This thesis seeks to contribute to the field of learning management system (LMS) development in tertiary educational institutions, particularly to advance the adoption of learning management systems (LMSes) by exploring the incorporation of sociallymotivated discussion forum models. This study proposes a Web-based application, which includes four different discussion forum models for LMSes, in order to test usability and student preferences. The purpose of this study was to compare two non-social discussion forums and two social discussion forums, to determine their appropriateness in terms of attributes or features and general functionality for LMSes. The design processes led to the creation of a Web-based application called 4DFs, which includes four different discussion forum models. Two of these models are non-social discussion forums: the chat room unstructured model and the traditional general threaded discussion. The other two types are social discussion forums, where users can choose who they converse with: the Twitter-style short comment feed and the Facebook-style. The chat room and the traditional general threaded discussion forums' features are based on those of Sakai, since the research sample was comprised of students from the University of Cape Town (UCT). The Twitter-style and Facebook-style elements, such as retweets, hashtags, likes and reposts, are based on Twitter and Facebook. A pilot study was conducted to discover any errors or issues with the experimental procedure. A controlled experiment was then conducted with 31 students from the institution. Participants had to fill out a background information survey to gather some demographic information and to understand more about participants' previous experiences using chat rooms, discussion forums, and social media applications for university related purposes and for non-university related purposes. Following that, participants were given tasks to test all the features of the different discussion forum models. To avoid bias in the participants' choosing of discussion forum models, the research was conducted with a Counterbalanced Measures Design. Participants had to fill in the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire in conjunction with their use of the Web-based application. Then, after using all discussion forums, they had to fill out a preferences questionnaire that asked about their preferences of the discussion forums and the features. The Twitter-style short comment feed model was preferred in terms of the ease of use and since participants were familiar with this forum. This was followed by the chat room unstructured model and the traditional general threaded discussion in terms of these forums' ease of use and students' preference for the layout. The Facebook-style was less preferable. Also, participants indicated that the post button, reply button, edit, delete, and search button were more beneficial features. Participants mention that the layout of the chat room unstructured model was not optimal, since the massive amount of text made it confusing and unclear to decipher. Participants suggested that including the uploading of media, allowing private chat, adding extra features for important posts, and using a repost button in the discussion forums would be more useful. The study found that students preferred that the learning forum include certain characteristics; they prioritised ease of use, less complexity, less interaction and a user-friendly interface over their familiarity with the forum. For learning, there is a need to use the features for a specific purpose so users do not necessarily want extra fancy features (like emojis), instead they want systems that help them to learn efficiently.

Texte remanié de: Thèse de doctorat--Sociologie--Paris 3, 2006. Titre de soutenance : Les forums de discussion des sites web de la presse quotidienne nationale : entre repositionnement identitaire des journaux et constitution des publics de presse : étude des articulations entre les pratiques des modérateurs et des participants des forums du Monde.fr, Libération.fr et du Figaro.fr. / En annexe choix de documents. Bibliogr. p. 277-287.

Thesis--Münster. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 280-294).

