Discussion Threads Research Articles

Exploring the adverse effects of chemotherapeutic agents used in the treatment of cervical and ovarian cancer from the patients’ perspective: a content analysis of the online discussion forums

ObjectivesThis study aimed to explore the adverse effects of chemotherapeutic agents used in the treatment of ovarian and cervical cancer by analysing patients’ views posted in online discussion forums.MethodUK-centred online...

People with dementia and carers online discussing surveillance

PurposeThis paper aims to interrogate online comments from consumers with dementia and family carers on surveillance technology products used by or for people with dementia.Design/methodology/approachA naturalistic, observational study of qualitative posts (N = 120) by people with dementia (n = 7) and family carers (n = 38) to discussion threads on surveillance technology (ST), hosted by an online dementia support forum in the Netherlands. Kozinet’s (2002) typology was used to describe respondent characteristics, and comments on features of ST products were analysed within a pre-existing framework.FindingsForum users were mainly “tourists” interested in ST, with some “insiders” interested in sharing experiences of ST use. They expressed a lack of trust in information from marketers and providers to the experience of being provided with poor information. Consumer-to-consumer comments on products triangulated with previous face-to-face qualitative studies. Carers prioritised “peace of mind” through location monitoring. In contrast, people with dementia prioritised user-friendliness (simple, with capability and compatible with daily routines).Practical implicationsUsing online discussions of ST products provides a rapid approach to understanding current consumer needs and preferences in the ever-changing world of technology.Originality/valueNo previous study is known to have explored the views of carers and people with dementia in online discussions about ST.

Gender, social distance, and justifications: statistical discourse analysis of evidence and explanations in online debates

We examined how social antecedents impact students’ use of explanations versus evidence to justify arguments using statistical discourse analysis on 2028 postings from 87 graduate students in five courses, each participating in four online debates. The results show that students overall were much more likely to justify arguments with explanations than with evidence. Explanations were more likely than evidence to be used in postings by women, when students posted responses to messages that conveyed greater social proximity (using he/she/they and using you instead of we) or directed attention (there), when making posts in early parts of a discussion thread and in the opening argument. Evidence was more likely to be used when responding to messages from men and when making posts towards the end of each discussion thread.

Asked & Answered

The Asked & Answered department shares excerpts from discussion threads on the online MyNCTM community. In this issue, featured threads highlight responses to members' questions related to mathematical depth in preschool, spiral review in the upper elementary grades, ideas for differentiation in middle school, and projects for high school algebra.

Multiple social platforms reveal actionable signals for software vulnerability awareness: A study of GitHub, Twitter and Reddit.

The awareness about software vulnerabilities is crucial to ensure effective cybersecurity practices, the development of high-quality software, and, ultimately, national security. This awareness can be better understood by studying the spread, structure and evolution of software vulnerability discussions across online communities. This work is the first to evaluate and contrast how discussions about software vulnerabilities spread on three social platforms—Twitter, GitHub, and Reddit. Moreover, we measure how user-level e.g., bot or not, and content-level characteristics e.g., vulnerability severity, post subjectivity, targeted operating systems as well as social network topology influence the rate of vulnerability discussion spread. To lay the groundwork, we present a novel fundamental framework for measuring information spread in multiple social platforms that identifies spread mechanisms and observables, units of information, and groups of measurements. We then contrast topologies for three social networks and analyze the effect of the network structure on the way discussions about vulnerabilities spread. We measure the scale and speed of the discussion spread to understand how far and how wide they go, how many users participate, and the duration of their spread. To demonstrate the awareness of more impactful vulnerabilities, a subset of our analysis focuses on vulnerabilities targeted during recent major cyber-attacks and those exploited by advanced persistent threat groups. One of our major findings is that most discussions start on GitHub not only before Twitter and Reddit, but even before a vulnerability is officially published. The severity of a vulnerability contributes to how much it spreads, especially on Twitter. Highly severe vulnerabilities have significantly deeper, broader and more viral discussion threads. When analyzing vulnerabilities in software products we found that different flavors of Linux received the highest discussion volume. We also observe that Twitter discussions started by humans have larger size, breadth, depth, adoption rate, lifetime, and structural virality compared to those started by bots. On Reddit, discussion threads of positive posts are larger, wider, and deeper than negative or neutral posts. We also found that all three networks have high modularity that encourages spread. However, the spread on GitHub is different from other networks, because GitHub is more dense, has stronger community structure and assortativity that enhances information diffusion. We anticipate the results of our analysis to not only increase the understanding of software vulnerability awareness but also inform the existing and new analytical frameworks for simulating information spread e.g., disinformation across multiple social environments online.

