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The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if there were significant differences in student success in terms of face-to-face and online biology courses as categorized by gender, major, and age; and as measured by lecture grades, lab grades, and final course grades. The data used for analyses included data from 170 face-to-face sections and 127 online sections from a biology course during the fall and spring semesters beginning fall 2008 through spring 2011. Researchers have reported mixed findings in previous studies juxtaposing online and face-to-face course delivery formats, from no significant differences to differences in grades, learning styles, and satisfaction levels. Four research questions guided this study with data analysis involving t-tests for independent groups and chi-square tests. The results of this study enabled this researcher to note significant differences between grades, success rates by gender, success rates by health and non-health majors, non-traditional age (at least 25 years of age) success rate, and attrition rate for students in the face-to-face course compared to the online students. There was no significant difference found in the success rate for traditional age (less than 25 years of age) students in the face-to-face sections compared to those in the online sections.

Students enrolled in face-to-face and online business administration courses at a Midwestern Christian college were provided faith-integrated opportunities; however, the challenge was to maintain consistency in providing the online courses with similar faith integration as the face-to-face courses. It was unknown whether the same faith-integrated opportunities were provided in face-to-face and online courses. Kohlberg's cognitive moral development and Fowler's spiritual development theories grounded this qualitative bounded case study. Research questions focused on whether instructors taught the same faith-integrated content in online and face-to-face classes, and whether online and face-to-face students received the same faith-integrated experiences. A purposeful sample was gathered of 3 freshman, 3 sophomores, 3 juniors, and 3 seniors who completed both faith-integrated online and face-to-face business administration courses; in addition, 4 instructors were recruited who taught faith integration in online and face-to-face business administration courses. Open-ended questionnaires were collected from students and observations were collected using online course shell interactions between students and instructors. All data were open coded and thematically analyzed using a visual model process. Instructors integrated faith more in the face-to-face courses than in the online courses. A white paper containing recommendations to integrate faith in all business administration classes included building collaborative faculty groups, student-focused rubrics, and faculty course-based rubrics. These endeavors may contribute to positive social change by providing faculty with the necessary tools to equitably provide faith integration in business administration online and face-to-face courses and to develop students' ethical decision making through faith-integrated lessons.

<p>The main purpose of this study is to establish a socio-pragmatic categorization of politeness and impoliteness activities in informal interactions. In doing this, we describe the communicative strategies related to (im) politeness phenomena and how they are used to produce certain <i>social effects</i> in face-to-face interaction through the ongoing negotiation of participants’ <i>face </i>(Goffman, 1967). This study is based on informal conversations extracted from a <i>corpus </i>of spoken Spanish gathered in the metropolitan area of Valencia, Spain (Briz and Val.Es.Co. Group, 2002). Focusing on methodology, this study combines a qualitative method inspired in CA with a DA interpretative approach that analyzes communicative acts (Allwood 1995; Bravo, e. p.1). <i>Face</i> contents such as <i>autonomy </i>and<i> affiliative face, role face, group</i> and <i>individual face, </i>are a resource for analyzing what happens during interaction along with the resulting interpersonal effects. The integration of the analysis of context, which includes the co-text, the situational context and the socio-cultural context (cultural settings and shared assumptions), is equally important in this study. The empirical analysis of both the conversations and a questionnaire on impoliteness bring us to propose a series of categories of (im) politeness. The categories are as follow: Strategic Politeness (within this category we find <i>attenuating politeness </i>and<i> reparatory politeness</i>), Enhancing Politeness, Group Politeness, Ritual Politeness (here we differentiate between meeting situations and visit situations) and Discursive Politeness (we divide this category into <i>conventional </i>and <i>thematic</i>). Concerning Impoliteness, we find situations in informal conversation in which impoliteness is expected (<i>normative impoliteness</i>) and when threatening acts (reproaches, criticism, etc.) do not imply directly, <i>per se</i>, a negative personal effect. We next find two types of impoliteness: one produced by threats to the <i>face </i>of the speaker which are neither mitigated nor amended and the other caused by a break from the normal rules of politeness. </p>

