Understanding micro-processes of community building and mutual learning on Twitter: a ‘small data’ approach

This article contributes to an emerging field of ‘small data’ research on Twitter by presenting a case study of how teachers and students at a sixth-form college in the north of England used this social media platform to help construct a ‘community of practice’ that enabled micro-processes of recognition and mutual learning. Conducted as part of a broader action research project that focused on the ‘digital story circle’ as a site of, and for, narrative exchange and knowledge production, this study takes the form of a detailed analysis of a departmental Twitter account, combining basic quantitative metrics, close reading of selected Twitter data and qualitative interviews with teachers and students. Working with (and sometimes against) Twitter's platform architecture, teachers and students constructed, through distinct patterns of use, a shared space for dialogue that facilitated community building within the department. On the whole, they were able to overcome justified anxieties about professionalism and privacy; this was achieved by building on high levels of pre-existing trust among staff and by performing that mutual trust online through personal modes of communication. Through micro-processes of recognition and a breaking down of conventional hierarchies that affirmed students' agency as knowledge producers, the departmental Twitter account enabled mutual learning beyond curriculum and classroom. The significance of such micro-processes could only have been uncovered through the detailed scrutiny that a ‘small data’ approach to Twitter, in supplement to some obvious virtues of Big Data approaches, is particularly well placed to provide

What is it? Approaches to developing shared meaning about the logistics and supply chain industries: lessons from the EMPATHY net-works project

This study explores the impact of different learning strategies in a part-time postgraduate programme, managed by the EMPATHY Net-Works project, to encourage graduate women into the logistics and supply chain industries (LaSCI). We use an interpretivist approach and data were collected from the e-learning system, academic assignments, and the module evaluation process. The outcomes of this study illustrate the different ways in which participants develop their language and hence their knowledge of the LaSCI. Three approaches were shown to have a significant impact on participants’ understanding of the industries: the logistics safari, an inquiry-based project, and guest speakers and e-mentors. Finally, we explore the EMPATHY Net-Works community of practice and illustrate how it spanned a number of traditional boundaries. We show that active participation within this community supports women's progression into and within the LaSCI

Time, space and structure in an e-learning and e-mentoring project

This study focuses on a project, EMPATHY Net-Works, which developed a learning community as a means of encouraging women to progress into employment and management positions in the logistics and supply chain industries (LaSCI). Learning activities were organised in the form of a taught module containing face-to-face and online elements and e-mentoring with successful professional women in the LaSCI. In this particular research, we have used structuration theory, a social theory that concentrates on the relationships between human agency (micro-level) and social structures (macro-level). We used structuration as an analytical tool to help us understand what happened within the project e-learning and e-mentoring processes. Our analysis suggests that there were two factors that influenced the way project participants carried out their learning activities: the first one being the issue of absence and presence in online environments, and the second one the issue of time frame changes for online users

The emergence of converging communities via Twitter

Social networking site (SNS) communities emerge from socialization, when groups of people empathize and discover similarities between themselves. These communities are not defined by the place or the account but by people and participation. We validate a conceptual framework of how communities form and grow via SNS from ethnographic research of an online group that has emerged from converging social networks on Twitter. We define layers of use, the roles individuals adopt in these emerging communities, and their strategies for co-existence. This is underpinned by an exploration of how groups transition from interest-driven origins to supporting friendship-driven interactions

What is it? Approaches to developing shared meaning about the logistics and supply chain industries: lessons from the EMPATHY Net-Works project

This study explores the impact of different learning strategies in a part-time postgraduate programme, managed by the EMPATHY Net-Works project, to encourage graduate women into the logistics and supply chain industries (LaSCI). We use an interpretivist approach and data were collected from the e-learning system, academic assignments, and the module evaluation process. The outcomes of this study illustrate the different ways in which participants develop their language and hence their knowledge of the LaSCI. Three approaches were shown to have a significant impact on participants' understanding of the industries: the logistics safari, an inquiry-based project, and guest speakers and e-mentors. Finally, we explore the EMPATHY Net-Works community of practice and illustrate how it spanned a number of traditional boundaries. We show that active participation within this community supports women's progression into and within the LaSCI

