Influence of group configuration on online discourse reading

Online discourse reading plays a very important role in collaborative discussions. However, not many studies have examined the influence of group configuration on online discourse note reading. The current study examined note reading workloads and participants' perceptions of the three group configurations (large whole class, small whole class, large with subgroups) in online graduate-level courses from one institute. In this mixed-methods study, we analyzed tracking logs from 25 graduate-level online courses (25 instructors and 341 students) and interviews from 10 instructors and 12 graduate students with diverse backgrounds. Findings suggest that all three configurations had their own advantages and disadvantages in fostering online discourse reading. However, our analysis suggests that the advantages of subgroup discussions in supporting note reading outweigh those of the Small and Large configurations. The overload effects in information reading due to large class sizes can be minimized by dividing students into small groups for discussion purposes. Group configuration into proper-size groups may reduce students' reading loads. Interviewees felt that the waving of small groups into large classes benefited their collaborative discussions. We conclude this paper with a list of pedagogical recommendations and new software features that may help group configuration and enhance learning in online courses. This study may have implications for both practitioners and researchers to seek optimal group configurations to achieve more fruitful online discussions through note reading.     

Influence of group member familiarity on online collaborative learning

This study investigated the effects of group member familiarity during computer-supported collaborative learning. Familiarity may have an impact on online collaboration, because it may help group members to progress more quickly through the stages of group development, and may lead to higher group cohesion. It was therefore hypothesized that increased familiarity would lead to (a) more critical and exploratory group norms, (b) more positive perceptions of online communication and collaboration, (c) more efficient and positive collaboration, and (d) better group performance. To investigate these hypotheses, 105 secondary education students collaborated in groups of three. The results of this study indicate that higher familiarity led to more critical and exploratory group norm perceptions, and more positive perceptions of online communication and collaboration. Furthermore, in familiar groups students needed to devote less time to regulating their task-related activities. The expectation that familiarity would lead to better group performance was not confirmed. These findings imply that online educators pay attention to the effects group member familiarity has on online collaborative learning.     

锅炉风粉在线监测系统组态

锅炉风粉在线监测对锅炉的安全、稳定运行及提高锅炉的经济性具有重要意义。本文着重讨论了对锅炉风粉在线监测系统进行组态的方法。     

DOBNet: exploiting the discourse of deception behaviour to uncover online deception strategies

Online deception is fuelled by the escalated penetration of the Internet and social media. As the threat of online deception increases, understanding deception behaviour and underlying strategies is having a greater social impact. The verbal behaviour of online deception has recently been extended to the discourse level; nevertheless, discourse behaviours have been examined in isolation without referring to other behaviours in the discourse. By conceptualising the discourse of online behaviour as a social network (DOBNet), this research investigates possible impacts of deception intent on the central structures of DOBNet at three different levels: the discourse behaviour, subnetwork, and whole network. The empirical results of discourse network analysis and statistical tests provide partial support for each of the hypothesised effects. The findings not only demonstrate the efficacy of discourse in distinguishing deceivers from truth-tellers but also extend deception theories by confirming deception strategies from the perspective of discourse network and by uncovering unique characteristics of online deception strategies.     

Email small group peer review revisited

Attention to email exchanged among a small group of student peers supercedes discussion of networked computer labs and is distinguished from research on collaborative classroom work in general, on online peer tutoring in writing centers, on email communication in online professional writing courses, and on online discourse in general. Email peer response within small groups is different from larger-scale, one-to-many computer-based communication tools (CBCT) on class mailing lists, bulletin boards, blogs, and wikis on the one hand and smaller-scale, one-to-one email exchange between an individual student and a peer tutor on the other hand. The benefits of assignments that require small groups to respond electronically and asynchronously to each other's drafts are analyzed and illustrated: rhetorical/thematic, discursive/environmental, technological, logistical/time management. The practicalities of students’ exchange of drafts, deadlines, and other guidelines are explained and illustrated in typical student email responses and model instructor handouts.     

Learning through online peer discourse: Structural equation modeling points to the role of discourse activities in individual understanding

Although learning through discourse activities seems well-documented, it is unclear which mechanisms and behavioral variables are involved. What exactly contributes to learning when two or more learners interact in online learning environments? To analyze interrelations between central discourse activities and individual learning outcomes at the level of constructs, we applied structural equation modeling to data collected from 160 dyads engaging in written online learning discourses within a series of homogeneous experiments. We analyzed three theory-based indicators of conceptual elaboration activities during online discourse: the number of questions asked to receive information and expand knowledge, the number of explanations formulated to express individual knowledge, and the amount of on-task discourse. Individual conceptual understanding was represented by objective learning parameters that varied in each particular experimental task. These measured general understanding of the topic addressed and particular understanding of conceptual terms, complemented by the gain in individual self-assessed knowledge. Results of structural equation modeling revealed a strong effect of dyadic conceptual elaboration on individual understanding at the construct level, demonstrating that dyadic elaboration fosters the development of an elaborated individual understanding of specialist concepts and general content knowledge. Moreover, conceptual elaboration was best measured by the number of explanations during discourse. Implications regarding which features of collaborative learning settings promote mutual conceptual elaboration are discussed.     

