Social anxiety,attributes of online communication and self-disclosure across private and public Facebook communication

This study expands on the ‘internet-attribute-perception’ model that explains how online attributes (i.e. reduced cues and controllability) and the disinhibition effect mediate the relationship between personal characteristics and online self-disclosure. The current study tested this model for two distinct modes of Facebook communication: private and public, focussing on the personal characteristic of social anxiety. Using path analysis on a sample of 306 participants (Mean age = 20.52 years, SD = 1.45, 65.69% female), the model was partially replicated showing support in private but not public modes of Facebook communication. Although there was a positive relationship between social anxiety and the perceived value of the online attributes in public Facebook communication, this did not lead to the disinhibition effect. The study discusses potential differences between these two ways of communication but highlights that more private ways of online communication may be vital for socially anxious individuals in terms of relational development.     

Conflict and identity shape shifting in an online financial community

Abstract.  This paper challenges traditional explorations of online communities that have relied upon assumptions of trust and social cohesion. In the analysis presented here, conflict becomes more than just dysfunctional communication and provides an alternative set of unifying principles and rationales for understanding social interaction and identity shape shifting within an online community. A model is advanced that describes the systematic techniques of hostility and aggression in technologically enabled communities that take the form of contemporary tribalism. It is argued that this tribe-like conflict embodies important rituals essential for maintaining and defining the contradictory social roles sometimes found in online environments. This research offers a critical interpretive perspective that focuses on the link between identity shape shifting behaviours and the power relations within an online financial community. The analysis reveals how conflict between positions of power can help to align the values and ideals of an online community. With this study we seek to motivate a re-examination of the design and governance of online communities.     

Investigating students' learning approaches,perceptions of online discussions,and students' online and academic performance

The main purpose of this study was to understand the relationships between students' approaches to learning, their perceptions of online discussions, students' contributions in asynchronous discussions, and their academic performance. Two sets of questionnaires were used for understanding students' approaches of learning and perceptions of online discussions. The online postings from seven weeks of discussions were coded into three major categories: Initiation, Elaborated Response (ER), and Response with Resources (RWR). The results showed, first, some aspects of students' perceptions influenced the numbers of ERs and RWRs. Secondly, students' contributions to Initiation messages and RWR significantly related to deep motivation and deep strategies; however, the numbers of these two types of messages were negatively correlated to surface strategies. Finally, cluster analysis revealed three distinct groups who scored significantly different in almost all aspects of approaches to learning and perceptions of online discussions. Students in the cluster who adopted deep approaches and scored highest in the perception scales outperformed students in the other two clusters, both in terms of the number of ER messages and academic performance. Pedagogical implications for teaching with online discussions are discussed in this study.     

It is about timing: Network prestige in asynchronous online discussions

Asynchronous online discussions are broadly used to support social learning. This paper reports on an undergraduate class's online discussion activities over one semester. Applying social network analysis, this study revealed a participation gap among students reflected by their varied levels of network prestige. The low‐prestige group initiated equivalent volumes of interactions but were less reciprocated. In‐depth analysis found the high‐prestige group also advantageous in other network measures such as closeness centrality and eigenvector centrality, as well as the strength, persistence, and reciprocity of their ties. To probe potential explanations of the revealed gap, we further contrasted post content and posting behaviours between two groups. Results did not identify any significant differences in post content but found low‐prestige students' participation less timely and more temporally compressed. This paper calls for attention to the participation gap in online discussions, microlevel temporal patterns of student activities, and practical means to scaffold student participation in asynchronous online discussions.     

Social value creation through digital activism in an online health community

The study explores how online health communities produce social value by uniting individuals under a common purpose, to advance healthcare in post‐conflict states. We selected MedicineAfrica – a digital platform known for creating social value by providing medical education in regions with under‐resourced healthcare systems – and drew on multiple data collection methods. We found that it is through a unique form of digital health activism that social value is created in this context. Drawing on a sociological understanding of digital health activism, we make the following contributions: First, we identify three types of non‐economic, social value: cognitive, professional and epistemic. Second, we indicate that social value creation is enabled by three emergent forms of digital health activism (ie, philanthropic, moral and reciprocal activity). Third, we elicit three enabling mechanisms explaining how these forms of activism are technically and socially afforded through the platform's connective capacity and emerging collective practices in tandem with its members' growing commitment. Our article contributes to the growing IS literature on digital activism by offering a framework that elucidates how digital health activism relates to social value creation. The article provides practical implications as to how platforms can enable sustainable online (health) communities.     