Intensive care nurses on social media: An exploration of knowledge exchange on an intensive care virtual community of practice.

Aims and objectivesTo explore the nature of knowledge exchange on a multi‐disciplinary Australasian intensive care virtual community of practice, “ICUConnect.”BackgroundCurrent organisational structures and cultures constrain the social networks of healthcare professionals, limiting access to contemporary best practice knowledge. While virtual communities can facilitate knowledge and clinical expertise exchange in professional networks, their effectiveness has not been established.DesignA sequential mixed‐methods design with a quantitative core and qualitative supplementary component was used to explore the content of discussions from an intensive care virtual community. SRQR has been used to report this study.MethodsEmail archives of an intensive care listserv (2003–2013) were mined using a two‐stage sampling technique to identify discussion threads (with >2 posts) concerning ventilator or airway practices (cluster) and two sets of 20 threads (stratified across years). Summative content analysis was used to examine both manifest and latent content.ResultsForty threads containing 326 emails posted by 133 individuals from 80 organisations were analysed. Nurses contributed 68% (55% were in clinical leadership roles) and physicians 27%. Three subject areas were identified: clinical practices (71%); equipment (23%); and clinical governance (6%). “Knowledge‐requested” and “knowledge‐supplied” posts were categorised as follows: experiential and explicit (33% and 16%, respectively); experiential (27% and 35%); or explicit (40% and 17%). Knowledge supplied was also categorised as “know‐how” (20%); “know‐why” (5%) or “no knowledge” exchanged (6%). The central construct of virtual community work was identified with six elements that facilitated participation and knowledge exchange including: (a) the discussion thread; (b) sharing of artefacts; (c) community; (d) cordiality; (e) maven work; and (f) promotion of the VC. Members asked questions to benchmark their practice, while those who answered were focused on ensuring that best practices were delivered.ConclusionsICUConnect reflected characteristics of a virtual community of practice, enabling key benefits for members and the broader Australasian intensive care community, especially access to best practice knowledge from clinical experts.Relevance to clinical practiceThis study demonstrated that a practice‐based VC can function effectively as a VCoP to establish an effective professional network where members have access to up‐to‐date best practice knowledge. Healthcare organisations could leverage VCs to support the professional development of HCPs and ensure that local clinical practices are based on contemporaneous knowledge. Participation by nurses in these communities facilitates individual professional development and access to important clinical knowledge and expertise, and ultimately reinforcing the unique position of nursing in delivering effective, consistent high‐quality patient care.

Asked & Answered

The Asked & Answered department shares excerpts from discussion threads on the online MyNCTM community. In this issue, featured threads highlight responses to members' questions related to fact fluency and art-math integration in elementary school, number talks with middle school students, and classroom-tested contexts for introducing students to systems of equations.

Defining Symptom Concepts in Chronic Subjective Tinnitus: Web-Based Discussion Forum Study.

