scholarly journals Design Principles for Promoting Intergroup Empathy in Online Environments

10.28945/3605 ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 225-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noa Shapira ◽  
Haggai Kupermintz ◽  
Yael Kali

This study examined a professional development program designed to support Civics teachers in their efforts to promote empathy among Israeli Jewish students towards Israeli Arabs. The design rationale for the program is that teachers should experience empathic processes themselves before supporting their students in such an endeavor and that meaningful empathic processes can occur online if activities are properly designed. All phases of the program were designed to support teachers to participate as part of an online community of practice. Sixty Jewish teachers participated in two iterations of the design study. Refinements were made in the second iteration to provide teachers with explicit definitions of empathy and specific instructions for reflection. Findings indicate that these changes were reflected in higher degrees of empathic responses among teachers. Teachers also indicated that being a part of an online learning community contributed to the learning process they experienced during the program. We interpret this as a first step in enabling teachers to assist their students to develop a more empathetic approach toward the minority group and conclude with a discussion of recommended design principles for promoting such an approach.

Author(s):  
J. M. Garg ◽  
Dinesh Valke ◽  
Max Overton

This chapter introduces the reader to a sample ‘User driven learning environment’ created in an online community with a special interest centred on trees and plants. It traces the development of an online learning community through the lived experiences and thoughts of its founding members and also includes conversational learning experiences of other users to illustrate the process of ‘user driven learning’ in online communities. It illustrates innovative sense making methodologies utilized by group members to create a more meaningful ‘User driven learning environment’ while simultaneously contributing in a positive way to create information resources at no cost along with creating awareness & scientific temper among members.


Author(s):  
Brian Patrick Thoms

<p>In this research we explore aspects of social interaction and community as they relate to success in project-based courses. Using specialized online community software consisting of social networking technologies and project-based wikis, project teams are able to collaborate and interact as they progress towards project milestones. Our study underscores the importance of sustained engagement as a means for fostering high levels of community and how these levels relate to project motivation and, ultimately, project success. Guided by a theoretical model that explains how individuals collaborate within online communities, we measure member perceptions of the software before and after our intervention. Survey results found that online learning community (OLC) software can successfully support learning and social interaction. These results are supported by a social network analysis (SNA), which shows high levels of individual engagement across the project lifecycle.</p><p> </p><p> Keywords: social networking, online learning community, wiki, project management, capstone project.</p>


2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Drew A.R. Ross

An institutionally independent organic online learning community (OOLC) founded and populated by London cabbies-in-training, more commonly known to the world and to themselves as `Knowledge Boys and Girls', is described here. Qualitative discourse analysis of message board transcripts and interviews with members was undertaken in an effort to elucidate benefits that accrue to OOLC members. Goffman's theory of region behaviour is enlisted to explain why frank, collegial and sometimes confessional interactions with peers might take place in such an online venue. This article suggests that through such candid interactions among peers, learners create a back-region that allows participants to compare themselves with one another, cultivate friendships and practise for high-stakes assessments. OOLC members take advantage of the pseudonymity provided by their electronic social space to engage in behaviours that, if they occurred in a front-region, might invite damage to a learner's reputation as a pre-service cabbie. The online community BR becomes a sanctuary of sorts for taking social and academic risks, one where potential adverse consequences are few and benefits are legion.


2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Melissa J. Poole

The goal of this study was to examine the development of a group of preservice teachers over three semesters during the second phase of their coursework and fieldwork in the teacher development program at a major Midwestern university. The questions at the heart of the study were whether this cohort of preservice teachers developed community. What markers of community were evidenced? What contextual factors served to support or impede the development of community? Data were collected through observation of their courses, a series of interviews with a sample of preservice teachers, and archiving artifacts of their coursework such as the course syllabi, reading materials, and their discussions online. Data analysis was grounded in theory about the nature of community, communities of practice, teacher communities, online communities and in a sociocultural theory of technological change. The findings suggest that these preservice teachers began to form community during their years in the teacher development program. This community began to evolve from a community of practice into a professional learning community as they developed from college students into practicing teachers. However, the culture of the classroom, the physical arrangement of the room and the importance given to students' voices in class and online, played a large role in fostering and supporting the development of community.