Cyber victim and bullying scale: A study of validity and reliability

The purpose of this study is to develop a reliable and valid scale, which determines cyber victimization and bullying behaviors of high school students. Research group consisted of 404 students (250 male, 154 male) in Sakarya, in 2009–2010 academic years. In the study sample, mean age is 16.68. Content validity and face validity of the scale was provided via field specialists’ judgment. Confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses were performed for investigation of the factor structure of the scale. As a result of principal component analysis of cyber victim subscale three factors emerged which accounted for the 46.38% of the total variance. Also for cyber bullying subscale, same three factors emerged accounting for the 49.18% of the total variance. Scales with 22 items under 3 factors were tested with confirmatory factor analysis for each victim and bullying variables. Three factors were named as cyber verbal bullying, hiding identity and cyber forgery. Three factors model of scales were found theoretically and statistically fitted after confirmatory factor analysis. For criterion related validity the correlation between cyber victim and bullying scale and Aggression Scale was calculated as .27 and .36, respectively. The internal consistency coefficients calculated for reliability. Cyber victim and bullying scales’ internal consistency coefficients were .89 and split-half coefficients were .79. for both scales. Test-retest reliability for cyber victim .85, for cyber bullying respectively .90 was found. These results demonstrate that the Cyber Victim and Bullying Scale’ is a valid and reliable instrument.     

Trust in product review blogs: the influence of self-disclosure and popularity

Many modern consumers use blogs as important information sources, which they evaluate on the basis of blog-specific cues. Using the theory of self-disclosure, this study posits that bloggers' product evaluation self-disclosures, social self-disclosures, and blog popularity are key determinants of readers' cognitive and affective trust. Readers' trust in turn should affect their product attitudes and feedback intentions towards the blog. With a survey study involving seven blog articles about dining experience and a structural equation model, this research confirms the positive influences of product evaluation self-disclosures and popularity on readers' cognitive trust and of social self-disclosures on readers' affective trust. Both cognitive and affective forms of trust enhance product attitudes. Affective trust also increases readers' feedback intentions towards the blog. With these findings, this study offers suggestions for bloggers and companies that use blogs as marketing tools.     

Cross-cultural analysis in online community research: A literature review

Cross-cultural online community research can support theoretical generalizability, increase methodological robustness and give insights into user online behavior. The objective of this paper is to review the existing literature on comparative cross-cultural online community research in order to investigate the current state of the literature, extract conceptual patterns and identify methodological and emergent issues. This will inform the development of the field, map out research delimiters, and set out guidelines for future research. The findings from the literature review demonstrated five key areas of methodological difficulty in cross-cultural online community comparative analysis; sampling form, country selection, number of cultures compared, participant type and interpretation of data. Key themes that emerged from the literature included the use of the nation state as a unit of culture, a lack of definition of the concept of online community, and the impact of current theory on cross-cultural online community analyses. Recommendations in the areas of methodology, definition and theory are provided. These findings should be of interest to both specific online community researchers, and those in other multidisciplinary fields where online communities are being used as a research environment.     

Characterizing communication networks in a web-based classroom: Cognitive styles and linguistic behavior of self-organizing groups in online discussions

In this study, we explore the cognitive style profiles and linguistic patterns of self-organizing groups within a web-based graduate education course to determine how cognitive preferences and individual behaviors influence the patterns of information exchange and the formation of communication hierarchies in an online classroom. Network analysis was performed on communication data collected from 1131 student messages posted in 19 asynchronous online discussion forums to determine centrality, clique membership, and core-periphery structure in the communication networks. The social network data were examined in relation to the students' cognitive style profiles, which were assessed using the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory (KAI) (32 and 33). The cognitive style composition of small cliques (dyadic and triadic) was found to be highly heterogeneous, often with large cognitive gaps between clique members, which suggests that web-based environments may mask cognitive style differences that have been shown to create conflict in face-to-face interactions. In addition, the cognitive style mean of the students in the core of the network was found to be significantly more adaptive than that of the periphery group. To further characterize the nature of the communicative interactions, automated linguistic analysis was used to analyze the students' writing samples. Interestingly, students in the core of the social network demonstrated a significantly higher usage of several language features associated with individuals who actively promote enhanced group performance and cohesion. For our sample, the linguistic behaviors of students in the core of the social network, coupled with their more adaptive cognitive style preferences, suggest that these students may inherently place greater value on fostering group cohesion than those in the periphery.     

