abstract: Online learning communities have changed the way users learn due to the technological affordances web 2.0 has offered. This shift has produced different kinds of learning communities like massive open online courses (MOOCs), learning management systems (LMS) and question and answer based learning communities. Question and answer based communities are an important part of social information seeking. Thousands of users participate in question and answer based communities on the web like Stack Overflow, Yahoo Answers and Wiki Answers. Research in user participation in different online communities identifies a universal phenomenon that a few users are responsible for answering a high percentage of questions and thus promoting the sustenance of a learning community. This principle implies two major categories of user participation, people who ask questions and those who answer questions. In this research, I try to look beyond this traditional view, identify multiple subtler user participation categories. Identification of multiple categories of users helps to provide specific support by treating each of these groups of users separately, in order to maintain the sustenance of the community. In this thesis, participation behavior of users in an open and learning based question and answer community called OpenStudy has been analyzed. Initially, users were grouped into different categories based on the number of questions they have answered like non participators, sample participators, low, medium and high participators. In further steps, users were compared across several features which reflect temporal, content and question/thread specific dimensions of user participation including those suggestive of learning in OpenStudy. The goal of this thesis is to analyze user participation in three steps: a. Inter group participation analysis: compare pre assumed user groups across the participation features extracted from OpenStudy data. b. Intra group participation analysis: Identify sub groups in each category and examine how participation differs within each group with help of unsupervised learning techniques. c. With these grouping insights, suggest what interventions might support the categories of users for the benefit of users and community. This thesis presents new insights into participation because of the broad range of features extracted and their significance in understanding the behavior of users in this learning community. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Computer Science 2015

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

In recent years there has been growing enthusiasm among researchers for the promotion of online learning communities designed to support professional learning in preservice teacher education. The primary purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the role of such an online community in supporting student teacher learning during the school placement in a Chinese Normal University, and hence to enrich the understanding of student teachers’ learning experiences in an online ecology. The study’s subjects included a cohort of 42 student teachers enrolled on a four-year preservice teacher education programme, along with two university supervisors at one of China’s teacher-training universities. Primary data were collected from six weeks of online threaded discussions and from semi-structured group interviews. Supplementary data were taken from an end-of-school-placement evaluation and web-tracking logs. Data analysis has been informed and illuminated by the theoretical proposition of communities of practice. The findings of the study indicate that the online learning community is a valuable resource for supporting student teachers both personally and professionally. Findings suggest that online communication not only helps student teachers tackle immediate teaching concerns and technical problems, but, more importantly, provides them with opportunities to reflect collectively, to co-construct new teaching ideas, and to gain professional discourse competence through articulating and negotiating their evolving thoughts on teaching as a profession. In this regard, student teachers are found to be more comfortable with online self-disclosure of their personal and professional encounters and critiquing each other than they are with face-to-face communication. The research also shows that university supervisors experience mixed feelings about the fact that student teachers are more able to take ownership of their learning and therefore become less dependent on supervisor guidance as time wears on. Furthermore, these findings provide evidence suggestive of a possibly reciprocal relationship between Chinese view of learning and the building of online learning communities. Based on the results of the study, I provide recommendations as to how the significance of the school placement can be reinforced in fostering distributed student teachers’ professional growth. The results also contribute to a better understanding of the key factors in the design and implementation of effective online learning communities within preservice teacher education in China. Finally, the analytical approach used in this study provides fresh methodological insight into an alternative means of analysing online postings. It thus contributes both to the theorisation of learning communities in the context of computer-mediated communication, and to the further development of concepts drawn from the communities of practice literature.

