Online Context Research Articles

Uncovering hidden opinions: social norms and the expression of xenophobic attitudes

AbstractSocial norms against prejudice are widespread and generally supported by society, yet examples of bigotry are often found. I propose that anti-prejudice norms can quickly erode when individuals are exposed to hate content, therefore, facilitating the expression of prejudice. To test this, participants were invited to participate in an experimental online forum discussing immigration. I compare the comments of participants exposed to xenophobic content to those not exposed. The empirical results show that exposure to hateful content erodes norm compliance: the more hateful content participants could observe, the more hateful their subsequent comments were. The effect is primarily driven by those more likely to hold anti-immigrant views. This points to an ‘emboldening effect’ whereby prejudiced individuals refrain from expressing prejudiced opinions in the absence of offensive speech. Otherwise, hidden attitudes are revealed. The results confirm that the expression of prejudice is context dependent and that preserving a ‘norm environment’ requires sustained reinforcement of the norm. Furthermore, the results show that the composition of the population in terms of individual beliefs is paramount for the dynamics of erosion of the social norm. On the whole, these findings can inform effective public strategies against the spread of hate speech and offer a new methodological approach for studying hate speech in online contexts.

Internet impropriety: Moral identity, moral disengagement, and antisocial online behavior within an early adolescent to young adult sample.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are the most popular medium for social communication amongst adolescents and young adults. However, there is growing concern surrounding heightened ICT use and the activation of influential social constructs such as moral identity and moral disengagement. The importance of moral ideals to oneself (i.e., moral identity) and the distancing of oneself from these moral ideals (i.e., moral disengagement) are often contextual and were tested for differences in online domains compared to face-to-face interactions. Three hundred and ninety-two early adolescent to young adult participants (Mage = 19.54 years, SD = 4.48) completed self-report questionnaires that assessed online and face-to-face behavior in this cross-sectional study. Moral identity in an online context was significantly lower when compared to family and friend contexts. Further, moral disengagement was significantly higher in an online context when compared to face-to-face contexts and online moral disengagement significantly mediated the relationship between online moral identity and antisocial online behaviors (i.e., pirating, trolling, andhacking, etc.,). Both of these contextual differences remained stable across early adolescence to young adulthood. Moral identity and moral disengagement exhibit sociocognitive effects within online contexts across ages of early developmental importance. These results may account for high prevalence rates of antisocial online behavior such as trolling, pirating, and hacking within this sample. As social interaction for younger demographics continues to gravitate online, these results highlight that online contexts can influence important personality constructs.

A Social-Ecological Approach to Modeling Sense of Virtual Community (SOVC) in Livestreaming Communities.

Participation in communities is essential to individual mental and physical health and can yield further benefits for members. With a growing amount of time spent participating in virtual communities, it's increasingly important that we understand how the community experience manifests in and varies across these online spaces. In this paper, we investigate Sense of Virtual Community (SOVC) in the context of live-streaming communities. Through a survey of 1,944 Twitch viewers, we identify that community experiences on Twitch vary along two primary dimensions: belonging, a feeling of membership and support within the group, and cohesion, a feeling that the group is a well-run collective with standards for behavior. Leveraging the Social-Ecological Model, we map behavioral trace data from usage logs to various levels of the social ecology surrounding an individual user's participation within a community, in order to identify which of these can be associated with lower or higher SOVC. We find that features describing activity at the individual and community levels, but not features describing the community member's dyadic relationships, aid in predicting the SOVC that community members feel within channels. We consider implications for the design of live-streaming communities and for fostering the well-being of their members, and we consider theoretical implications for the study of SOVC in modern, interactive online contexts, particularly those fostering large-scale or pseudonymized interactions. We also explore how the Social-Ecological Model can be leveraged in other contexts relevant to Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), with implications for future work.

Assuring the quality of online learning in higher education: Adaptations in design and implementation

In higher education, designing online courses aligned with students’ preferences impacts learning effectiveness. Our research aimed to investigate which learning design elements can affect the quality of online learning. To achieve this, we followed a systematic literature review, identified current trends and conducted an online survey outlining university students’ opinions. The results revealed that students’ preferences agree with universal learning design principles, acting as course quality determinants. These elements relate to the structure, appearance, content, interactivity of the course and support in the online setting. We recommend that courses are well organised and include authentic resources, activities and assessments, divided consistently into smaller, topic-based chunks that resemble experiences drawn from real life. The objectives need to be communicated while the expected behaviours are known to students. The respective workload must be equally distributed across the course spectrum in an environment that balances collaborative and self-paced learning. Students must be familiar with the technology, which is also an easy-to-access gate. Lastly, it is suggested that technical and pedagogical support is constantly present so that participants efficiently work in the online context. Implications for practice or policy: In collaboration with educators, instructional designers can use the quality indicators that emerged through the study when designing and evaluating higher education courses. Instructional designers and educators may prioritise learners' autonomy, aligning course requirements with students' sense of control. Instructional designers and educators can distribute students’ workload equally throughout the course, without strict deadlines, to improve the learning experience. Educators may promote collaborative assignments but moderately balance them with an individual-based assessment mode.