The work presented in this thesis comes in pursuit of the ultimate goal of building spoken and embodied human-like interfaces that are able to interact with humans under human terms. Such interfaces need to employ the subtle, rich and multidimensional signals of communicative and social value that complement the stream of words – signals humans typically use when interacting with each other. The studies presented in the thesis concern facial signals used in spoken communication, and can be divided into two connected groups. The first is targeted towards exploring and verifying models of facial signals that come in synchrony with speech and its intonation. We refer to this as visual-prosody, and as part of visual-prosody, we take prominence as a case study. We show that the use of prosodically relevant gestures in animated faces results in a more expressive and human-like behaviour. We also show that animated faces supported with these gestures result in more intelligible speech which in turn can be used to aid communication, for example in noisy environments. The other group of studies targets facial signals that complement speech. As spoken language is a relatively poor system for the communication of spatial information; since such information is visual in nature. Hence, the use of visual movements of spatial value, such as gaze and head movements, is important for an efficient interaction. The use of such signals is especially important when the interaction between the human and the embodied agent is situated – that is when they share the same physical space, and while this space is taken into account in the interaction. We study the perception, the modelling, and the interaction effects of gaze and head pose in regulating situated and multiparty spoken dialogues in two conditions. The first is the typical case where the animated face is displayed on flat surfaces, and the second where they are displayed on a physical three-dimensional model of a face. The results from the studies show that projecting the animated face onto a face-shaped mask results in an accurate perception of the direction of gaze that is generated by the avatar, and hence can allow for the use of these movements in multiparty spoken dialogue. Driven by these findings, the Furhat back-projected robot head is developed. Furhat employs state-of-the-art facial animation that is projected on a 3D printout of that face, and a neck to allow for head movements. Although the mask in Furhat is static, the fact that the animated face matches the design of the mask results in a physical face that is perceived to “move”. We present studies that show how this technique renders a more intelligible, human-like and expressive face. We further present experiments in which Furhat is used as a tool to investigate properties of facial signals in situated interaction. Furhat is built to study, implement, and verify models of situated and multiparty, multimodal Human-Machine spoken dialogue, a study that requires that the face is physically situated in the interaction environment rather than in a two-dimensional screen. It also has received much interest from several communities, and been showcased at several venues, including a robot exhibition at the London Science Museum. We present an evaluation study of Furhat at the exhibition where it interacted with several thousand persons in a multiparty conversation. The analysis of the data from the setup further shows that Furhat can accurately regulate multiparty interaction using gaze and head movements. / <p>QC 20121123</p>

The main purpose of this study is to establish a socio-pragmatic categorization of politeness and impoliteness activities in informal interactions. In doing this, we describe the communicative strategies related to (im) politeness phenomena and how they are used to produce certain social effects in face-to-face interaction through the ongoing negotiation of participants’ face (Goffman, 1967). This study is based on informal conversations extracted from a corpus of spoken Spanish gathered in the metropolitan area of Valencia, Spain (Briz and Val.Es.Co. Group, 2002). Focusing on methodology, this study combines a qualitative method inspired in CA with a DA interpretative approach that analyzes communicative acts (Allwood 1995; Bravo, e. p.1). Face contents such as autonomy and affiliative face, role face, group and individual face, are a resource for analyzing what happens during interaction along with the resulting interpersonal effects. The integration of the analysis of context, which includes the co-text, the situational context and the socio-cultural context (cultural settings and shared assumptions), is equally important in this study. The empirical analysis of both the conversations and a questionnaire on impoliteness bring us to propose a series of categories of (im) politeness. The categories are as follow: Strategic Politeness (within this category we find attenuating politeness and reparatory politeness), Enhancing Politeness, Group Politeness, Ritual Politeness (here we differentiate between meeting situations and visit situations) and Discursive Politeness (we divide this category into conventional and thematic). Concerning Impoliteness, we find situations in informal conversation in which impoliteness is expected (normative impoliteness) and when threatening acts (reproaches, criticism, etc.) do not imply directly, per se, a negative personal effect. We next find two types of impoliteness: one produced by threats to the face of the speaker which are neither mitigated nor amended and the other caused by a break from the normal rules of politeness.

