Online Context Research Articles

Latent profiles of cyber violence among South Korean adolescents: Applicability of routine activity theory

AbstractThere is a growing concern towards the risk of cyber violence among young digital natives. This study tested the applicability of routine activity theory in the cyber domain using a national sample of 2228 South Korean adolescents. Latent profile analysis was used to identify the conditions of the motivated offender, suitable target, and capable guardian within the online context. Low‐risk, detached norm, and comprehensive‐risk profiles emerged. Binary logistic regression indicated that adolescents in the comprehensive‐risk profile were most likely to experience cyber violence, compared to other profiles. The risk of perpetration was greater for the low‐risk profile than the detached norm profile. This study identified the contexts of youth that heighten the risk of cyber violence and suggested important points of intervention.

BEYOND REACTIONARY: SAGE PRACTICES FOR INTENTIONAL REFLEXIVITY IN ONLINE QUALITATIVE DATA COLLECTION

Introduction/Frame: Recent pandemic responsiveness has prompted increased online qualitative data collection. Few researchers have offered detailed discussions reflecting on how and/or why they maintained or adjusted in-person data collection techniques for online shifts. This paper pulled on lived experiences from researchers who reflected upon their online data collection practices, galvanized by evidence from peer-reviewed research. Research Question/Objectives: The following research questions guided this project: (1) How did qualitative data collection change when research rapidly shifted online? (2) What were essential elements to consider from in-person to online qualitative data collection practices? Goals and Methods: The goal was to inform qualitative researchers of key concepts to consider in adjusting to online data collection based on a fusion of the literature alongside professional experiences. This applied methodological paper utilized field notebooks and notes from research discussion groups during the transition to online data collection to examine considerations toward responsively revising data collection procedures aligned to online contexts. Results: Our investigation identified eight essential Successfully Applied, Grounded-in-Experience (SAGE) practices to consider in reconceptualizing data collection approaches for online contexts: (1) (re)examining online data collection differences in proximity and amplification of facial-emphasis communication, (2) strengthening awareness of truncated corporal visuality in online contexts, (3) increasing fluency and agility with digital tools, (4) increasing mindfulness of temporal need for visual data over audio-only data, (5) increasing research-oriented professionalism to counterbalance casual social or classroom-styled video chat practices, (6) enhancing researcher reflexivity regarding transcription and field notes, (7) maintaining procedural flexibility and balance regarding potential hybrid data collection, and (8) increasing temporal accessibility vis-à-vis boundaries. Final Considerations: Building from reactionary experiences and guidance during the emergency transition to online data collection modes and approaches, there is a need to reflexively reconceptualize data collection for online contexts.

Online Stochastic DCA With Applications to Principal Component Analysis.

Stochastic algorithms are well-known for their performance in the era of big data. In this article, we study nonsmooth stochastic Difference-of-Convex functions (DC) programs-the major class of nonconvex stochastic optimization, which have a variety of applications in divers domains, in particular, machine learning. We propose new online stochastic algorithms based on the state-of-the-art DC Algorithm (DCA)-a powerful approach in nonconvex programming framework, in the online context of streaming data continuously generated by some (unknown) source distribution. The new schemes use the stochastic approximations (SAs) principle: deterministic quantities of the standard DCA are replaced by their noisy estimators constructed using newly arriving samples. The convergence analysis of the proposed algorithms is studied intensively with the help of tools from modern convex analysis and martingale theory. Finally, we study several aspects of the proposed algorithms on an important problem in machine learning: the expected problem in principal component analysis (PCA).

Introduction to Special Issue: Bridging the Online–Offline Divide in Criminology

This special issue deals with the way that sexual abuse, illicit markets, and social communities increasingly co-exist online and offline. The contributions explore the interconnections between the offline and online contexts and interrogate how the digital is both reproducing and changing the way people experience practices entailing risks and unwanted behavior. The on/offline overlap is important to understand the continued relevance of gender, class, and age in a digital society. That way, exoticism that posits online crime as new because it is different, bigger, and more complex is questioned: several of the contributions in this special issue analyze how online crime does not reinvent, so much as tweak and exaggerate age-old problems.