浅谈污水土地处理系统

污水土地处理系统是一种基于土壤-生物作用的污水净化技术,其投资少、建设运营成本低,日益受到全球的关注。本文概述了污水土地处理系统的类型、净化机理、优势,讨论了其存在的问题及改进建议,并对污水土地处理系统在我国的应用前景做出了展望。     

Comparative study on the effects of groupware and conventional technologies on the efficiency of collaborative writing

In this paper the concept of efficiency in collaborative writing is considered in detail and a definition of efficiency is proposed. The definition of efficiency leads to the development of a research framework that delineates five operational measures of efficiency: (a) writing activities efficiency, (b) coordination efficiency, (c) quality of output, (d) absence of breakdowns, and (e) satisfaction with group performance. A comparative study is subsequently presented on the effects that groupware and conventional technologies have on the effciency of collaborative writing. The hypothesis is advanced that groupware can improve the efficiency of collaborative writing over conventional technologies. The results seem to support the hypothesis and indicate that (a) the groupware system examined in this study (MUCH system) offers efficiency benefits in terms of coordination, (b) MUCH users tend to face communication breakdowns while users of conventional technologies tend to face task-related breakdowns, (c) the documents produced with MUCH are of higher content quality, more coherent, and of higher rhetorical effectiveness than the documents produced with conventional technologies, and (d) the comparison of MUCH with conventional technologies shows no significant difference in terms of their effects on group performance satisfaction.     

Collaborative argumentation and justifications: A statistical discourse analysis of online discussions

As justifications (such as evidence or explanations) are central to productive argumentation, this study examines how the discourse moves of students engaged in collaborative learning are related to their justifications during computer mediated communication (CMC). Twenty-four students posted 131 messages on Knowledge Forum, an online collaborative learning environment. These messages were coded and analyzed with a multiple outcome, multilevel logit, vector autoregression. When students disagreed or made claims, they were more likely to use evidence. After a student made an alternative claim, the next student posting a message was less likely to use evidence. When students made claims, disagreed, disagreed with other’s justifications, or read more messages, they were more likely to use explanations. Boys were more likely than girls to make new claims. Together, these results suggest that discourse moves and sequences are linked to justifications on online forums.     

The influence of the shared-display configuration on group decision making

Large shared displays are increasingly being used to support co-located group decision-making tasks. The expectation is that they can provide a shared visual reference and facilitate interaction between decision makers. This study examined the impact of shared-display configurations on group decision-making processes and outcomes. Three design factors were examined: submission control, display control, and presenting predictions on shared displays. Sixty-four participants performed an optimization task in groups of four members that were supported by different shared-display systems. The results show that submission control has a positive impact on the level of participation, the satisfaction with the group process, and the commitment to the decisions made, but it negatively influences the decision quality; presenting predictive information on the shared display, which is separated from the current information on the personal displays, has a negative impact on the group process and decision quality. In addition, the participants tend to always display all of the information that is available on the screen, in spite of the provision of the display control option.Relevance to industryHow group members can control the content on the shared displays and on their personal displays would influence the group behavior. Gained knowledge from this study is useful for designing and configuring shared-display systems for better group decision-making support.     

Discovery and representation of the preferences of automatically detected groups: Exploiting the link between group modeling and clustering

There are types of information systems, like those that produce group recommendations or a market segmentation, in which it is necessary to aggregate big amounts of data about a group of users in order to filter the data. Group modeling is the process that combines multiple user models into a single model that represents the knowledge available about the preferences of the users in a group. In group recommendation, group modeling allows a system to derive a group preference for each item. Different strategies lead to completely different group models, so the strategy used to model a group has to be evaluated in the domain in which the group recommender system operates. This paper evaluates group modeling strategies in a group recommendation scenario in which groups are detected by clustering the users. Once users are clustered and groups are formed, different strategies are tested, in order to find the one that allows a group recommender system to get the best accuracy. Experimental results show that the strategy used to build the group models strongly affects the performance of a group recommender system. An interesting property derived by our study is that clustering and group modeling are strongly connected. Indeed, the modeling strategy takes the same role that the centroid has when users are clustered, by producing group preferences that are equally distant from the preferences of every user. This “continuity” among the two tasks is essential in order to build accurate group recommendations.     