BackgroundA minimum standard based upon consensus decision making recommends a core set of tinnitus-specific health complaints (outcome domains) that should be assessed and reported in all clinical trials as this enables comparisons to be made across studies as well as data pooling for meta-analysis.ObjectiveThis study aimed to further clarify how the outcome domain concepts should be defined for 5 of the core set: tinnitus intrusiveness, sense of control, acceptance of tinnitus, concentration, and ability to ignore. This step requires a clear and fully elaborated definition for each outcome domain, moving from an abstract or a vague concept to an operationalized and measurable health-related construct, so that a suitable measurement instrument can then be identified.MethodsA series of 5 focus group–style semistructured discussions were conducted via a Web-based discussion forum, each open for 2 weeks and ending with a vote. The participants included 148 tinnitus experts who completed a preceding e-Delphi survey that had generated the original set of minimum standards. The participants were health care users living with tinnitus, health care professionals, clinical researchers, commercial representatives, and funders.ResultsThe Web discussions led to a revision of all 5 original plain language definitions that had been used in the preceding e-Delphi survey. Each revised definition was voted by 8 to 53 participants and reached the prespecified threshold of 70% consensus for all except tinnitus intrusiveness. Although a single definition was not agreed upon for tinnitus intrusiveness, the majority of participants shared the view that the concept should be sufficiently broad to encapsulate a range of subdomains. The examples included tinnitus awareness, unpleasantness, and impact on different aspects of everyday life. Thematic analysis of the 5 Web-based discussion threads gave important insights into expert interpretations of each core outcome domain, generating an operationalized and measurable health construct in each case.ConclusionsThe qualitative data gathered during the Web-based discussion forum provided an important in-depth understanding of the health concepts that had raised a debate during earlier face-to-face meetings. The descriptive summaries and definitions provide sufficient operationalization of those concepts to proceed to the second stage of core outcome set development that is to identify and evaluate suitable measurement instruments. This study supports the use of Web-based peer discussion forums in defining health concepts.

Text Segregation On Asynchronous Group Chat

Abstract Ability to successfully segregate texts around different topics can lead to successful text summarization. Though text summarization has been well researched, summarization of multi-party asynchronous chat has not been attempted. Popular systems such as Whatsapp, Telegram etc. have such kind of chat scenarios. Such chats are asynchronous as participants can respond to a thread after a long delay and not as an immediate reply to ongoing conversation. Though there are few chat data sets available, annotated data sets of such multi-party asynchronous chats are not yet available even though summarization in this particular domain presents a good use case for chat participants. With such a summarization feature, a user can quickly review the summary of past conversations during his period of inactivity. However, this is challenging as any summarization attempt on a data set like this must address three aspects i.e. threads of discussion, time window and topic/sub-topics in an inter-woven sequence of messages that does not have any usual sense of sequence. In the absence of annotated data sets and challenge of addressing these three aspects in seemingly non-sequential messages, machine learning based approaches will not work well. In this work, an innovative pipeline based on heuristics is designed to address text segregation for such a scenario. Once text segregation is achieved, text summarization may become a lesser challenge. It is observed that this approach is promising enough to warrant further research and enhancements.

Exploring Chinese students’ learning experience in CIC MOOC 2.0– A study with Chinese online communities

This research explores Chinese students’ learning experience in the Creativity, Innovation, and Change (CIC) Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) 2.0 from the cultural, language, and communication perspectives. The CIC MOOC was the first course offered in both English and Chinese in Coursera. Data in this study were collected via online survey, interviews, QQ chat logs, and discussion threads in Guokr platform. Content analysis was performed to identify key themes from the collected data. Findings reveal that differences exist in Eastern and Western societies regarding power distance, individualism versus collectivism, and masculinity versus femininity. Communication patterns also vary in QQ and Guokr online communities. In addition, Chinese students reported that translation helped them understand the course topics better, and the online interest group motivated them to participate in course activities and complete the course. The conclusions shed light on the design of future MOOCs, advocating for translating course content into different languages and building small online communities to meet learners’ needs and improve their learning experiences.

Pharmacists' perception of their role during COVID-19: a qualitative content analysis of posts on Facebook pharmacy groups in Jordan.