AbstractTitle: How does people that meet online communicate? -An qualitativestudy of the media use for individuals that date online.Number of pages: 34Autohor: Malin JanssonTutor: Amelie HössjerCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Spring term, January 2010University: Informatics and Media, Media and Communication ScienceUppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: The aim of this essay is to see if mediea use changesthrogh time in a relationship between individuals that have metonline.Material/Method: Qualitative method with nine interviews divided into two groupsdepending whether the person is an actively dejting online or ifshe has a long term relationship with someone she have metonline.Main results: The use of digital media changes thorugh time in therelationship. The individuals stop using the net dejting whenthey meet someone. The digital medias are stage at the begginingof the relationship. Through time they use a multiple ofdigital medias but they have preferenses and prefers to use thetelephone both when they are communicating positive andnegatvie information.Keywords: Online dating, social penetration, process of getting to knoweachother, communication. Mediaded Communication, face toface communication.

¡mAbstract¡n This research examines six presses of Kaohsiung journalists', China Times, Liberty Times, United Daily News, Taiwan Times, Taiwan Shin Wen Daily News, and Public Daily News, the intra-organization media usage for Media Richness and Social Influence Model. It tests four media which are face to face, telephone, e-mail, and written document, and tests which one is suitable for Kaohsiung journalists use in formal communication and informal communication. The result is that the most journalist use face to face as their intra-organization media. Not only testing media usage, this research is also examining the prediction of media usage by Media Richness and Social Influence Model. The result is except downward communication media usage which lacks sufficient samples, the other communication flows' media usage prediction are Media Richness explanation of predicting media usage is better than Social Influence Model. For each press, face to face is the main choice for six presses' journalists in upward communication, horizontal communication and downward communication flow. However, United Daily News' journalists use written document as the main media in informal communication, but the other presses' still use face to face The finding in formal and upward communication, the prediction of media usage by Media Richness and Social Influence Model in Liberty Times doesn¡¦t have significant level. Meanwhile, Liberty Times and Taiwan Shin Wen News' prediction of media usage in horizontal communication don¡¦t have significant level. At last, there are only Liberty Times and Public Daily News's media usage prediction have significant level in informal communication. Keywords:intra-organization, media usage, face to face, telephone, e-mail, written document, formal communication, informal communication, upward communication, horizontal communication, downward communication, Media Richness, Social Influence Model.

This dissertation examines the life stories of Marsha Ethridge (all names are pseudonyms), a teacher who has taught for 46 years in one urban elementary school. The stories Marsha tells about her life are used as lenses to consider the following: (1) What influences most shaped Marsha’s practices and stories to live by as a teacher? (2) What has it been like for Marsha teaching reading in an urban elementary school for 46 years? and (3) What is the nature of caring in Marsha’s stories? The study draws on life story and portraiture methods. Data were collected over a period of three years and includes life story interviews, one focus group interview, observations, and artifacts. Through the process of constant comparative method, three themes emerged: literacy and accountability, teacher development and identity, and caring and connecting. The most salient theme was caring and connecting throughout Marsha’s stories, and it served as a unifying thread to pull her stories together. This study found that in Marsha’s first years of teaching there were few forms of accountability. She felt that this was the primary reason many of her sixth graders had made it through school without learning to read. In the following years she used a variety of measures for accountability, including high-stakes accountability, which caused her to experience increasing professional dissonance. The form of accountability she believed improved her teaching practices the most was accountability situated in the context of caring relationships and it led to hope for future success. Marsha experienced this face-to-face accountability in the teacher-initiated group she had been meeting with for 27 years. Research implications from this study include the need to further explore discourse in teacher-initiated groups over time and in different contexts, as well as consider how the relational dynamics and accountability within collaborative teacher groups contribute to teacher growth. Additionally, the analysis of Marsha’s life stories indicate a need for teachers, parents, researchers, and policy makers to lay aside discourse of blaming and shaming to create opportunities for extended conversations about alternatives to high-stakes accountability. / text