The role of an entity registry in scholarly communication: exploring creative uses of research activity data

The Oxford University Research Archive (ORA) is the University's open access repository for research outputs. To simplify deposit in ORA, a registry has been created containing data harvested from existing sources to be used as repository metadata. The registry stores publicly available research activity data, that is, data about research including people, projects, and funders. Data held in the registry are available for purposes beyond the repository, particularly as the registry uses semantic web technologies which expedite data sharing. Value is added by aggregating disparate data for discovery, by making creative use of data such as revealing connections between entities and recording data provenance. This article describes the entity registry, its role within ORA, and as a tool to support scholarly communication. The advantages of storing data as entities and gathering, aggregating, and displaying research activity data to assist dissemination of research are explained. Examples of use of the registry and its data are provided that enable easy discovery of researchers and their activities and reveals hidden connections between them, thereby, encouraging communication and collaboration between different subject areas. Development of the registry and examples has been underpinned by extensive stakeholder analysis and user testing

Exploring metadata standards for competence descriptions in the business & management domain

This paper explores the development and use of competency metadata standards. As there has recently been a surge of a number of standards to address the challenge of representing competencies and there is a rising need to develop a common methodology, as well as methods and tools for developing, reusing, adapting, integrating such standards, this research is now becoming important and timely. We explore this within the context of the OpenScout project, which is building a federation of repositories with content in the areas of business and management. Thus this study is limited to metadata standards for competencies in the business and management fields, but it is aimed that the lessons from this domain can transfer to other fields and will inform the wider debate on the development and use of such standards. The paper revisits a set of standards for competence descriptions and provides recommendations as to which standard would suit better the nature of the repository, the requirements of stakeholders, and the Open Content resources. In particular, the paper proposes an adaptation and extension of the IEEE-RCD model, employing an application profiling approach, and taking into account the granularity of the European Qualifications Framework and the requirements of Open Content resources

The role of an entity registry in scholarly communication: Exploring creative uses of research activity data

The Oxford University Research Archive (ORA) is the University’s open access repository for research outputs. To simplify deposit in ORA, a registry has been created containing data harvested from existing sources to be used as repository metadata. The registry stores publicly available research activity data, i.e. data about research including people, projects and funders. Data held in the registry are available for purposes beyond the repository, particularly as the registry uses semantic web technologies which expedite data sharing. Value is added by aggregating disparate data for discovery, by making creative use of data such as revealing connections between entities and recording data provenance. This article describes the entity registry, its role within ORA and as a tool to support scholarly communication. The advantages of storing data as entities and gathering, aggregating and displaying research activity data to assist dissemination of research are explained. Examples of use of the registry and its data are provided which enable easy discovery of researchers and their activities, and reveals hidden connections between them thereby encouraging communication and collaboration between different subject areas. Development of the registry and examples has been underpinned by extensive stakeholder analysis and user testing

Exploring metadata standards for competence descriptions in the business & management domain

This paper explores the development and use of competency metadata standards. As there has recently been a surge of a number of standards to address the challenge of representing competencies and there is a rising need to develop a common methodology, as well as methods and tools for developing, reusing, adapting, integrating such standards, this research is now becoming important and timely. We explore this within the context of the OpenScout project, which is building a federation of repositories with content in the areas of business and management. Thus this study is limited to metadata standards for competencies in the business and management fields, but it is aimed that the lessons from this domain can transfer to other fields and will inform the wider debate on the development and use of such standards. The paper revisits a set of standards for competence descriptions and provides recommendations as to which standard would suit better the nature of the repository, the requirements of stakeholders, and the Open Content resources. In particular, the paper proposes an adaptation and extension of the IEEE-RCD model, employing an application profiling approach, and taking into account the granularity of the European Qualifications Framework and the requirements of Open Content resources