Characterizing the Online Learning Landscape: {W}hat and How People Learn Online

Hundreds of millions of people learn something new online every day. Simultaneously, the study of online education has blossomed within the human computer interaction community, with new systems, experiments, and observations creating and exploring previously undiscovered online learning environments. In this study we endeavor to characterize this entire landscape of online learning experiences using a national survey of 2260 US adults who are balanced to match the demographics of the U.S. We examine the online learning resources that they consult, and we analyze the subjects that they pursue using those resources. Furthermore, we compare both formal and informal online learning experiences on a larger scale than has ever been done before, to our knowledge, to better understand which subjects people are seeking for intensive study. We find that there is a core set of online learning experiences that are central to other experiences and these are shared among the majority of people who learn online. We conclude by showing how looking outside of these core online learning experiences can reveal opportunities for innovation in online education

Trust and Credibility in Web-Based Health Information: A Review and Agenda for Future Research

Background: Online sources are becoming increasingly important in health information seeking, such that they may have a significant effect on health care decisions and outcomes. Hence, given the wide range of different sources of online health information from different organisations and individuals, it is important to understand how information seekers evaluate and select the sources that they use, and, more specifically how they assess their credibility and trustworthiness. Objectives: This article reviews empirical studies on trust and credibility in the use of online health information. The article seeks to present a profile of the research conducted on trust and credibility in online health information seeking, to identify the factors that impact judgements of trustworthiness and credibility, and to explore the role of demographic factors affecting trust formation. On this basis, it aims to identify the gaps in current knowledge and to propose an agenda for future research. Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted. Searches were conducted using a variety of combinations of the terms: online health information, trust, credibility, and their variants, in four multi-disciplinary and four health-oriented databases. Articles selected were published in English from 2000 onwards; this process generated 3827 unique records. After the application of exclusion criteria, this was reduced to a final dataset of 73 articles, which was analysed in full. Results: Interest in this topic has persisted over the last 15 years, with articles being published in medicine, social science and computer science, and focussing mostly on the USA and the UK. Documents in the dataset fell into three categories: those using trust or credibility as a dependent variable, those using trust or credibility as an independent variable, and studies of the demographic factors that influence the role of trust or credibility in online health information seeking. There is a consensus that in terms of website design, clear layout and design, interactive features and the authority of the owner have a positive effect on trust or credibility, whilst advertising has a negative effect. With regard to content features, authority of the author, ease of use and content have a positive effect on trust or credibility formation. Demographic factors influencing trust formation are age, gender and perceived health status. Conclusions: There is considerable scope for further research. This includes: increased clarity of the interaction between the variables associated with health information seeking; increased consistency on the measurement of trust and credibility; a greater focus on specific online health information sources; and, enhanced understanding of the impact of demographic variables on trust and credibility judgement

Equality of Participation Online Versus Face to Face: Condensed Analysis of the Community Forum Deliberative Methods Demonstration

Online deliberation may provide a more cost-effective and/or less inhibiting environment for public participation than face to face (F2F). But do online methods bias participation toward certain individuals or groups? We compare F2F versus online participation in an experiment affording within-participants and cross-modal comparisons. For English speakers required to have Internet access as a condition of participation, we find no negative effects of online modes on equality of participation (EoP) related to gender, age, or educational level. Asynchronous online discussion appears to improve EoP for gender relative to F2F. Data suggest a dampening effect of online environments on black participants, as well as amplification for whites. Synchronous online voice communication EoP is on par with F2F across individuals. But individual-level EoP is much lower in the online forum, and greater online forum participation predicts greater F2F participation for individuals. Measured rates of participation are compared to self-reported experiences, and other findings are discussed.Comment: 14 pages, 10 tables, to appear in Efthimios Tambouris, Panos Panagiotopoulos, {\O}ystein S{\ae}b{\o}, Konstantinos Tarabanis, Michela Milano, Theresa Pardo, and Maria Wimmer (Editors), Electronic Participation: Proceedings of the 7th IFIP WG 8.5 International Conference, ePart 2015 (Thessaloniki, August 30-September 2), Springer LNCS Vol. 9249, 201

Using Social Software for Teamwork and Collaborative Project Management in Higher Education