Selective reading of large online forum discussions: The impact of rating visualizations on navigation and learning

As discussions in online forums can become quite large, participants must be highly selective in their reading behavior. Standard, chronological displays of discussions provide little guidance in how to find valuable content. An experimental study tested whether a group awareness tool can support individual navigation and subsequent learning within a forum. 127 participants read through a large online discussion in which contributions were rated on average quality and average agreement. In a 2 × 2 factorial design, posts were visualized along continua indicating average quality ratings (absent vs. present) and/or average agreement ratings (absent vs. present). Results showed that the visualization of discussion contributions led to stronger deviations from a chronological reading order. Moreover, it was found that the presence of a quality dimension shifted readers’ focus to high-quality contributions (unipolar navigation). Moreover, the quality dimension was weakly associated with better performance in a knowledge test. In contrast, it was found that the presence of an agreement dimension shifted readers’ focus to both high-agreement and low-agreement contributions (bipolar navigation). Moreover, the agreement dimension was associated with stronger attitude change and a higher intention to participate. Implications for the use of group awareness tools in full-scale online forum environments are drawn.     

The effects of different instructor facilitation approaches on students’ interactions during asynchronous online discussions

This study compared the impact of three different facilitation approaches on elementary teacher candidates’ interactions in an asynchronous discussion board as well as their satisfaction with an online educational technology course. These participants were enrolled in three different sections of the same online course. In the first section (Group 1), the instructor responded to each student’s initial message regarding the discussion question and then required students to respond to at least two of their classmates’ postings. In the second section (Group 2), the instructor responded to each student’s initial message to the discussion question, but did not require students to respond to other classmates’ postings. Instead, it was the student’s voluntary choice. In the third group (Group 3), the instructor did not respond to each student’s initial message on the discussion question, but required students to respond to at least two classmates’ postings. Data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively, by using ANOVA, social networking analysis (SNA) and content analysis. The results indicated that in Group 2, voluntary interactions among students rarely occurred, resulting in the instructor primarily providing feedback to the students, with a low number of cues for social presence. In comparing Groups 1 and 3, when students were required to respond to one another, too much instructor intervention did not lead to more interactions among the students. Rather, when the instructor’s intervention was minimal, students tended to more freely express their thoughts and opinions, with a large number of cues for social presence. However, more interactions among students, occurring in a required setting, may not have correlated with student satisfaction with the online course ratings and the instructors’ ratings.     

The social influence of online collaborative community: the moderating effect of achievement

Online collaborative communities become particularly influential in contemporary Internet economy. However, these communities are often characterised by limited liability. Following the perspective of social influence, this study examines the impacts of three social influence modes in online collaborative communities of a famous online game. The moderating role of a player’s game achievement is also explored. Our results show that community identification is the most influential on online game continuance intention, especially for high achievement players. Community value congruence is likely to affect online game continuance intention for low achievement players. The impact of community normative influence on online game continuance intention appears to be curvilinear. This is more obvious for low achievement players. Implications for research and practice are also discussed.     

Determinants of success for online communities: an empirical study

Although online communities can significantly facilitate collaboration among Internet users, the determinants of success of online communities have seldom been studied empirically. Using the updated DeLone and McLean information systems success model as a theoretical framework, this study proposes a research model to examine the determinants for successful use of online communities. Based on a survey of 165 community members, this study uses structural equation modelling (SEM) approach to investigate the research model. The analytical results strongly support the appropriateness of the research model in identifying the determinants of success of online communities. The analytical results also showed that system quality, information quality and service quality had a significant effect on member loyalty through user satisfaction and behavioural intention to use the online community. Finally, this study discusses the implications of these findings and offer directions for future research.     

The role of message-sequences in the sustainability of an online support community for older people

This article presents an investigation of an online support community for older people, analyzing a data-set of messages posted over the period of six years. We studied messages that are related to each other which we call "message-sequences". We investigated the content of message-sequences and linked our findings to the level of activity of the online support community over time. We show how certain sequences of messages within the online community are related to the level of activity thus providing valuable insight into the role of message-sequences in sustaining online support communities for older people. We conclude that the mutual exchange of personal information and receiving support after talking about personal problems are basic components for the sustainability of the online community, whereas conversations that go off the topic of the online community seem to be related to a decrease in the level of activity.     