TRAINING HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS FOR TEACHING IN VIRTUAL CLASSES. A CASE STUDY IN AN ASIAN CONTEXT

During the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers from higher education faced challenges on how to adequately adjust their teaching from a face-to-face to an online format to train future teachers properly. The study aimed to illustrate participants' experiences regarding their training during virtual courses in an international Asian HE institution. The applied methodology was qualitative, with a case study as a research design, intending to understand participants' experiences and adjust the training model for virtual classes in a particular Asian context. The participants were MA and Ph.D. in education students enrolled in the Instructional Models class, delivered online. Data collection consisted of (a) a focus-group discussion (with five participants) lasting for one hour and a half; (b) document analysis (15 students' journals); (c) video records for five micro-teaching; (d) one study group that lasted for 60 minutes organized to reflect on the 14 micro-teaching lessons. After thematic coding of data, the results revealed participants' empowering experiences during training, with challenges and success in conducting micro-teachings for virtual classes. The participants recommended including more micro-teaching sessions to master the teaching strategies demonstrated and introducing basic training in using technology for those who did not have technological skills. With empowering but still challenging teaching experiences, for further studies, the recommendation is to apply the training model in an online context, for both pre-service and in-service teachers, from different levels of education.

Pragmatic Analysis of Impoliteness in the Context of Online Business

Impoliteness is an important research issue in pragmatics. The popularity and development of computer-mediated communication (CMC) or internet-mediated communication (IMC) makes the impoliteness phenomena in the online context play an increasingly important role in the pragmatic studies. However, the previous pragmatic studies on impoliteness phenomena mainly focus on traditional issues, and there is still a large room for research on impoliteness phenomena in the context of online business. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the adoption of impoliteness strategies by subjects of commercial activities in the context of online business and its characteristics, in order to provide a new way for the contemporary study of impoliteness phenomena. Using the dialogue between merchants and consumers on the Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao as linguistic data and adopting the qualitative analysis method, this paper analyzes the selection of impoliteness strategies and its characteristics in online business context based on Culpeper and Bousfield’s theories of impoliteness. It was found that the choice of impoliteness strategies in online business contexts is diverse, including direct impoliteness, positive impoliteness (negation of the other party and intentional non-cooperation; insults), negative impoliteness (threats), mock politeness, and interruption/avoidance; in addition, speakers also adopt non-verbal impoliteness strategies, such as repeated use of punctuation marks and emojis, with the former predominating with punctuation marks that express strong emotions, such as exclamation marks. Based on the analysis of linguistic data above, this paper proposes that there emerge three obvious characteristics of impoliteness in online business contexts: the asynchronous nature of time and space exacerbates impoliteness; the virtual nature of tone reinforces impoliteness; and the conversational subjects tend to use multiple impoliteness strategies, including the repeated use of the same impoliteness strategy and the combination of multiple impoliteness strategies. This study sheds new light on the study of impoliteness in online contexts, enriches the study of impoliteness phenomena and further promotes the development of internet pragmatics.

Simple games for teaching economics online

Student motivation and engagement have become a more pressing issue for all university teachers, including economics professors, as a result of the move to online classes necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The online learning environment requires a high level of student self-discipline, and it seems that some students have responded to this environment with a more relaxed attitude that has undermined their engagement with the learning process. This can be observed in the widely reported reluctance of students to turn on cameras in online classes and in a lack of preparation for, or engagement with, class discussion or participation in online Q&A sessions. More online classes are likely to be offered by many universities even after the resumption of “normal” teaching, so these issues are likely to be ongoing. Economic games, however, may be a way of more fully engaging students in the online context and in productive pedagogical ways. This paper provides an entry point for teachers wishing to trial some simple game-based strategies for enhancing student engagement in their online teaching. Four simple games are presented that can be used in online teaching, targeting different topics. The games are explained, associated pedagogical approaches are recommended, and some preliminary feedback from students indicating the effectiveness of these games is presented.

