This study analysed the students&rsquo / perceptions about the web based instruction in a blended learning environment. Students&rsquo / perceptions, expectations and comments about their blended learning experiences, course web site and their communication experiences with the instructor were investigated. This case study was conducted within the Information Technology in Education II Course (CEIT 112). This course was delivered for the undergraduate course at the Computer Education and Instructional Technology Department (CEIT), Middle East Technical University, during the 2004-2005 Spring semester. Number of the participants was 25 and all of them were first year CEIT students. This course was delivered as a blended learning which combined face-to-face instruction with the web based instruction. The questionnaire was used to identify the students&rsquo / perceptions about the web based course at the end of the semester. Interviews were conducted at the end of the semester in order to take students&rsquo / comments, expectations and recommendations with respect to the course. Also, an interview was conducted with the instructor to identify his perceptions about the blended instruction experiences at the end of the semester. Both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered at the end of the semester. Data results showed that students had positive perceptions about the blended learning environment and to some extent neutral about the effectiveness of the course website. According to the instructor&rsquo / s point of view, the blended learning was beneficial for the students, but the efficient utilization of computer mediated communication would be better supported. This study can contribute the following research studies related with the blended learning. Also, the instructor of the course can benefit from this research result in order to improve the productivity of the course for the next terms.

This study aims to investigate the preservice teachers&rsquo / perceptions about online communication in blended learning. The study tries to understand strengths and weaknesses of online communication from the learners&rsquo / point of view. To reach this aim, four research questions are asked: (1) What are the learners&rsquo / perceptions about the online synchronous communication tool? (2) What are the learners&rsquo / perceptions about web-based support? (3) What are the learners&rsquo / perceptions about collaboration with online communication? (4) What are the learners&rsquo / perceptions about the roles of the instructor at blended learning as (a) administrator, (b) facilitator, (c) technician, and (d) evaluator? To answer the research questions, a case study in line with action research design was conducted. An undergraduate course in blended learning form was selected as a case and both synchronous and asynchronous communication tools were utilized throughout the semester. At the end of the semester, data about perceptions was collected via four questionnaires and interviews with the students. Both qualitative and quantitative results showed that the online communication facilities in the case were perceived to be adequate by the students. Yet, the students reflected diverse thoughts about preference of communication modalities in synchronous communication. Moreover, the value of asynchronous communication was pointed out. It is concluded that communication needs, communication partner and other contextual factor have impact on selection of communication modalities.

In the study, it was aimed at determining the discourse patterns of text-based CMC in Second Life in terms of social presence, negotiation of meaning and turn distribution of the students. During the data collection procedure, 54 freshman students participated in the study. Some reading and writing tasks were carried out in Second Life. During the data analysis, the taxonomy adapted by Akayoglu &amp / Altun (2008) was used for negotiation of meaning and the taxonomy prepared by Rourke, Anderson, Garrison and Archer (2001) was used for social presence. Finally, the words uttered by each student were counted and the equality of turn distribution of the students was measured using Gini Coefficient. At the end of the study, it was found that the most frequently used social presence function was &ldquo / expression of emotions&rdquo / and the least frequently used function was &ldquo / quoting from others&rsquo / messages&rdquo / . In terms of negotiation of meaning functions, the most frequently used function was &ldquo / confirmation&rdquo / and the least frequently used function was &ldquo / reply vocabulary&rdquo / . As for the third research question, the numbers of the words uttered by the students were counted and Gini Coefficient was calculated. At the end of this analysis, it was seen that there was equality in all sessions in terms of turn distribution of the students as it was hypothesized in literature. The findings of this study might be helpful for students, educators and researchers who are willing to attend to and design language courses in Second Life. They might better understand the context.

<p>I rapporten undersöks problemställningen ”<strong>Hur kan teorin om Gemensam grund och specifikt ”gemensamt avslut” bidra till en ökad förståelse för betydelsen av social interaktion i flexibel undervisning via datorförmedlad kommunikation?” </strong>i en fallstudie med fokus på videokonferenssystem vilka används i lärandemiljöer. Resultaten som framkom tydliggjorde att då ett sociotekniskt glapp uppstår tvingas studenterna att skapa alternativa strategier för att kunna uppnå just det här gemensamma avslutet. Därmed uppvisar också resultaten att drivkraften att uppnå gemensamt avslut inte endast är stark vid kommunikation som sker ansikte mot ansikte utan även vid datorförmedlad kommunikation. Fallstudiens resultat kan därmed ses som ett bidrag till grundforskningen i det att betydelsen av att uppnå gemensamt avslut vid datorförmedlad kommunikation uppvisas, vilket också förstärker betydelsen av Clarks (1996) teori om gemensam grund. Vidare har resultaten från fallstudien också använts för tillämpad forskning då designkonsekvenser tagits fram vilka beskriver hur videokonferenssystem i lärandemiljöer bör utformas för att studenter lättare ska kunna uppnå gemensamt avslut via systemen. Med hjälp av dessa designkonsekvenser kan det sociotekniska glappet reduceras och därigenom skapa ett framgångsrikt lärande för studenter vilka studerar via flexibelt lärande.</p>

<p>Chatroom conversations often elicit an initial impression of chaos. This is probably chiefly due to disrupted adjacency sequences, but also a result of the language being rich in non-standard linguistic forms and grammar. This study explores chatroom conversations with reference to Grice’s (1975) cooperative principle and the maxims that accompany it, and compares them to real life conversations. The aim is to see whether they differ from real life conversations to the extent expected, and whether these differences give rise to any compensational strategies to ensure successful communication. The results reveal a slightly higher amount of maxim undermining in the chat room than in the real life conversations, but not as high as expected. Accordingly, few compensational strategies need be adopted. It is suggested that the main explanation for these findings is that chatroom users have adapted their conversation patterns to the medium.</p>