论医院ITIL管理

ITIL信息管理服务系统的核心是把IT与业务相链接。医院ITIL管理是将医院IT信息服务系统和医院的医疗业务结合在一起,使医院的医疗水平和服务水平都能有较大提高。探讨了医院在实行ITIL管理过程中的显著优势和不足,以及提高ITIL管理的效率:ITIL的稳定性和安全性,使医院在实行ITIL管理方面更上一层楼。     

Research on group awareness of networked collaboration within the design team and between teams

Group awareness is the critical content of collaboration in a networked collaborative design team, and it is a meaningful way to study teamwork efficiency. However, existing methods that describe awareness information are not comprehensive. They all set an ideal collaborative environment of the single role and single activity, ignoring the bidirectional and overlapping of the collaboration process. To meet this gap, a novel group awareness method for the networked collaboration design team is proposed in this paper from the actual collaborative process. Firstly, the awareness information granularity in the joint work of the networked collaborative design team is described in detail, and the group awareness model is established. Then, the intra- and inter-team collaboration of networked collaborative design team is quantified, and correspondingly, combined with the degree of cooperation between members, a method for solving the group awareness ability of intra- and inter-team association by adopting awareness calculation is presented. Last, to illustrate the feasibility of the suggested approach, a vehicle interior collaborative design task is taken as an example. This study can provide practical guidance for a related design service platform to optimize team collaboration efficiency and select team members objectively and fairly.     

Looking for evidence of learning: Assessment and analysis methods for online discourse

Discussion is a required component of many Web-based classes, but do we really know its value or contribution to learning? Students may be graded for participation, and number and length of posts may be counted by those evaluating or researching online classes, but all too often the assessment and analysis methods that we use fail to provide us with data that indicate learning took place through participation in online discussion. This paper explores what can be learned by currently popular assessment practices and analytic methods, as well as the limitations of these methods when used to measure learning, using two samples of discussion threads from online classes.     

基于MCGS组态软件的空压机组监控软件开发

介绍了工控组态软件MCGS及其在煤矿空压机组集散监控系统中的应用.阐述了该系统的工程背景、硬件组成、控制方法、组态过程及实现功能.实践证明,该系统具有界面友好、自动化程度高、监控可靠、扩展性强等优点,对其它同类项目开发具有较强的借鉴意义.     

英语语篇结构分析研究综述

全面系统地分析了英语语篇结构分析的相关理论、语料资源及国内外的相关研究成果,给出了语篇结构分析的研究趋势,为英语和汉语语篇结构分析研究做了基础性的工作。     

Effects of group arguments on rumor belief and transmission in online communities: An information cascade and group polarization perspective

The proliferation of the Internet and online communities has greatly increased the number and transmission speed of online rumors. To take more effective measures to counter the negative effects of these rumors, researchers and companies should understand the underlying mechanism of online rumor transmission. Therefore, this study takes an early initiative by focusing on users’ arguments in online discussion forums on the rumors and their effects on an individual’s belief in rumor and belief change, which is guided by the informational cascade and group polarization theories. In turn, belief and belief change on the online rumor lead to intention to spread the rumor. A lab experiment was conducted to test research hypotheses. The results, implications, limitations of the study, and conclusion are presented.     

Types of feedback in a computer-based collaborative problem-solving group task

This study measured collaborative problem-solving processes and outcomes in a computer-based knowledge mapping environment. One hundred and twenty Asian American high school students were randomly assigned to be either a group leader, whose responsibility was to construct the map, or a group searcher, whose responsibility was to seek information and access feedback from a Web environment. Each group was randomly assigned to a feedback condition (knowledge of response feedback or adapted knowledge of response feedback). Results showed that adapted knowledge of response feedback was significantly more beneficial than knowledge of response feedback. Further, most of the study hypotheses were supported regarding the relationship between problem-solving processes and outcomes.     

基于书写行为与语义特征的评论有用性评估

针对电子商务网站充斥着大量有用性较低的评论,提出一种基于用户书写行为与语义特征的中文评论有用性评估方法。方法通过在Web客户端实时监听评论文本框值的变化,识别出句尾插入、非句尾插入、句尾删除、非句尾删除等书写行为,在服务器端根据书写行为、评论的语义特征建立的线性评估模型计算用户评论的有用性。实验结果表明该方法能够较为准确地识别有用性较高的评论。     

Initial effects of word processing on writing quality and writing anxiety of freshman writers

Eight English instructors at Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York, conducted a one-semester controlled experiment with freshman in eight randomly selected classes of College Writing to learn about the initial effects of word processing on essay-writing performance and on writing apprehension. Four classes wrote essays using terminals linked to a mainframe computer (Experimental Group), and four classes wrote essays in the traditional mode using pens, pencils or typewriters (Control Group). The eight instructors agreed upon a common syllabus and common teaching approaches for the freshman writing course. To measure writing performance, they devised an analytic scale. To measure writing apprehension, they used a writing apprehension test developed by Daly and Miller. The Experimental Group showed greater progress than the Control Group from the pre to post Essay Test but could not demonstrate superior performance on the six required essays of the course. For writing apprehension, there was no significant difference between the two groups.Marilyn Poris (Ph.D., Research Methodology, Hofstra University) is currently serving as Director of Institutional Research a Marist College, where she also teaches courses in statistics.Milton Teichman (Ph.D., English, University of Chicago) is professor of English at Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York. He has directed writing programs in freshman writing and has supervised research in the field of technology and writing. He has written on innovative approaches to the teaching of writing, as well as on a range of literary subjects from the poetry of Wordsworth to the literature of the Holocaust.