Unfriended during adolescence: Correlates of continued contact with former friends in school and online

Friendships frequently dissolve in early adolescence, but youth may continue to encounter ex-friends in their daily lives. The current study aimed to examine how adolescents’ reactions to friendship dissolutions were associated with continued exposure to the former friend both in school and online via social media. Participants were 354 middle school students (Mage = 11.89 years, SD = .86) from the northeast United States who self-reported their experiences following a friendship dissolution. Results indicate that higher frequency of seeing a former friend in school is associated with increased intensity of positive reactions and decreased duration of negative reactions. Greater frequency of seeing the former friend online, however, is associated with increased intensity and duration of negative reactions following the dissolution, as well as decreased intensity of positive reactions. We interpret the current findings through the lens of the transformation framework, which suggests that the online context transforms and intensifies negative peer experiences.

Interpretive case study to understand online communication in an e-tendering project implementation

The presence of social media has encouraged the merger of online communication between the government and the community. This phenomenon provides an opportunity for researchers to simultaneously understand the process of government communication online and offline by using an interpretive case study approach. This study aims to demonstrate the use of a qualitative interpretive case study approach to explain the effectiveness of local government communication with local business people in the online context regarding implementing the e-tendering system. This study used a qualitative interpretive method. We conducted both offline and online research to compare the consistency of the data in our study. Using the case study of government and contractors' communication in implementing e-tendering in a regency in South Sulawesi, we gathered data through face-to-face interviews and observed online communication on social media. This study's results indicate an inconsistency in government communication between the online and offline contexts regarding the perception of e-tendering issues. Our findings can be used to increase our understanding of the government's communication strategy with local business people in an online and offline context. Our study also shows that using new media in qualitative interpretive studies can reduce challenges in participant recruitment and access to research sites. However, our study faced challenges on ethical issues regarding communication material shared on social media. Future studies should focus on how ethical issues can be reduced.

A tale of two pandemics: teachers’ disproportionate views on student engagement in remote learning

Purpose This study aims to use culturally responsive pedagogy as a model to examine teachers’ views of the equity implications found within virtual instruction. Design/methodology/approach The researchers used a descriptive methods design based on survey research employing both fixed (quantitative) and open response (qualitative) options to curate teachers’ perceptions of their students’ abilities to engage in online learning. Findings Teachers articulated anxiety for student engagement based on access as well as concerns for student engagement and social emotional learning (SEL) connection. Data point to disparate views of students’ abilities to engage in remote learning based on demographic markers. Teachers also noted their own limitations in providing engaging online instruction that was culturally responsive and included social emotional learning (SEL) learning. Originality/value This study provided a unique opportunity to explore teachers’ perceptions of their students in online learning contexts as well as teachers’ perceptions of their own abilities to support diverse students in remote learning. Teachers’ responses indicated deficit views of their culturally and linguistically diverse students and signaled awareness of their own limitations in providing online instruction that was culturally responsive and student centered. Study findings point to a need to equip teachers with tools to mitigate systemic inequity in online contexts.

Preservice Teachers’ Perception on the Implementation of Online Project-Based Learning

Current studies provide compelling evidence that project-based learning (PBL) is an effective method for the students. Considering the empirical findings, PBL is highly endorsed in many EFL contexts. However, with the major shift to online learning due the pandemic, little is known about the possibility of PBL implementation within this new context. This current case study attempts to portray the PBL implementation within the online context and how the students perceive the implementation. The study was carried out in an English Education Department involving 36 seventh-grade preservice teachers (PTs). The data were collected through classroom observations, online questionnaires, and in-depth semi-structured interviews. The data were analyzed using the interactive model and the results of the analysis show the stages of PBL can be implemented in the similar way to that in the offline setting. However, the technological use in the online setting differs in terms of the amount of its usage frequency. The study also revealed that the students consider the implementation of PBL in online setting as challenging yet motivating. The findings imply that the changes of teaching and learning setting do not affect the durability of the PBL. It means that with a little tweak, mainly in terms of technological usage, grouping and group communication, PBL might be successfully implemented in the online setting.