Objective:This study aimed to evaluate the content available on Facebook pharmacy groups in Jordan regarding the perception of the pharmacists’ role during the coronavirus pandemic in Jordan.Methods:Researchers identified Facebook pharmacy groups through the search engine on the Facebook website. The main search keywords were pharmacy, pharmacist, pharmacists, and Jordan using both Arabic and English. Two researchers analyzed the posts and discussion threads on local pharmacy Facebook groups in a period between March 20th and April 3rd. A total of 184 posts and threads were identified for the purpose of the study.Results:Identified threads and responses resulted in three overarching themes: pharmacists having a positive role during the pandemic, taking additional responsibilities and services, and having passive or negative roles. A positive role was seen in pharmacists acting as first-line healthcare providers, creating public’s awareness regarding COVID-19, and being responsible for chronic medication refill during the pandemic. Taking additional responsibilities was summarized in home deliveries and involvement in industrial and corporate efforts to deal with the pandemic. A passive/negative role was seen mostly among hospital pharmacists not being proactive during the pandemic and by pharmacists trying to maximize profits during pandemic time.Conclusions:Pharmacists perceived their role as a positive role during the coronavirus pandemic. Not only they took responsibilities for their daily services during the crises, but they took additional responsibilities to assure patient safety and satisfaction.

Asked & Answered

The Asked & Answered department shares excerpts from discussion threads on the online MyNCTM community. In this issue, featured threads highlight responses to members' questions regarding 1st grade number sense, multiplication and division of fractions, issues of definition and precision related to circles, and the value of rationalizing denominators.

STudy on E-Cigarettes and Pregnancy (STEP) - Study Protocol of a Mixed Methods Study on Risk Perception of E-Cigarette Use During Pregnancy and Sample Description.

Introduction During pregnancy, the motherʼs healthy lifestyle is crucial for the health of the fetus. Potential risk factors for maternal and child health should therefore be identified and reduced as early as possible. The consumption of e-cigarettes represents one of these potential risk factors. Exploring risk perceptions about e-cigarette use during pregnancy can provide early indications of possible user motives. Therefore, our mixed methods ST udy on E -cigarettes and P regnancy (STEP) aimed to comprehensively analyze risk perceptions about e-cigarette use during pregnancy based on an I ntegrated H ealth B elief M odel (IHBM). This paper describes the study design, methods, sample population and limitations of STEP. Methods Our sequential mixed methods study combined qualitative and quantitative approaches. In the qualitative section of the study which preceded the quantitative part of the study, we aimed to characterize risk perceptions about e-cigarette use during pregnancy. We used a netnographic research approach which analyzed discussion threads in online forums dealing with e-cigarette use during pregnancy. The analysis was based on an IHBM. Identified themes were incorporated in the questionnaire which was developed for the quantitative part of the study. The quantitative section aimed to quantify, among other things, perceived threats, barriers and benefits and to explore differences in risk perception according to sociodemographic characteristics and tobacco and e-cigarette usage. Results In the qualitative section, 1552 posts in 25 online discussion threads dealing, inter alia, with e-cigarette use during pregnancy were identified. The quantitative part looked at the responses in the questionnaires handed in by 575 pregnant women who attended a hospital in Hamburg (Germany) from April 2018 to January 2019 (response rate: 27.5%). Conclusion Data collection was successful for both the qualitative and quantitative parts of the study. When interpreting the results of STEP, different limitations should be taken into account. The results of STEP provide starting points for the development of tailored preventive measures for pregnant women.