Social media features, perceived group norms, and adolescents' active social media use matter for perceived friendship quality.

Developmental researchers are becoming increasingly interested in the role of social media in adolescents' experiences with their peers; however, to date, few studies have investigated the association between youngsters' interactions with friends online and the perceived quality of their friendship relationships. Thus, the current study aims to test the associations between three social media features, as perceived by adolescents, (i.e., availability, quantifiability, visualness) and the quality of adolescents' friendships (in terms of perceived validation, intimacy, companionship), considering participants' frequency of active social media use (i.e., self-oriented and other-oriented social media use), and the role of perceived group norms about social media use. Moreover, we tested potential differences across gender groups. Participants were 751 adolescents (Mage = 16.2, SD = 1.5). A SEM analysis showed that, among the perceived social media features, availability was positively associated with perceived friendship quality-both directly and indirectly. Furthermore, friends who participated more in other-oriented social media use reported being more satisfied with their friendship relationships and the results showed that peer influence processes were also active on social media. Taken together, these results emphasize the study of social media as a social context for a better understanding of contemporary peer experiences during adolescence. Specifically, novel behaviors (e.g., liking or commenting on posts or content of peers), which characterize interactions between friends, may support relational functioning and well-being purposes in both the offline and online context.

Automatic Identification of Hate Speech - A Case-Study of alt-Right YouTube Videos.

Identifying hate speech (HS) is a central concern within online contexts. Current methods are insufficient for efficient preemptive HS identification. In this study, we present the results of an analysis of automatic HS identification applied to popular alt-right YouTube videos. This essay describes methodological challenges of automatic HS detection. The case study concerns data on a formative segment of contemporary radical right discourse. Our purpose is twofold. (1) To outline an interdisciplinary mixed-methods approach for using automated identification of HS. This bridges the gap between technical research on the one hand (such as machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing, NLP) and traditional empirical research on the other. Regarding alt-right discourse and HS, we ask: (2) What are the challenges in identifying HS in popular alt-right YouTube videos? The results indicate that effective and consistent identification of HS communication necessitates qualitative interventions to avoid arbitrary or misleading applications. Binary approaches of hate/non-hate speech tend to force the rationale for designating content as HS. A context-sensitive qualitative approach can remedy this by bringing into focus the indirect character of these communications. The results should interest researchers within social sciences and the humanities adopting automatic sentiment analysis and for those analysing HS and radical right discourse. Automatic identification or moderation of HS cannot account for an evolving context of indirect signification. This study exemplifies a process whereby automatic hate speech identification could be utilised effectively. Several methodological steps are needed for a useful outcome, with both technical quantitative processing and qualitative analysis being vital to achieve meaningful results. With regard to the alt-right YouTube material, the main challenge is indirect framing. Identification demands orientation in the broader discursive context and the adaptation towards indirect expressions renders moderation and suppression ethically and legally precarious.

Profiling the Offline and Online Risk Experiences of Youth to Develop Targeted Interventions for Online Safety

We conducted a study with 173 adolescents (ages 13-21), who self-reported their offline and online risk experiences and uploaded their Instagram data to our study website to flag private conversations as unsafe. Risk profiles were first created based on the survey data and then compared with the risk-flagged social media data. Five risk profiles emerged: Low Risks (51% of the participants), Medium Risks (29%), Increased Sexting (8%), Increased Self-Harm (8%), and High Risk Perpetration (4%). Overall, the profiles correlated well with the social media data with the highest level of risk occurring in the three smallest profiles. Youth who experienced increased sexting and self-harm frequently reported engaging in unsafe sexual conversations. Meanwhile, high risk perpetration was characterized by increased violence, threats, and sales/promotion of illegal activities. A key insight from our study was that offline risk behavior sometimes manifested differently in online contexts (i.e., offline self-harm as risky online sexual interactions). Our findings highlight the need for targeted risk prevention strategies for youth online safety.

