Thesis (M.Info.Tech.-Res.)--University of Wollongong, 2006. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: p. i-xii.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 82-87).

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Acadia University, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-101). "Appendix A: Web sites": leaves 102-104. Also available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.IT.)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Abstract in English. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Carleton University, 1999. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 197-209).

Thesis (M.A.)--Concordia University, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-105).

Thesis (Ph. D. (Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Includes abstract in English and Afrikaans. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 197-209).

Este trabalho de tese apresenta o Modelo Presença Plus (PPlus) para identificação de pistas textuais denotadoras de presença social em interações discursivas feitas por alunos em fóruns e chats educacionais. O grau de presença social (PS) é um indicativo de como os sujeitos interagem entre si e com o ambiente de aprendizagem; sendo considerado, na literatura, significativo para o desenvolvimento de relacionamentos e fortalecimento de sentimento de pertencimento no grupo. O trabalho se baseia na vertente Pragmática da Linguística, campo que enfatiza a importância de se considerar o contexto de produção dos eventos comunicativos e a dinâmica dialógica entre os interlocutores. Considerando que o mapeamento das interações dos discentes para detectar e avaliar seu grau de presença pode se constituir uma tarefa complexa e morosa para tutores de cursos a distância, desenvolveu-se um software para realizar o processamento automático das mensagens eletrônicas visando torná-lo uma funcionalidade a ser adicionada a ambientes virtuais de ensino e aprendizagem (AVEAs). Apesar de alguns impasses referentes, particularmente, aos aspectos sintáticos dos textos, os resultados obtidos no processamento, por lexicometria, das postagens foram satisfatoriamente semelhantes aos levantados na análise manual. O modelo PPlus e a escala de graus de PS foram também testados em um segundo ambiente disponibilizado na plataforma Moodle, tendo apresentado resultados equivalentes. A sondagem com professores e tutores de cursos a distância forneceu dados que corroboram a proposta de uma ferramenta a ser inserida em AVEAs de modo a facilitar o acompanhamento de estados afetivos, grau de envolvimento e interação entre os participantes no e com o ambiente. / This thesis presents Presence Plus (PPLus), a model for identifying indicators of social presence in text-based interactions made by students in educational forums and chats. The degree of social presence (SP) can be an indicator of how individuals interact among themselves and with the learning environment, and is considered by the literature to be relevant for the development of relationships and the strengthening of the sense of belonging in the group. This study is based on Pragmatics, an area of Linguistics that emphasizes the importance of the context in communicative events and the dialogic dynamics among speakers. Considering that mapping students’ interactions, as well as detecting and evaluating their degree of SP, may be a complex and time-consuming task in distance learning tutoring, a software was developed to do the automatic processing of posts, aiming at making it a possible functionality in virtual learning environments (VLEs). Despite the few conflicting results, mostly related to textual syntactic relations, data from processing tests using lexicometrics were satisfactorily similar to those obtained by manual analysis. The PPlus model and the SP scale were also tested in a different course in the Moodle platform. Results from this experiment presented equally positive data. Feedback from the questionnaire answered by teachers and tutors working in distance learning courses support the proposal of a tool that may facilitate their assessment of affective states, involvement and text-based interaction dents within the environment.