For or against Brexit? Justifying oppositional arguments in online discussion

Introduction. This investigation examines argumentation about political issues occurring in online discussion groups. A case study was made by concentrating on debates about Brexit - the prospective withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. Method. Building on Toulmin’s model for argument patterns, it was examined how oppositional arguments about Brexit were grounded by drawing on facts and opinion-based evidence and how the evidence of information these types was justified. To this end, a sample of 40 discussion threads initiated before the 2016 Brexit referendum were downloaded from PoliticsForum - an online platform. Analysis. The data consisting of 1563 messages were scrutinized by means of descriptive statistical analysis and qualitative content analysis. The focus was placed on the latter method by analysing the ways in which the discussants justified the rebuttal of opposing arguments. Results. Oppositional arguments justifications were mainly based on the description of personal opinions and negative evaluation of opposing views. Analytic approaches to justification based on explanation and comparison were less popular. This preference is probably due to the lower cognitive effort required while simply describing the attributes of an entity or judging its positive or negative qualities by drawing on one’s beliefs and experiences. Conclusions. Argumentation occurring in online platforms will form an increasingly important part of political struggles. On the other hand, online debates on controversial issues such as Brexit tend to be broad rather than deep.

Dialogue processes in online information seeking and sharing: a study of an asynchronous discussion group

Introduction. This study elaborates the picture of dialogical information interaction by examining asynchronous dialogue processes constitutive of information seeking and sharing in online forums. Method. Descriptive quantitative analysis and qualitative content analysis of fifty discussion threads with 1326 messages downloaded from Google Groups uk.d-i-y forum. Analysis. To examine the dialogue processes, eleven categories of dialogue acts were defined. These acts include, for example, initial fact question, initial opinion answer, specifying opinion question, complementary fact answer and disagreement. Based on the temporally sensitive nature of such acts, the dialogue process was approached in two phases: initiation and elaboration. Results. The dialogue process at the initiation phase occurs in two ways: responding the initial question, and clarifying the initial question before answering. The elaboration phase is based on a more complex interplay of specifying questions, complementary answers, as well as answer agreements and disagreements. Due to this characteristic, the degree of dialogicality is higher at the elaboration phase. Conclusions. Dialogue is a fundamental constituent of information interaction. Due to its protean nature, the dynamics of asynchronous dialogue processes are difficult to capture in detail. The empirical research settings may be elaborated further by drawing on the potential of novel methods such as digital conversation analysis.

Teachers’ Identity Work in a Professional Facebook Group

Aim/Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate posts that deviate from the norm by receiving many more comments than likes in a teacher thematic Facebook (FB) group. Background: Social media sites are currently becoming standard tools for professional practices. Swedish teachers use thematic FB groups as a platform for professional learning. Methodology: Data from a large teacher FB group over a three-year period have been collected using programmatic approaches. The interactions have been analysed through a three-phased process: (1) meta-data selection criteria and computational analysis to identify in-depth discussions, (2) content selection criteria, and (3) interaction analysis of selected threads. Contribution: FB discussions provide a platform for teachers for sharing resources and for emotional and professional support. The support and sharing do not merely constitute explicit requests, but also bring about professional discussions. Findings: The 79 original posts that significantly deviated from the norm of the group, were formulated as questions and/or requests, which implies that they were designed to attract comments and not only likes. The original posts were organized around four themes: (1a) functionally motivated technical features, (1b) instructionally motivated technical features, (2) pedagogical ideas and premises, and (3) sharing. The nature of these unusual threads was that teachers used the thematic FB-group to share teaching material and resources as well as to give and receive emotional and professional support. Such sharing and support meant a transformation from working in isolation to finding a professional community. In the discussion threads the teachers displayed a variety of identities, such as active and engaged teacher, a thematic expert, or a central group member. Recommendations for Practitioners: In terms of practical implications, teachers’ competencies towards using social media platforms for collective and constructive discussions need to be strengthened. The challenge is to promote more teachers to partake in challenging such group norms in such groups so that discussions characterised by openness, debate, and constructive criticism are established. Recommendation for Researchers: It is vital to empirically investigate teachers’ online interactions as new types of collegial discussions that, while rich, could be seen as valuable even if they are unpredictable compared to well-established professional learning efforts. Impact on Society: This study contributes with knowledge about the impacts of social media platforms as becoming standard tools for all human activities, let alone professional practices. Future Research: Additional detailed analysis of teachers’ use of social media platforms for professional purposes are needed as well as methodological competence development with regard to computational approaches such as those employed in this study.