Teacher Professional Development in STEM Education: An Integrated Approach with Real-World Scenarios in Portugal

The implementation of an integrated approach of STEM education with real-life scenarios is crucial to motivate students to learn and to better prepare them for real-world challenges, which is a big challenge for teachers. Therefore, there are implications for teaching practice and consequently the need for professional development. This paper presents an integrated approach of STEM education developed in the context of a collaborative professional development programme implemented in an exclusive online context, provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic. The programme aimed at providing teachers with knowledge and skills to develop STEM integrated tasks to be implemented in class. This study used a quantitative–qualitative approach to answer the research questions, using mixed methods to collect data. Participants are primary school teachers who participated in the programme during four months in the school year 2020/2021. Based on data collected from questionnaires, participant observation and teachers’ final reports, it was verified that teachers recognized the importance of obtaining training in STEM education and that this type of professional development was very relevant and improved their knowledge and skills to implement STEM hands-on practices in class. In addition, a case study of a science and mathematics 6th grade teacher is presented to illustrate how she implement integrated STEM tasks in class based on a real-world scenario such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, teachers recognized the importance of this approach and that it increases students’ motivation to learn.

Governing in the time of Covid-19: how board meetings went online and the implications of this for considering the role of the governing board

ABSTRACT The response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 necessitated changes in the working practices of many organisations such that online meetings suddenly became the norm. Governing board meetings were no exception. However, little is known about the impact of online meetings on the work of boards. Here we draw on empirical evidence from observations of in-person and online board meetings in eight colleges of further education across the UK to address the question: in what ways do governing board meetings differ in online and in-person contexts? From this we consider what this tells us about the role of the board in the life of the organisation. We conclude that social gathering, which emphasises the importance of place, is of central importance in the work of the board.

Exploratory analysis of citizen journalists as editorial gatewatchers

This study is a qualitative analysis of citizen journalists’ blog posts relating to the Gautrain Projectin South Africa, with a main focus on the Gautrain’s readiness to commence operations on 8 June2010 for the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup. This article is based on sections of a current MTechstudy on citizen journalism. Citizen journalism as a phenomenon is examined within the context of the blogosphere. Thegatekeeping theory is used as an approach to journalism in the online environment. So far, only avery limited number of studies have specifically addressed gatekeeping in the online environmentwhere citizen journalists decide what is news and which issues need to be raised on the publicsphere agenda. In the online context this is sometimes referred to as gatewatching.Although not professionally trained journalists, citizen journalists often perform the samegatekeeping functions as professional journalists. As gatewatchers of mainstream media content,press releases and other background information, citizen journalists may reintroduce debate inthe public sphere and introduce new insights previously overlooked by the mainstream media.This article demonstrates how citizen journalists acted as editorial ‘gatewatchers’ on the topic ofthe Gautrain project’s readiness for the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup in terms of seven categories.It also illustrates that when functioning as editorial gatewatchers, citizen journalists have thepotential to establish new criteria for newsworthiness in the public sphere.

The “proximal depiction effect” of indulgent (versus non-indulgent) foods on consumer responses

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the effect of proximal (versus distant) depiction of food products within an advertising or online context on consumer responses across food types (indulgent versus non-indulgent) and display formats that lead to a single exposure (e.g. billboard) versus multiple exposures (e.g. online menu).Design/methodology/approachFive experimental studies, using both implicit and explicit elicitation techniques, demonstrate the effect of proximal food depictions. The paper rules out alternative explanations (portion-size perception and participants’ bodily distance) and controls for several other factors (e.g. visual crowding, body-mass index, dietary restrictions, etc.)FindingsThe studies find that proximal food pictures are implicitly associated with tastiness more for indulgent (vs non-indulgent) foods; lead to higher purchase intention for indulgent food upon a single exposure driven by enhanced perceived tastiness; and evoke satiation upon multiple exposures.Research limitations/implicationsThis research identifies the effect of spatial proximity of food depiction on consumer responses using different stimuli. Future work could explore the effects in alternate consummatory contexts.Practical implicationsThe findings provide clear instructions to marketers and policymakers on how to tailor consumer responses using spatial distance in depiction of food products, depending on the food type and display format. Understanding the effect of visual food cues will help policymakers devise strategies to counter over-consumption, which increases the risk of non-communicable diseases and reduces consumer well-being (SDG 3, United Nations).Originality/valueIntroducing a novel pictorial cue (i.e. the spatial distance of product depiction), this paper contributes insights to the literature on implicit associations, visual information processing, satiation, over-consumption and food marketing.