Denna kvalitativa studie behandlar ämnet Internetbaserad crowdfunding, enfinansieringsmetod där ett stort antal människor ger en liten summa pengar vardera till ettprojekt via en crowdfundingplattform på Internet. Studiens fokus är engagemang: vad somskapar engagemang för crowdfunding och vad som kan stärka engagemanget. Studienundersöker också om enbart kommunikation via Internet är tillräckligt för att skapa stortengagemang för crowdfunding. Syftet med studien är att bidra till kunskapsutvecklingen inomforskningsområdet crowdfunding så att skapare av crowdfundingkampanjer, i utvecklandet avsina kampanjer, kan öka engagemanget hos de personer som stöttar eller funderar på att stöttaen crowdfundingkampanj. De problemformuleringar som ska bidra till att nå upp till syftet ärföljande: varför engagerar sig människor i crowdfunding? Hur kan interaktionen mellanstöttare och kampanjskapare förbättras? Hur kan ansikte-mot-ansikte-kommunikation, genomevent, öka engagemanget för crowdfundingkampanjer? För att besvara studiensproblemformuleringar och därmed nå upp till syftet genomfördes semistrukturerade intervjuermed sju personer som stöttat crowdfundingkampanjer. Resultatet av undersökningen visar attdet finns flera motiv till varför människor engagerar sig i crowdfundingkampanjer. De motivsom representerades av flest respondenter var att hjälpa en vän och viljan att ett projekt skafinnas. Andra motiv som delades av flera respondenter var att stötta kampanjer där förtroendeoch tillit finns till kampanjskaparna, för att få belöningar för sitt engagemang, för att bli en delav gemenskapen och för att idén med crowdfunding gillas. Undersökningens resultat visaräven tre förbättringsmöjligheter i interaktionen mellan kampanjskapare och stöttare: 1) mervarierande statusuppdateringar på kampanjsidan på crowdfundingplattformen med fokus påannat än enbart det finansiella, 2) mer uppdateringar även efter kampanjens slut och 3) attkampanjskapare bör visa upp sina projekt i en livestream. Studiens resultat visar också attansikte-mot-ansikte-kommunikation, genom event, kan öka engagemanget förcrowdfundingkampanjer. Detta då stöttare får möta personerna bakomcrowdfundingkampanjen samt får se resultatet av kampanjen de stöttat på riktigt, inte enbartvia Internet. I studiens anges hur skapare av crowdfundingkampanjer praktiskt kan tillämpadenna studies resultat för att öka engagemanget hos stöttare samt potentiella stöttare. / This qualitative study addresses Internet-based crowdfunding, which is a financing methodwhere a large number of people give small amounts of money to a project via a crowdfundingplatform on the Internet. The focus of the study is engagement: what creates engagement incrowdfunding and what can increase the engagement. The study also examines ifcommunication only via the Internet is enough to create great engagement. The purpose of thestudy is to contribute to the knowledge development in the research area of crowdfunding. Bydoing that, it will also increase the knowledge among creators of crowdfunding campaignsand enable them to increase the engagement among backers and potential backers in thedevelopment of their campaigns. The research questions that will help achieve the purpose ofthe study are: why do people engage in crowdfunding? How can the interaction betweenbacker and creator of campaigns improve? How can face-to-face communication, throughevents, increase engagement in crowdfunding campaigns? To address these questions andachieve the purpose seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with people who hadbacked crowdfunding campaigns. The result of the study shows that there are differentmotives to why people engage in crowdfunding campaigns. The motives that was mostrepresented by the respondents was in order to help a friend and wanting to realize a certainproject. Other motives that were represented by several respondents were to back campaignsbecause they had confidence and trust in the creators of the campaigns, to receive rewards fortheir engagement, be a part of the community and to back a campaign because they like theidea of crowdfunding. The result of the study also shows three improvement possibilities inthe interaction between creator of the campaigns and the backers: 1) more dynamic updates onthe crowdfunding platform with focus on other than the financial aspect, 2) more updates afterthe end of the campaign and 3) that creators of the campaigns could show their projects in alivestream. The result of the study also shows that face-to-face communication, throughevents, can increase the engagement in crowdfunding campaigns. This is because backers canmeet the persons behind the crowdfunding campaign and see the result of the campaign in reallife and not just via Internet. How creators of crowdfunding campaigns can use the result ofthis study is indicated in the study. The language of the study is Swedish.