Cross-Boundary Collaboration and Problem-Solving to Promote 21st Century Skills—Students’ Experiences

This study is part of an ongoing design-based research initiative, during which a new course on forest bioeconomics was designed and implemented in higher education context. The pedagogy of the new course was informed by the framework of 21st century skills, ideas of collaborative problem-solving and knowledge building, cross-boundary teaming, and online and blended learning. During the implementation of the pilot course, in-depth group interview data were collected and WhatsApp discussion threads were used as supplementary data. Participants included students (n=18) from Finnish universities and universities of applied sciences who enrolled in and completed the course. The data were analyzed qualitatively with the aim of finding out how 21st century skills were manifested in students’ experiences of collaborative problem-solving in cross-boundary teams in blended or online learning settings. It was also considered, if there were differences in the experiences of students from blended and online course options. The results of the qualitative analysis provide multiple implications for course development in upcoming design-based research cycles. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.18.13.3

Emotional adjustment post-stroke: A qualitative study of an online stroke community

ABSTRACT Understanding of emotional adjustment after stroke is limited. Under one-third of stroke survivors reporting emotional problems receive support. The aim of this study was to explore the process of emotional adjustment post-stroke and investigate the role played by participation in an online stroke community. We applied thematic analysis to 124 relevant posts within 114 discussion threads, written by 39 survivors and 29 carers. The contribution of online community engagement to emotional adjustment was explored using the Social Support Behaviour Code. Stroke survivors share common experiences of emotional adjustment and may not necessarily reach complete acceptance. Positive and negative trajectories of emotional adjustment were identified. Survivors progressed along, or moved between, positive and negative pathways not in a time-dependent manner but in response to “trigger events,” such as physical setbacks or anti-depressant treatment, which may occur at any chronological time. An adapted version of Suhr's 1990 Social Support Behaviour Code showed that support provided through the online community took many forms, including advice, teaching, empathy and normalization of concerns. Participation in the stroke community was itself deemed to be a positive “trigger event.” There is need to improve awareness of emotional adjustment and their “triggers” amongst stroke survivors, carers and clinicians.

Negotiations of language ideology on the Jodel app: Language policy in everyday online interaction

This study explores language policy in micro interaction on the online discussion app Jodel. By analyzing metalinguistic, evaluative comments, this study aims to provide an example of community-based language regulation. In total, 110 discussion threads in which Jodel users make explicit evaluative remarks on others’ language use are analyzed. Through an analysis of (de)legitimation strategies, the metalinguistic remarks are explored as key discourse elements in the reproduction of language ideologies. The results show that Jodel users promote and uphold a hypercorrect local ideology that, to a large extent, promotes uniformity and traditional standard orthography. Prominent strategies for invoking this local language ideology are humor, repetition, and exposed correction. The metalinguistic comments are used for the purpose of creating boundaries for inclusion and exclusion of community members on the app.

The role of off-topic discussions in online health support groups: insights from a content analysis of an online rectal cancer group.

Both off-topic discussions and exchanges of social support are important to the success of online health support groups. Analyzing their relationship could enhance our understanding of the nature of helpful interactions in online cancer support groups and ways promoting their success. A total of 15,284 messages were collected and analyzed from an online support group for rectal cancer. Two coders coded and categorized the messages into 211 threads using directed content analysis and a social support classification system. The relationship between off-topic discussions and social support was explored using the quadratic assignment procedure. There are 91 threads of off-topic discussions, 83 threads of informational support, 22 threads of emotional support, seven threads of tangible support, five threads of network support, and three threads of esteem support. More of the off-topic discussions are associated with more emotional and tangible support. Both off-topic discussions and informational support are mutually influenced by the mediating role of emotional support. In addition, off-topic discussions and network support are mutually influenced by the mediating role of emotional and tangible support, and off-topic discussions and esteem support are mutually influenced by the mediating role of tangible support. Off-topic discussions directly or indirectly promote different types of social support in an online rectal cancer support group.