What Makes Digital Support Effective? How Therapeutic Skills Affect Clinical Well-Being

Online mental health support communities, in which volunteer counselors provide accessible mental and emotional health support, have grown in recent years. Despite millions of people using these platforms, the clinical effectiveness of these communities on mental health symptoms remains unknown. Although volunteers receive some training on the therapeutic skills proven effective in face-to-face environments, such as active listening and motivational interviewing, it is unclear how the usage of these skills in an online context affects people's mental health. In our work, we collaborate with one of the largest online peer support platforms and use both natural language processing and machine learning techniques to examine how one-on-one support chats on the platform affect clients' depression and anxiety symptoms. We measure how characteristics of support-providers, such as their experience on the platform and use of therapeutic skills (e.g. affirmation, showing empathy), affect support-seekers' mental health changes. Based on a propensity-score matching analysis to approximate a random-assignment experiment, results shows that online peer support chats improve both depression and anxiety symptoms with a statistically significant but relatively small effect size. Additionally, support providers' techniques such as emphasizing the autonomy of the client lead to better mental health outcomes. However, we also found that the use of some behaviors, such as persuading and providing information, are associated with worsening of mental health symptoms. Our work provides key understanding for mental health care in the online setting and designing training systems for online support providers.

I’ll be there for you? The bystander intervention model and cyber aggression

The Bystander Intervention Model (BIM) has been validated for face-to-face emergencies and dictates that observers’ decision to intervene hinges on five sequential steps, while barriers block progress between steps. The current study is the first, to our knowledge, to apply the BIM in its entirety to cyber aggression and explore the ways that individual factors such as experiences with depression, social anxiety, and cyber aggression either as the target or the aggressor influence bystanders. In our pre-registered study, emerging adults (N = 1,093) viewed pilot-tested cyber aggressive content and reported how they would engage with each of the steps and barriers of the BIM, if they were observing this content as a bystander in real life. Regarding the actions they would take, most participants chose non-intervention (36.3%) or private direct intervention (39.4%). Path analysis suggested that overall, the BIM can explain bystanders’ responses to cyber aggression. Nonetheless, there were some discrepancies with prior work on face-to-face emergencies, specifically that cyber bystander intervention does not appear to be as linear. As well, in contrast to the face-to-face applications of the BIM that prescribes barriers to affect only a single specific step, here we found some barriers were negatively linked to multiple steps. These findings elucidate ways in which cyber aggression in the online context may be similar to, as well as different from, aggression that occurs face-to-face. Implications of these findings for interventions are discussed.

The Use of Integrated Multichannel Records in Learning Studies in Higher Education: A Systematic Review of the Last 10 Years

Neurophysiological measures have been used in the field of education to improve our knowledge about the cognitive processes underlying learning. Furthermore, the combined use of different neuropsychological measures has deepened our understanding of these processes. The main objective of this systematic review is to provide a comprehensive picture of the use of integrated multichannel records in higher education. The bibliographic sources for the review were Web of Science, PsycINFO, Scopus, and Psicodoc databases. After a screening process by two independent reviewers, 10 articles were included according to prespecified inclusion criteria. In general, integrated recording of eye tracking and electroencephalograms were the most commonly used metrics, followed by integrated recording of eye tracking and electrodermal activity. Cognitive load was the most widely investigated learning-related cognitive process using integrated multichannel records. To date, most research has focused only on one neurophysiological measure. Furthermore, to our knowledge, no study has systematically investigated the use of integrated multichannel records in higher education. This systematic review provides a comprehensive picture of the current use of integrated multichannel records in higher education. Its findings may help design innovative educational programs, particularly in the online context. The findings provide a basis for future research and decision making regarding the use of integrated multichannel records in higher education.