The Conservative government applied restrictive immigration policies on people from the Indian sub-continent (Pakistan, India and Bangladesh) on a large scale during the 1980s for reasons which have been depicted as economic, political, and nationalistic. The Conservative party under Thatcher made immigration control one of its main themes in the 1979 Conservative Manifesto. This thesis looks at the repercussions of Thatcher's immigration policy for people from the Indian sub-continent living in Glasgow. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources, the thesis will argue that Thatcher's immigration policy amounted to discrimination as Indian sub-continent nationals, especially males, suffered unfairly when the policy was implemented. Evidence of this unfairness was implicit in: the various rules and laws which contained elements of discrimination; and evidence from the organisation network in Glasgow which revealed that they had to deal with extra work and with more contentious cases during the 1980s. The impact on individuals was most strongly exemplified by a survey and by individual case studies which revealed problems such as provocative questioning, application of stringent criteria to satisfy the authorities, and the break-up and separation of families who were prevented from being reunited, in some cases even temporarily, by the actions of the authorities. The fact is that no account was taken of the clinical characteristics of the Indian sub-continent which clashed in particular with the primary purpose rule which the authorities applied rigorously. While it is acknowledged that other groups of blacks and coloured immigrants also suffered from the Conservative immigration regime, it will be noted that the impact was most severe on immigrants from the Indian sub-continent. The tough policy on immigration only served to encourage more clandestine means of entry into the United Kingdom, and this gave the government a further pretext to impose more controls on immigration from the Indian sub continent. It has to be emphasised that the extent of the restrictive immigration control regime will be measured not simply in terms of numbers allowed entry but also the procedures used such as the type of questions asked, interviewing techniques and manners, and various provisions made in legislative acts which served against potential immigrants from the Indian sub-continent.

The motivation for this research is based on the very serious problem – local identity loss of village extensions in the Chinese ordinary villages. During the new development of Chinese ordinary villages, international concrete blocks and multi-storey apartments, which have been mass-produced in urban areas, are simply copied into rural areas replacing the local distinctive built environment. The author of this thesis set out to rethink the design principles of new urbanism in a way which can help create an urban/village extension of a town or a village to respect local identity or local context. Therefore, the research question is that ‘Can the design principles of new urbanism promote local identity or harmony with local context for urban/village extension? By reviewing the primary theories and ideas, the literature review draws upon primary sources of new urbanism including introduction and design principles which underlies a fundamental theoretical framework of design principles of new urbanism, and the overall view of the practice. Once the framework of design principles of new urbanism have been established in this research, it is essential to test it through case studies. The purpose of case studies is to identify if the design principles of new urbanism can promote local identity or harmony with local context in practice. Two UK cases, Poundbury and Upton were selected and analysed. During case studies, the interview plays an important role in modifying the design principles of new urbanism which direct the analysis of the physical environments of Poundbury and Upton. The initial outcomes are expected to confirm that the design principles of new urbanism could promote local identity or harmony with local context based on the case study findings. In order to further investigate these outcomes, factual information was collected through questionnaires administered face-to-face and on-the-spot to the residents of Poundbury and Upton. The findings of the questionnaire provided strong investigated evidence along with the initial outcomes addressed by literature review and the case studies. Finally, it can be concluded that the design principles of new urbanism are appropriate to promote local identity or harmony with local context for creating an urban/village extension. Keywords: urban/village extension, design principles of new urbanism, local identity, harmony with local context.

This thesis examines the extent to which equal opportunity legislation has enabled employment policies that aid the development, progression and promotion among public sector employees, specifically those of Afro Caribbean origin, employed during the period between 1988 and 2004. As context, the first part of the thesis presents an historical background of the black presence in the UK and the hostility they experienced through racial discrimination. It considers how governments, politicians and social scientists viewed the social exclusion and disadvantage of ethnic minorities generally and their treatment in the labour market in particular. It also discusses relevant legislation, policies and practices that were developed to address racial discrimination. Drawing on methodologies used in research of similar nature and reviewing literature and research studies, a methodology was chosen that was appropriate for the study and a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods is used. The quantitative data presented in Chapters 7-8 is derived from responses to a questionnaire survey, supplemented by more detailed qualitative responses derived from face to face interviews with employees from participating organisations. Other methods are used only to a very limited extent to supplement the data derived from the questionnaires and interviews. Chapter 9 contains data collected from a separate exercise of a shortened questionnaire on diversity only, consisting of staff from one government department and focus groups from two business streams. The second part of the thesis presents the chosen methodology and analyses evidence collected between 1999 and 2004. Survey data, in depth one-to-one interviews and group interviews show that although progress has been made in combating racial discrimination, the policy of positive action is not a routine tool of organisational policy. An examination of employment practices and processes in the relevant organisations indicates that there exists a combination of organisational, group (subculture) and individual constraints on ethrýc minorities to rise to their full potential. The theoretical view argues that there has been a retreat from progressive equal opportunity policies in employment and this owes much to the policies of the government of the day and organisational procedures. These assumptions have been borne out empirically.