This paper is concerned with the analysis of South African policy making forums. It attempts to develop an understanding of how such forums might contribute to the welfare of South African society, and what can be done to enhance this contribution. The widespread emergence of policy making forums in South Africa has not gone unnoticed. Much local literature has been produced in recent years on the issue (Baskin, 1993; Maree, 1993; Schreiner, 1994; Nattrass, 1994). All of these contributions adopt the framework of "neo-corporatism" in their analysis. By contrast, this paper is grounded in the theory of public choice. The concept of "neo-corporatism" has been developed in a body of international literature concerned with the institutional structures through which policy was developed and implemented in countries such as Austria and Sweden in the post war period (Grant, 1985). These institutional structures evolved out of the imperatives of post-war reconstruction and the balance of power between labour, capital and state. The prefix neo- is used to distinguish the institutional arrangements in these social democracies from those in place in fascist Italy which have been referred to as corporatist. There is much confusion over the exact meaning of "neo-corporatism", but there seems to be some agreement that it centrally involves the relationship between the state and organised interests such as business and labour. In the countries identified as neo-corporatist, this relationship was structured in such a way as to influence the behaviour of each of these parties towards the attainment of national objectives such as growth and low unemployment (ibid:4). There are two reasons why I have chosen not to use neo-corporatism as the means of analysis in this paper. Firstly, the thinking around the concept has been developed inductively from the experiences of particular societies, but a plausible deductive theory of what transpired in these societies has not been forthcoming (Olson, 1986). To use a crude example, it might thus be said that while we can observe that Sweden had very low levels of unemployment for most of the post-war period and that Swedish policy making was characterised at the time by a particular type of interaction between government, labour and business, neo-corporatist theory does not offer a robust (deductive) argument of why certain policy making institutions led to particular desirable social outcomes. In other words, the understanding of the causal relationship between existing institutions and social outcomes remains undeveloped. The second reason for not using a neo-corporatist framework in the analysis which follows is that the political and economic conditions in contemporary South Africa are very removed from those of European neo-corporatist countries, and thus inductive theory based on the European experience is not of much use. In particular, as is argued in Chapter Two, the state, seen as the primary factor directing the policy making process in neo-corporatist theory, has played a very ambiguous role in the South African experience of forum based policy making. As South African policy forums have arisen during a period of political transition, the government has had neither the confidence nor the legitimacy to play the directing role which has characterised episodes of neo-corporatism in other countries. The paper is divided into two chapters. The first considers a deductive theory of interest group behaviour developed from the literature of public choice and the second applies this to South Africa's recent experience of policy forums. Most public choice literature is concerned with the state, as processes influencing government such as voting and lobbying are seen as a central means through which individuals take collective action. In addition, it is through government bureaus that the goods and services demanded through this action are supplied (Mueller, 1976; Wolf, 1979). As stated, the emphasis in what follows is slightly different in that the activities of interest groups is the major subject of consideration.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Notre Dame, 2008. / Thesis directed by Roy McVeigh for the Department of Sociology. "March 2008." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 32-37).

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University. / Typescript. Sponsor: Jack Arends. Dissertation Committee: Dwayne Huebner. Type C project. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 127-130).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1965. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Ανάλυση λειτουργιών πρωτοκόλλου ΜΙΜΕ για τη διαχείριση ομάδων συζητήσεων (forums) και ηλεκτρονικού ταχυδρομείου (e-mail) σε ιστοσελίδες δικτυακού τόπου / Analysis of features of MIME presentation protocol

The study introduces an alternative analytic framework for the investigation of online discussion forums. It focuses on the social dynamics occurring in online discussion threads situated within a tertiary e-learning context, and advocated by social learning theories. Online discussion forums are perceived as conducive environments for the evolvement and support of collaborative and socio- constructivist learning. However, the literature reviewed, revealed a growing need for finding empiric frameworks for ascertaining the materialisation of these perceptions. Attempting to address the identified need, the study adopts ethnomethodological notions, complemented by Structural Analysis approach, to produce an alternative analytic frame called the Event Centre (EC) approach for the study of online discussion forums. The theoretical framework chosen in this study enables the investigation of online discussion forums as systems of relations rather than aggregations of individuals. The EC approach enables the visual representation of networks of people interacting with each other and at the same time presenting the content discussed in each interaction. Applying the EC approach to a set of 131online discussion threads, enabled the discovery of social dynamics occurring within the discussion threads. Preliminary investigations of these visually represented dynamics revealed two overarching patterns. One depicting uni directional interactions in which all participants referred to a single message and a second one depicting sequences of interactions organised in chain like patterns. The study suggests that these overarching patterns may imply different perceptions of knowledge as enacted by the participants, and hence possibly reveal different perceptions of teaching and learning through which it may be possible to detect collaborative and social constructivist processes. The study suggests that the visual patterns introduced should be perceived as abstractions of particular events, implying their generalisability and hence possible application to different data sets.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, August, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.