considerably in the constructs included in individual theories, and a comparison of theories reveals that each is missing important constructs included in other theories. In addition, terminology and definitions are not consistent across theories. We describe the Consolidated Framework For Implementation Research (CFIR) that offers an overarching typology to promote implementation theory development and verification about what works where and why across multiple contexts. Methods We used a snowball sampling approach to identify published theories that were evaluated to identify constructs based on strength of conceptual or empirical support for influence on implementation, consistency in definitions, alignment with our own findings, and potential for measurement. We combined constructs across published theories that had different labels but were redundant or overlapping in definition, and we parsed apart constructs that conflated underlying concepts. Results The CFIR is composed of five major domains: intervention characteristics, outer setting, inner setting, characteristics of the individuals involved, and the process of implementation. Eight constructs were identified related to the intervention (e.g., evidence strength and quality), four constructs were identified related to outer setting (e.g., patient needs and resources), 12 constructs were identified related to inner setting (e.g., culture, leadership engagement), five constructs were identified related to individual characteristics, and eight constructs were identified related to process (e.g., plan, evaluate, and reflect). We present explicit definitions for each construct. Conclusion The CFIR provides a pragmatic structure for approaching complex, interacting, multi-level, and transient states of constructs in the real world by embracing, consolidating, and unifying key constructs from published implementation theories. It can be used to guide formative evaluations and build the implementation knowledge base across multiple studies and settings.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78272/1/1748-5908-4-50.xmlhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78272/2/1748-5908-4-50-S1.PDFhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78272/3/1748-5908-4-50-S3.PDFhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78272/4/1748-5908-4-50-S4.PDFhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78272/5/1748-5908-4-50.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78272/6/1748-5908-4-50-S2.PDFPeer Reviewe