This thesis explores competing meanings of being a woman in Dakar, Senegal. Above all, it is concerned with the relationship between livelihoods – how ordinary Dakarois make ends meet – and women’s gendered identities. It explores the full spectrum of Dakar women’s economic activities, all the while keeping the definition of what, precisely, qualifies as ‘economic’ or as ‘work’ as open as possible. Distancing itself from approaches that privilege the sexual aspects of gender, this thesis asks what kinds of gendered economic identities emerge in the context of the various roles and relationships that constitute women’s everyday lives. What do women do that enables people in this society to get by and to secure their day-­‐to-­‐day needs? How are these activities experienced, and what kind of values are they imbued with? Based on three years’ fieldwork in low-­‐income neighbourhoods across the Dakar region, the thesis advances an ethnographic analysis of women’s roles as wives and girlfriends, sisters and sisters-­‐in-­‐law, daughters, mothers and grandmothers, and members of extended family and community networks. It explores women’s activities as dependents, consumers, providers and informal-­‐sector workers. Together, the chapters shed light on the complexities and contradictions involved in being a woman in this particular part of the world. Building on the ethnographic findings, this thesis argues that it is possible to identify two distinct, even competing conceptions of being a woman in Dakar. One of these can be framed in terms of ‘materialism’, the other around the emic concept of ‘mothering work’. Dakar women, this thesis suggests, draw on both in order to create, defend and challenge the meaning and the value of their everyday experiences.

This study considers five Roman trophy monuments in the context of global versus local culture in the provinces: the Sullan trophy at Chaeroneia, Pompey’s trophy at Panissars, Octavian’s campsite memorial at Nikopolis, Augustus’s Alpine trophy at La Turbie, and Trajan’s Dacian trophy at Adamklissi. Each trophy represents a unique case study of an identifiable Roman form and tradition deemed appropriate for/by a provincial community. These individualized characteristics imply localized negotiation of imperial or global ideas—specifically, a non-Roman’s ability to manipulate Roman concepts emanating from the capital and/or the desire for Romans to these ideas to appeal to a provincial audience. My study of these trophies uncovers a widespread phenomenon that contradicts the assumption that culture was dictated from the center to the periphery, from the elite to the non-elite and from the urban to the rural in the Roman Empire. This dissertation is a response to Simon Keay’s and Nicola Terrenato’s lamentation over the lack of comparative analysis for these recent theories and Andrew Wallace-Hadrill’s challenge to concretize definitions of Romanization. In fact, I demonstrate how these five Roman trophies featured themes legible to a broad audience in the ancient world and specialized narratives that catered to the local scene. Altogether, these case studies represent compelling examples of a much more dynamic kind of Romanization than current scholarship admits. / text

This report explores how, why, and to what ends the Partnership for Sustainable Development is attempting to integrate land use and transportation planning in the United States. Analysis of the Partnership’s organization and operation reveals that while the Partnership Agreement suggests that the goal is policy integration, the vague objectives in the agreement and weak linkages displayed between the Partnership members--the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Transportation, and Environmental Protection Agency--are indicative of basic policy coordination. Historical and cultural characteristics of the departments are partly responsible for the gap between the goals and the rhetoric. To understand how integrated planning works the report examines the Chicago Metropolitan Planning Agency's current planning efforts and best practices from the European Union, where integrated planning has occurred for almost 20 years. The report ends with recommendations for the Partnership about how to learn from the experiences of the Chicago Metropolitan Planning Agency and the European Union. / text

Communities across the United States have almost universal access to electricity services. However, there remains a large problem with fuel poverty, where households pay a significant and disproportionate amount of their gross income on energy bills. This is often a factor in those households’ continued poverty. Fuel poverty is especially prevalent in the unincorporated and often overlooked colonias communities in South Texas, near the border with Mexico, which are characterized by a high level of poverty, a large unbanked population that don’t have or are unapproved to have bank accounts, proportionally high energy costs, and substandard housing. There are government programs and charities that assist with bills, but the cycle of fuel poverty will continue without solutions that address the source of the disproportionately high bills: energy inefficiency. Public-private partnerships are needed to sustainably finance energy efficiency improvements and to break the cycle of poverty. One potential solution is the application of microfinance concepts geared solely at home efficiency improvements, where households can build credit while alleviating their home energy bill burden. / text