Author(s):  
Fariza Khalid

Abstract—Communities of practice’ approaches have been proven to be effective in enhancing students’ learning as well as helping them to cultivate inter-personal skills, especially within the higher education system. An important development in relation to participation in communities of practice is members’ identities. This study was conducted with the aim of understanding students’ identities in relation to their participation in an online community and how the dimensions of their identities correlated to each other. The research par-ticipants were 123 first-year students who were involved in collaborative sharing activities via an online community, using Weebly. Data was collected using a set of questionnaires that discussed four main dimen-sions of identities: personal, professional, as learners, and as members of communities. Data was analysed using SPSS version 22. The overall findings offer a detailed description of students’ identities. A high posi-tive correlation was found between students’ prior knowledge and their motivation, commitment and beliefs with regard to the benefits of online communities. The only dimension of students’ identities that lacked cor-relation with other dimensions was students’ openness. The findings highlight the importance of understand-ing different aspects of identities and how this helps to enhance engagement in online communities. The findings are significant in terms of establishing a deeper understanding on learning process within a social learning theory.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (22) ◽  
pp. 9742
Author(s):  
Dabae Lee ◽  
Jiyoon Jung ◽  
Suhkyung Shin ◽  
Anne Otternbreit-Leftwich ◽  
Krista Glazewski

As a way to support teachers’ professional development activities and build communities of practice for teachers, education researchers and practitioners have put considerable effort into building an online learning community for K–12 teachers to create a venue to facilitate teachers’ joint knowledge construction. However, a substantial number of such online communities have failed due to lack of participation of members. Therefore, it is critical to understand how to design a sustainable community that fulfills members’ needs and elicits active participation of members. In this literature review, we adopted a sociological framework to investigate how to create a sustainable online community. This framework suggests that the sustainability of a community comes from individual members’ three types of commitments: instrumental, affective, and moral commitments. Such commitments are results of members’ cognitive, cathectic, and evaluative processes and lead to membership retainment, cohesive relationships, and socially regulated participation. Using this framework, we conducted a systematic literature review on online teacher community articles published from 1990 to 2018. Our findings provide insights on factors associated with teacher members’ instrumental, affective, and moral commitment to an online community. Based on these findings, we further provide design suggestions to build a sustainable community for teachers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. p37
Author(s):  
Amjad S. Alharbi ◽  
Hind A. Alfadda

This paper investigates Saudi intermediate students’ attitudes towards using flipped learning via an online learning community to enhance their speaking skill at a Saudi female’s public-school number 186. The writer observed and analysed the effect of using flipped learning in an online community on the development and engagement of students in speaking tasks. The study uses a quantitative quasi-experimental method to describe and analyse the student’s attitudes and development of the speaking skill among Arabic-speaking students in the public-school number 186 in Saudi Arabia during the academic year 2019-2020. The researcher applied a questionnaire and an observation checklist as the main instrument to achieve the study goal. The findings of the study were not statistically significant regarding the effect of flipped learning via an Online Learning Community (OLC) on the development of students’ speaking skill. However, there was a slight difference in the mean scores in favor to the post-test of the experimental group. The students’ attitudes were positive towards the flipped learning via OLC for speaking tasks.


Author(s):  
Frances Bell ◽  
Elena Zaitseva ◽  
Danuta Zakrzewska

Our emphasis in this chapter is on the sustainability of online educational communities, particularly the role that evaluation has to play in promoting sustainability. From the literature on online communities and evaluation of technology, we select and extend models of online community and technology acceptance that inform and enable the design and evaluation of sustainable online educational communities. Sustainability is a key issue that highlights the sociotechnical nature of these communities. Collaboration Across Borders is an online learning community that has received EU Socrates-Minerva funding to establish international collaboration between tutors and students and investigate sustainability of online learning communities. We present a case study of the development of the CAB community and its associated portal http://moodle.cabweb.net as a chronology of significant events. We then chart the evaluation process, using examples of tools and data to highlight the role of evaluation in the development of CABWEB and the sustainability of the CAB Community. Finally, we offer practical advice to those who wish to develop online learning communities, either small-scale collaborations between two groups of students or international networks of students and tutors.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ufuk Yagci ◽  
ROLAND VANOOSTVEEN

This study aims to provide support for the efficacy of the Fully Online Learning Community (FOLC) Model by examining communication between participants within a series of recorded online focus groups and by investigating the behaviours that are undertaken by participants. A coding system based on body language expressions is proposed as an outcome of this study and the affective domain of the participants is analyzed through facial expressions, body language and content (words) employed. Findings suggest that affects (emotions) have a preeminent role in the social presence in FOLC environments. Positive emotions are easier to detect as individuals exhibit them without masking, with some possible exceptions arising from personal dispositions and cultural inferences. Negative emotions can also be detected through a combination of facial expressions and body language coding. However, findings were not consistent for determining sadness and surprise states and further studies will have to explore ways to differentiate these affects from others. The instigations set forward by the participants and affective responses to the behaviours of instigators provided support for the empirical study about the efficacy of facilitation and interactions within fully online learning environments.


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