Debating claims of fact in public health: A pedagogical activity.

This pedagogical activity asks instructors or workshop administrators to guide students through the process of evaluating evidence used to support health misinformation. In learning principles from argumentation and debate, students are asked to develop cases to refute or defend a factual claim about health, construct oral and written arguments for their cases, and share them with other students who will evaluate the strength and quality of evidence used by each side. Ultimately, students will learn how to: i) Understand how arguments are constructed that both support and refute a health claim; ii) evaluate evidence used for both sides of a claim of fact; and iii) identify health misinformation, particularly in an online context.

Creating opportunities and spaces for social interactions in online contexts: Academic discourse socialization of L2 international graduate students

Addressing potential research paucity on L2 international graduate students’ academic discourse socialization in online contexts, this study investigated students in graduate programs in the United States. The study focused on how graduate students perceive the impacts of online learning on their academic discourse socialization experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Adopting a qualitative approach, four participants’ perceptions were investigated through semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal that while digital tools, including Zoom, created some spaces for academic discourse socialization for L2 international graduate students during the pandemic, the tools also disrupted their learning in some areas. Importantly, the lack of informal social interactions in online contexts affected graduate students’ learning and participation in their communities of practice. This study suggests that in addition to in-class Zoom interactions, informal interactions are important for L2 international graduate students’ academic discourse socialization in online contexts. Pedagogical implications on incorporating Zoom and other digital tools to facilitate academic discourse socialization in online contexts are provided.

Towards a sociolinguistics of in difference: stancetaking on others

Abstract This paper proposes a sociolinguistics of in difference, an inquiry-based approach to stancetaking on others. It describes how multilingual speakers in an online context orientate towards a stance-object and affiliate, align and negotiate difference through embodied performances, as part of advancing an ethics of responsibility for the other and aesthetic investments. In the analysis of such orientations, I draw on virtual interactional data to illustrate how in difference through stancetaking is entextualized in the aesthetic, embodied performance of parody, in so-called Coloured English, Kaaps and a mixture of other languages by an emerging R&B and pop group in Cape Town. I demonstrate how the group invest in embodied performances merge the material, linguistic, cultural and semiotic significance of the body to undermine fixity and categorization. But also, how push-back from YouTube commentators, influencers, reactors take up evaluative, affective and epistemic stances as they move from difference to in difference. I conclude with the argument that in order for us to take adequate account of an ethics of responsibility for the other and describing aesthetic investments in embodied performances we have to recalibrate our theoretical and methodological toolkit to understand what it means to use language with dignity, to encounter each other in spaces of dignity and to just be dignified in diversity.

Supporters with Vantage Position: The Role of Youth Work in the Online Lifeworld from the Perspective of Adolescents and Youth Work’s Partners

The online environment, where the boundaries between the domains of home, school, work, and leisure are blurred, poses new challenges for youth work practice. Due to limited research on this subject matter, the theoretical underpinnings of the online youth work practice are constrained. The fulfilment of youth work’s aims online, the position it can take in the online context, and its relation to its partners in the online lifeworld need a theoretical base. This paper seeks to analyse the role of youth work in the online lifeworld according to adolescents and youth work’s partners. The research was conducted in the Netherlands in collaboration with 14 youth work organisations. A qualitative research design was used: group conversations with young people and semi-structured interviews with youth work’s partners (i.e., parents, schools, informal networks, neighbourhood support teams, police, and municipal officials). The findings indicate that youth work in the online lifeworld, according to the respondents, is part of the general youth work practice, with a primary role of addressing the developmental needs of young people and creating new developmental opportunities. This role is expected to be fulfilled by engaging and connecting with young people in the online lifeworld and providing them instrumental, informational, socioemotional, and cognitive support. To do so, according to the partners, youth workers can make use of their vantage position in the online relationship with adolescents in order to access online information relevant for support and prudent prevention aimed at adolescents’ development. This vantage position may potentially encourage a collaboration between young people and partners, and between the online and offline youth work practice.