This paper discusses the potential role of social software in supporting teamwork and collaborative project management in higher education. Based on the fact that social software has been widely spread among young students nowadays, using it for collaborative learning is believed to increase students' involvement and create learning incentives. Two social software platforms, Graaasp and Google Wave are examined in terms of sustaining collaborative learning activities. Relevant existing features and possible extensions that enhance the learning experience are addressed. Benefits and challenges resulting from the bottom-up learning paradigm are also presented

The Wikipedia Gender Gap Revisited: Characterizing Survey Response Bias with Propensity Score Estimation

Opt-in surveys are the most widespread method used to study participation in online communities, but produce biased results in the absence of adjustments for non-response. A 2008 survey conducted by the Wikimedia Foundation and United Nations University at Maastricht is the source of a frequently cited statistic that less than 13% of Wikipedia contributors are female. However, the same study suggested that only 39.9% of Wikipedia readers in the US were female – a finding contradicted by a representative survey of American adults by the Pew Research Center conducted less than two months later. Combining these two datasets through an application and extension of a propensity score estimation technique used to model survey non-response bias, we construct revised estimates, contingent on explicit assumptions, for several of the Wikimedia Foundation and United Nations University at Maastricht claims about Wikipedia editors. We estimate that the proportion of female US adult editors was 27.5% higher than the original study reported (22.7%, versus 17.8%), and that the total proportion of female editors was 26.8% higher (16.1%, versus 12.7%).Sloan School of ManagementHarvard University. Berkman Center for Internet & SocietyFord Visionary Leadership FundNorthwestern University (Evanston, Ill.

New Symmetries in Crystals and Handed Structures

For over a century, the structure of materials has been described by a combination of rotations, rotation-inversions and translational symmetries. By recognizing the reversal of static structural rotations between clockwise and counterclockwise directions as a distinct symmetry operation, here we show that there are many more structural symmetries than are currently recognized in right- or left-handed handed helices, spirals, and in antidistorted structures composed equally of rotations of both handedness. For example, though a helix or spiral cannot possess conventional mirror or inversion symmetries, they can possess them in combination with the rotation reversal symmetry. Similarly, we show that many antidistorted perovskites possess twice the number of symmetry elements as conventionally identified. These new symmetries predict new forms for "roto" properties that relate to static rotations, such as rotoelectricity, piezorotation, and rotomagnetism. They also enable symmetry-based search for new phenomena, such as multiferroicity involving a coupling of spins, electric polarization and static rotations. This work is relevant to structure-property relationships in all material structures with static rotations such as minerals, polymers, proteins, and engineered structures.Comment: 15 Pages, 4 figures, 3 Tables; Fig. 2b has error

A Novel Combined Term Suggestion Service for Domain-Specific Digital Libraries

Interactive query expansion can assist users during their query formulation process. We conducted a user study with over 4,000 unique visitors and four different design approaches for a search term suggestion service. As a basis for our evaluation we have implemented services which use three different vocabularies: (1) user search terms, (2) terms from a terminology service and (3) thesaurus terms. Additionally, we have created a new combined service which utilizes thesaurus term and terms from a domain-specific search term re-commender. Our results show that the thesaurus-based method clearly is used more often compared to the other single-method implementations. We interpret this as a strong indicator that term suggestion mechanisms should be domain-specific to be close to the user terminology. Our novel combined approach which interconnects a thesaurus service with additional statistical relations out-performed all other implementations. All our observations show that domain-specific vocabulary can support the user in finding alternative concepts and formulating queries.Comment: To be published in Proceedings of Theories and Practice in Digital Libraries (TPDL), 201

Atomic-resolution imaging of carbonyl sulfide by laser-induced electron diffraction

Measurements on the strong-field ionization of carbonyl sulfide molecules by short, intense, 2 µm wavelength laser pulses are presented from experiments where angle-resolved photoelectron distributions were recorded with a high-energy velocity map imaging spectrometer, designed to reach a maximum kinetic energy of 500 eV. The laser-field-free elastic-scattering cross section of carbonyl sulfide was extracted from the measurements and is found in good agreement with previous experiments, performed using conventional electron diffraction. By comparing our measurements to the results of calculations, based on the quantitative rescattering theory, the bond lengths and molecular geometry were extracted from the experimental differential cross sections to a precision better than ±5 pm and in agreement with the known values