Determinants of success for online communities: an empirical study

Although online communities can significantly facilitate collaboration among Internet users, the determinants of success of online communities have seldom been studied empirically. Using the updated DeLone and McLean information systems success model as a theoretical framework, this study proposes a research model to examine the determinants for successful use of online communities. Based on a survey of 165 community members, this study uses structural equation modelling (SEM) approach to investigate the research model. The analytical results strongly support the appropriateness of the research model in identifying the determinants of success of online communities. The analytical results also showed that system quality, information quality and service quality had a significant effect on member loyalty through user satisfaction and behavioural intention to use the online community. Finally, this study discusses the implications of these findings and offer directions for future research.     

Guidelines for facilitating the development of learning communities in online courses

Online learning has grown exponentially in recent years; however, dropout problem remains challenging for some online programmes. The dropout problem can be attributed to a number of reasons, with a lack of interaction between learners and the instructor constituting one of the main reasons. The lack of interaction also leads to learners' feeling of isolation. Learning communities can provide learners with an environment conducive to increased interactions and alleviate their feeling of isolation. Unfortunately, there are no clear rules that instructors can follow to help learners create learning communities. In this paper, we propose guidelines for online instructors to facilitate the development of learning communities in online courses. We first review the definition of a learning community, importance of a learning community and factors affecting the development of a learning community. Afterwards, based on a review of the existing guidelines and other relevant literature, we propose guidelines for facilitating the development of learning communities in online courses.     

Proposing the online community self-disclosure model: the case of working professionals in France and the U.K. who use online communities

The global use of online communities has exploded to involve hundreds of millions of users. Despite the tremendous social impact and business opportunities afforded by these communities, little information systems (IS) research has addressed them – especially in a cross-cultural context. Our research proposes an online community self-disclosure model, tested in a cross-cultural setting using data provided by French and British working professionals. Our model is based on social exchange theory (SET) and social penetration theory (SPT), as well as on cross-cultural theory related to individualism-collectivism. SET explains that individuals engage in relationships when the perceived costs associated with the relationship are less than the expected benefits. SPT extends SET to explain that individuals participate in self-disclosure to foster relationships – reciprocation is the primary benefit of self-disclosure, whereas risk is the foundational cost of self-disclosure. Our study established several important findings: positive social influence to use an online community increases online community self-disclosure; reciprocity increases self-disclosure; online community trust increases self-disclosure; and privacy risk beliefs decrease self-disclosure. Meanwhile, a tendency toward collectivism increases self-disclosure. We further found that French participants had higher scores on horizontal individualism than British participants. Several other findings and their implications for practice are also discussed.     

Knowledge sharing and social media: Altruism,perceived online attachment motivation,and perceived online relationship commitment

Social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, have become extremely popular. Facebook, for example, has more than a billion registered users and thousands of millions of units of information are shared every day, including short phrases, articles, photos, and audio and video clips. However, only a tiny proportion of these sharing units trigger any type of knowledge exchange that is ultimately beneficial to the users. This study draws on the theory of belonging and the intrinsic motivation of altruism to explore the factors contributing to knowledge sharing behavior. Using a survey of 299 high school students applying for university after the release of the public examination results, we find that perceived online attachment motivation (β = 0.31, p < 0.001) and perceived online relationship commitment (β = 0.49, p < 0.001) have positive, direct, and significant effects on online knowledge sharing (R² 0.568). Moreover, when introduced into the model, altruism has a direct and significant effect on online knowledge sharing (β = 0.46, p < 0.001) and the total variance explained by the extended model increases to 64.9%. The implications of the findings are discussed.     

It's not so easy: researching the complexity of emergent participant roles and awareness in asynchronous networked learning discussions

Abstract In this paper, we explore some of the complexities of emergent role development and group awareness among participants in an asynchronous Networked Learning discussion in a higher education context. We used content analysis to provide participant profiles for learning and tutoring processes within a group of collaborating professionals. Using these we selected three distinct student participants with whom we then conducted critical event recall. Our findings suggest how distinct roles emerge, and how they effect the group dynamics. They show the importance of group process awareness, and how this may be used and developed by participants. Some implications for pedagogical and software design are discussed.