Young people’s citizenship activities at and beyond school – exploring a new theoretical framework with empirical data from a rural community in Germany

ABSTRACT The context for this paper is a shift in the way citizens engage in democratic processes which has received increasing attention in the literature. Building on previously conducted research, this paper contributes to the conceptualisation of citizenship activities in terms of young people below the voting age from rural communities. Based on reviewing current research, seven emerging contexts that can assist with exploring young people’s citizenship activities are proposed, namely unofficial, individual, glocal, sporadic, online, issues-based, and justice-oriented. These contexts were translated into a framework which is introduced and explored in this paper. To explore this framework, focus groups (n = 26) and a qualitative questionnaire (n = 106) were conducted with young people aged 13–16 from a secondary school in Germany. The proposed framework extends previous conceptualisations of emerging citizenship contexts by looking beyond citizen types and taxonomies to explore the spaces, modes, goals, and the frequency of participants’ citizenship activities. Results indicate that the proposed framework was useful in exploring multiple emerging citizenship contexts. Focus group and questionnaire participants were particularly engaged in glocal, unofficial, sporadic, and issues-based contexts and to a lower degree in individual, online, and justice-oriented contexts. A key challenge is achieving conceptual clarity around the seven contexts.

Towards a Definition of Hate Speech—With a Focus on Online Contexts

As legislators and platforms tackle the challenge of suppressing hate speech online, questions about its definition remain unresolved. In this review we discuss three issues: What are the main challenges encountered when defining hate speech? What alternatives are there for the definition of hate speech? What is the relationship between the nature and scope of the definition and its operationability? By tracing both efforts to regulate and to define hate speech in legal, paralegal, and tech platform contexts, we arrive at four possible modes of definition: teleological, pure consequentialist, formal, and consensus or relativist definitions. We suggest the need for a definition where hate speech encompasses those speech acts that tend towards certain ethically proscribed ends, which are destructive in terms of their consequences, and express certain ideas that are transgressions of specific ethical norms. [Media: see text]

Client’s digital stories: Using the lived experience to personalise online learning


 
 
 Clients’ stories of their lived experience of disease and illness are an important part of the nursing curriculum that fosters the development of a client-centered approach to healthcare. While opportunities for these types of learning experiences have historically been possible via placements or simulations, opportunities for such personalised interactions in the online context is more difficult. Digital stories offer a way to bring the lived experience to online learning. Digital stories are short multi-media clips that bring a character’s experiences to life, yet research into the impact of these stories on student learning is sparse. This paper presents a work in progress and preliminary findings from 20 students’ responses to client’s digital stories in a fully online course using the construct of empathy to identify themes in the students’ comments. Themes indicated that the digital stories helped student learning, assisted with the development of empathy, and stimulated engagement by tapping into the emotional dimension of learning. The study suggests that learning design incorporating client digital stories assists with the development of empathy, aids in understanding and stimulates engagement by inspiring students through personal connections with clients.
 
 

Serving students with disabilities in K-12 online learning: daily practices of special educators during the COVID-19 pandemic

Online and distance education strategies offer a path for closing opportunity gaps for students with disabilities because of digital technologies’ flexibility and capacity for differentiation, but fully online schooling does always guarantee an inclusive education. The COVID-19-induced shift to remote learning highlighted the need for more insight into inclusive practices for students with disabilities in online contexts, especially at the K-12 levels. The present study describes special education teachers’ online teaching practices with students with disabilities and the necessary conditions for special educator use of technology in K-12 remote learning. Using in-depth interview (N = 2 0) and survey data with special educators teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, findings highlight specific strategies special educators use to differentiate instruction as well as innovations in hybrid content experiences and home-school partnerships across K-12 schooling. The practices of special educators teaching in online environments provide insights into how all educators can support learners with or without disabilities in K-12 distance education settings.

Professional learning with ICT and music technology: Australian music educators’ insights

Teachers were forced to employ a range of information and communications technology (ICT) and music technology in the online context from 2020. This article focuses on an Australian national study ‘Re-imaging the future: Music teaching and learning, and ICT in blended environments in Australia’. In 2021, we collected data using an anonymous survey (N = 105) a limitation, therefore generalizations cannot be made. Findings discuss: What professional learning (PL) experiences did teachers seek to engage with to develop their practice? What aspects of their digital teaching practice did they prioritize and seek to develop as music educators? What types of software and resources did they employ to facilitate their online teaching? Teachers’ insights suggest customized PL should focus on pedagogy, learning design, delivery and assessment to improve student outcomes. The DELP (device, software and tools; environment; learning focus and pedagogy) quadrant is recommended to guide adaptive PL development, with a focus on specific devices, software and tools to support effective professional growth. Reconnecting teachers through PL is critical to enhance their knowledge and skills. These are essential drivers as educational institutions seek to nurture and sustain teacher confidence and competence in the current COVID-19 landscape.