Contrastive Continual Learning with Importance Sampling and Prototype-Instance Relation Distillation

Recently, because of the high-quality representations of contrastive learning methods, rehearsal-based contrastive continual learning has been proposed to explore how to continually learn transferable representation embeddings to avoid the catastrophic forgetting issue in traditional continual settings. Based on this framework, we propose Contrastive Continual Learning via Importance Sampling (CCLIS) to preserve knowledge by recovering previous data distributions with a new strategy for Replay Buffer Selection (RBS), which minimize estimated variance to save hard negative samples for representation learning with high quality. Furthermore, we present the Prototype-instance Relation Distillation (PRD) loss, a technique designed to maintain the relationship between prototypes and sample representations using a self-distillation process. Experiments on standard continual learning benchmarks reveal that our method notably outperforms existing baselines in terms of knowledge preservation and thereby effectively counteracts catastrophic forgetting in online contexts. The code is available at https://github.com/lijy373/CCLIS.

Unpacking the mediating role of classroom interaction between student satisfaction and perceived online learning among Chinese EFL tertiary learners in the new normal of post-COVID-19

Online learning has become increasingly prevalent in the era of digitalization, impacted by both internet penetration and the COVID-19 pandemic. Classroom interaction, as a key factor in evaluating students' learning experience in online settings, has been identified to be associated with their academic achievement. While previous research has underscored the significance of classroom interaction in language learning settings, there is relatively limited research on its relationships with student satisfaction and learning. This research intends to explore classroom interaction and its mediating role in the correlation between student satisfaction and perceived online learning in online contexts. Given this, the paper reports a quantitative-method study that examined how Chinese EFL tertiary students perceived three types of classroom interaction (i.e., learner-learner, learner-instructor, and learner-content), their satisfaction, and its influences on their perceived online learning. Data was collected from 319 Chinese university students through convenience sampling and a self-designed questionnaire, and then analyzed with the help of SPSS. The results showed that: 1) the students had moderately positive perceptions of classroom interaction and online learning, but were neutral about their satisfaction; 2) positive correlations were observed between classroom interaction, student satisfaction, and online learning; and 3) student satisfaction predicted perceived online learning, with classroom interaction partially mediating this relationship. The findings of this research have implications for strengthening the effectiveness of online language teaching in the post-COVID-19 era.

How review content, sentiment and helpfulness votes jointly affect trust of reviews and attitude

PurposeWe investigate the joint impacts of three trust cues – content, sentiment and helpfulness votes – of online product reviews on the trust of reviews and attitude toward the product/service reviewed.Design/methodology/approachWe performed three studies to test our research model, presenting participants with scenarios involving product reviews and prior users' helpful and unhelpful votes across experimental settings.FindingsA high helpfulness ratio boosts users’ trust and influences behaviors in both positive and negative reviews. This effect is more pronounced in attribute-based reviews than emotion-based ones. Unlike the ratio effect, helpfulness magnitude significantly impacts only negative attribute-based reviews.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research should investigate voting systems in various online contexts, such as Facebook post likes, Twitter microblog thumb-ups and up-votes for article comments on platforms like The New York Times.Practical implicationsOur findings have significant implications for voting system-providers implementing information techniques on third-party review platforms, participatory sites emphasizing user-generated content and online retailers prioritizing product awareness and reputation.Originality/valueThis study addresses an identified need; that is, the helpfulness votes as an additional trust cue and the joint effects of three trust cues – content, sentiment and helpfulness votes – of online product reviews on the trust of customers in reviews and their consequential attitude toward the product/service reviewed.