Based on a collaborative and socio-constructivist approach to online education, the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model emphasizes creating an effective learning environment where students feel a connection with other learners and the instructor and engage in well-designed collaborative learning activities. Following a naturalistic methodology, this qualitative case study investigated the use of synchronous communication for creating a community of inquiry and student satisfaction in an online ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages) endorsement course for preservice teachers. Elluminate Live was used for class meetings while an instant messenger, Gmail Chat served the needs for impromptu interactions between a student and the teacher. The study was guided by the CoI framework. Data sources included online recordings of live meetings, student written reflections, surveys, interviews, and teacher/researcher journal. The findings indicate that synchronous communication enhances building and sustaining an online community of inquiry. Gmail Chat provided increase in teacher availability, social presence, and student satisfaction, however it did not contribute much to creating cognitive presence simply because it was not planned to be used for content delivery. Moreover, Elluminate Live contributed effectively to the community of inquiry by enabling manifestations and interactions of its 3 elements; social, teaching, and cognitive presence. Participants perceived that live class meetings promoted their learning and helped them feel the instructor and other students in a more real sense. Class meetings via Elluminate Live promoted cognitive presence by affording the students opportunities for listening to the presentations by the teacher and other students, watching a teacher demonstration through a webcam, interacting actively through Whiteboard tools, text-based chat, microphone, and emoticons, and working with their groups in their private breakout rooms. Instant and audio communication among students created a sense of social presence with trust, comfort, and belonging, and enhanced group work efficiency. The study highlights the critical role of synchronous communications to create effective online learning communities, however it also underlines that the implementation of synchronous communication tools requires robust pedagogical planning to enhance student learning.

This study explores the use of Facebook as a tool to build relationships at work among employees of global technology company Serena Software. Email interviews with 13 Serena Software employees demonstrated that the social network site is in fact building relationships among them. Participants attributed information sharing as the element that most helped them to build relationships with each other. The interviews revealed evidence of the characteristics of relationship quality: trust, commitment and satisfaction. However, participants expressed a different definition of the fourth characteristic - control mutuality - in their Facebook relationships. The results showed that participants did not define their Facebook relationships with colleagues as either communal or exchange. Research on social media is emerging because social media are relatively new compared to traditional media. This study is significant to organizational and public relations literature because it examines how social media can support internal organizational and public relations functions such as building relationships. Public relations research on employee-employee relationships is limited, so this study builds knowledge in that area. Furthermore, there appears to be no research on the use of Facebook to build employee relationships, making this study original.

Families migrate to improve their outcomes, however the process is very disruptive. My research asks and answers the question can scaffolding communication through technology mitigate the disruption caused to families by migration, and if so, how? In my work I have explored two forms of disruptive family migration—parental migration (where parents and children live in separate countries) and refugee resettlement (resulting from forced migration). In both forms, families are embedded in support networks of individuals they rely on to minimize vulnerabilities faced post-migration and to rebuild a stable family structure. My empirical results revealed barriers (distance, language, literacy and so forth) that render the communication between families and their support network less than effective. Through participatory approaches, I then design and evaluate separately, two systems to mitigate the barriers and improve communication in the various support networks. The end contributions of my work include: i) contributing a nascent agenda on migration for Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and related fields through providing an increased understanding of the challenges that limit the livelihoods of migration-separated and refugee families; ii) demonstrating two communication scaffolding systems for transient use by migrants to mitigate communication barriers--- time and distance on one hand (to support transnational home-school communication) and language and literacy on the other (through mediated human-in-the-loop voice translations for everyday interactions with refugees); iii) putting forth a reflection on methods to guide others seeking to work with similar groups and establishing the notion of designing for transient use in the development of systems to scaffold communication.

The purpose of this study was (1) to examine rural residents’ perceived social support from Internet use for communication and (2) to understand the meanings associated with rural Internet users’ social media use, particularly with respect to mediating diverse social ties and exchanging different types of social support. To assess how Internet use affects rural residents’ sense of social support, this study investigated dynamic relationships between online communication and perceived social support by looking at interaction effects relative to extroversion, size of social networks, broadband use, and length of time using the Internet. To explore how social media are situated in a rural area, the present study investigated how rural residents use social network sites (SNSs) to maintain social contacts and exchange social support with members of their networks. / text

The purpose of this study was to explore how instructors of online courses accommodate and make provisions for culturally diverse learners in an online community of inquiry. Ten instructors from two Alberta higher education institutions participated in two phases of research. To explore this phenomenon in the CoI model, intercultural competency indicators were created to test how they could develop and expand teaching and social presence in a cross-cultural environment. In the first phase, analysis of the open-ended survey questionnaire (AMEQ) revealed that in the absence of any cross-cultural design, instructors use facilitation and open communication strategies to foster learning and prevent conflict. The second phase, informed by the first phase, involved augmenting the original 34-item CoI survey instrument. Additional roles that relate to instructor cross-cultural efficacy were incorporated into both teaching presence and social presence elements in the CoI survey instrument. The revised 37-item CoI survey instrument was then administered to the same respondents for face validity. Findings revealed that the incorporated cultural indicators correlated highly with the teaching and social indicators, indicating their usefulness to measure multicultural efficacy in the CoI model. / 2012-April