Attachment theory 2.0: A network analysis of offline and online attachment dimensions, guilt, shame, and self-esteem and their differences between low and high internet users

BackgroundAttachment dimensions, guilt, shame, and self-esteem influence offline and online interactions. In addition, these psychological variables are involved in the amount of time an individual uses the Internet. Few studies have examined the associations between guilt, shame, self-esteem, and attachment dimensions related to friendships and romance in the offline and online contexts, and how these variables differ between low and high Internet Users (IU). The present study explored the associations between guilt, shame, self-esteem, and attachment dimensions related to offline and online relationships and assessed the differences between low and high IU on these psychological variables. Methods213 participants completed online self-report questionnaires. ResultsAttachment dimensions correlated positively with corresponding dimensions across contexts. Guilt was negatively correlated with offline insecure attachment dimensions and positively with online avoidance. Shame proneness was positively correlated, and self-esteem negatively, with insecure attachment dimensions. High IU showed higher anxiety/ambivalence, lower avoidance, and guilt than low users. Avoidance was higher and anxiety/ambivalence was lower in online relationships. ConclusionsPeople would maintain the same attachment strategies in offline and online contexts. Guilt, shame, and self-esteem are differently associated with attachment dimensions in offline and online contexts. Lastly, IU showed differences in insecure attachment dimensions and guilt.

중등 화학 예비 교사를 대상으로 한 원격 제어 ‘산-염기 적정’ 실험 활동의 개발과 효과 탐색

Objectives This study aims to develop experimental activities using remote-control technology and apply them to prospective middle school chemistry teachers to explore the potential of the developed 'acid-base titration' chemistry inquiry experiment as a new experimental method.
 Methods The participants, consisting of 20 prospective teachers majoring in chemistry education from a university in the central region, engaged in a 4-session experiment where they remotely operated equipment, observed chemical experiment situations, and collected real-time data. Subsequently, based on their remote-controlled experiment experiences, surveys and semi-structured interviews were conducted to assess participants' experiences related to inquiry, alleviation of isolation, and a sense of realism in online settings.
 Results Remote-controlled experiments were divided into 'remote control of equipment' and 'remote control of data processing.'Remote control of equipment' involved sending signals to experimental devices through Blynk, wirelessly transmitting these signals to operate laboratory equipment. 'Remote control of data processing' allowed participants to use remote control functions to store and process experimental data in an Excel file. The developed remote-controlled inquiry experiment program in this study (1) provided prospective middle school chemistry teachers with experiences of basic inquiry functions such as observation and measurement, as well as integrated inquiry functions such as data interpretation and conclusion derivation, even in online experimental situations; (2) confirmed real-time learner-centered interactions, including learner-learner interactions and learner-content/ interface interactions; and (3) demonstrated a high level of presence in terms of teaching, cognitive, and affective realism.
 Conclusions Despite being a remote-based experiment class, it was evident that providing prospective teachers with opportunities for experiences and interactions in scientific inquiry activities could alleviate isolation and enhance a sense of realism. This study is expected to offer insights into designing and implementing the entire process of inquiry teaching in an online context.

The mnemonic effect of central and peripheral misinformation on social media

ABSTRACT The increasing use of social media has amplified the spread of false information. Yet little is known about the mnemonic consequences associated with exposure to different types of false information online. In two studies, we examined in a simulated online context how exposure to false information either central or peripheral in events affected memory. European American and Asian/Asian American college students (Study 1 N = 200; Study 2 N = 225) were presented with GIFs of daily life events and read tweets about the events that included four types of information: central true information, central false information, peripheral true information, and peripheral false information. They then took a True/False recognition test that included tweeted and untweeted true and false information and indicated how confident they were in their responses. Regardless of cultural background, participants in both studies demonstrated the misinformation effect, whereby they falsely recognised more and resisted less tweeted than untweeted false information. Furthermore, they showed higher susceptibility to peripheral than central false information exposed via tweets. Asian participants were less influenced by misinformation than European Americans in Study 2. These findings have important implications to combat misinformation in online environments.