This multi-disciplinary study examines the linguistic characteristics which influence communication and social interaction in computer-mediated communication (CMC). We begin by conducting a qualitative data analysis on a group of graduate students taking online courses. Through this, we look more closely at their perception of social interaction in their online learning environment (Knowledge eCommons). We then take individual student notes and analyze their linguistic characteristics. We look at the emotional cues in notes, the use of factual, objective language and other linguistic features. We study these notes through the use of sentiment analysis methodologies – which will be explained in detail in the first and second chapter. We have proposed a method for deducing note objectivity and have computed reliability testing of this method. Our analyses show that there is a high correlation between the use of objective language in a note and the value that students place on that note.

This multi-disciplinary study examines the linguistic characteristics which influence communication and social interaction in computer-mediated communication (CMC). We begin by conducting a qualitative data analysis on a group of graduate students taking online courses. Through this, we look more closely at their perception of social interaction in their online learning environment (Knowledge eCommons). We then take individual student notes and analyze their linguistic characteristics. We look at the emotional cues in notes, the use of factual, objective language and other linguistic features. We study these notes through the use of sentiment analysis methodologies – which will be explained in detail in the first and second chapter. We have proposed a method for deducing note objectivity and have computed reliability testing of this method. Our analyses show that there is a high correlation between the use of objective language in a note and the value that students place on that note.

The purpose of this thesis is finding out whether offering an Online STPS Graduate Program with a tuition fee is feasible or not. Firstly, definition and brief history of distance education is given. Secondly, distance education applications in the world and in Turkey are studied. The main part of the thesis is the cost analysis made about the online delivery of STPS Graduate Program. The cost items of offering an online course are determined and then specific cost values are assigned to these items. By determining the cost items and related cost values, course development cost is calculated. In the course development cost calculation, fixed and variable costs are seperated. Fixed cost are the set-up costs that do not depend on any variable. Variable costs on the other hand are the costs that change with the number of students attending to the online course. A specific price value ( 100$ ) is assigned as the tuition fee for one credit hour of an online course. At the end of the cost analysis, the number of students required to meet the total cost of an online course is calculated. In addition, a questionnaire made on STPS students by STPS department is used in the thesis. The results of the questionnaire and the cost analysis are combined in order to analyze the feasibility of offering an online STPS Graduate Program.

It is obvious that learning is more productive with visual mediums and simulations. Especially in technical subjects, this approach is more important. Visual modification of parameters in a control system provides many benefits both in analyzing the system and in learning process. Additionally if this material is published on the internet, students can reach anywhere anytime to this material. This thesis describes a Web-based system developed for control engineering education for both the instructor and the student. The system will generate learning material according to the instructor&rsquo / s requests. Instructors will design the system and define the borders to help students to learn rapidly the subject of the lesson. They will decide on the functions and which variables can be played with and present them to the students. This work will help the students that take the basic courses of control engineering. Students will interactively experiment with the system. They will see the effect by changing the variables via sliders of certain functions (e.g. step, bode, root locus...). The system is developed with the programming language JAVA to run over the internet and to be platform independent.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that influence the persistence of adult students in online undergraduate courses at the community college level. Quantitative analysis of survey results from 476 students enrolled in on-line courses at two community colleges indicate that desire to complete the degree, previous experience in on-line courses and assignment completion are the strongest predictors of course completion. The findings from this research also provide the basis for making recommendations for future research and improving policy and practice. Finally, the results of this study suggest the basis for developing new models for understanding persistence in on-line courses.

Online social interactions differ from face to face interactions and lack the non-verbal cues leading a learner to procrastinate, decreased motivation, feelings of isolation and high drop out rates. Existing research illustrates a need for social awareness information in online education, and this research studied the impact of the visual presence of social information on a learner's sense of connectedness and learning using Rovai's (2002) classroom community scale (CCS). Specifically, the study examined if a learners' sense of connectedness is improved with the exposure to others' social awareness information; and if and to what degree learning advanced due to the improved sense of connectedness. <br>Two, 5 X 1 between-subjects one-way analyses of covariances compared connectedness and learning scores of five social awareness information disclosure groups (appearance, educational, contact and personal information disclosure groups and control group). Although the study did not find evidence of exposure to social awareness information having an impact on learning, the findings confirm the claim that social awareness provides a sense of connectedness. The type of social information presented in the educational category (last degree earned, major and educational year) provided a strong relationship compared to other categories studied. <br>Educators, course designers and content management companies will benefit in recognizing that social awareness information positively impacts online educational participants by providing a sense of connectedness when presented with educational related materials. The development of social awareness support within a learning management system can improve an online learner's experience and enhance the quality of online education. This social awareness support in a learning management systems infrastructure is thus recommended. / School of Education / Instructional Technology (EdDIT) / EdD / Dissertation

This research investigates the cultural politics of 'borderless' education. In Australia, online internationalised education has recently emerged as a market innovation borne from the intersection of two agendas in the higher education sector: an enthusiasm for technological means of delivery; and the quest for international full-fee paying enrolments. The empirical study analyses how both cultural difference and cultural sameness were produced in a case study of borderless education and were made to matter in both the design and the conduct of online interaction. A core MBA unit offered online by an Australian university was selected for the study because its enrolments included a group enrolled through a partner institution in Malaysia. The study is framed in the broad context of the changing cultural processes of globalisation, and in educational markets where knowledge is business. In this more fluid and complicated cultural landscape, the technologies and social practices supporting online education were understood to offer new cultural resources for identity processes. Pedagogy, rather than providing an inert stage for cultural identities to interact, was understood to play an active role in invoking and legitimating possible orientations for student identities. The framework thus builds on a metaculture, or understandings of culture and cultural identity, more appropriate for the cultural conditions of globalising times. The study was conducted as a virtual ethnography of the case study unit drawing on: the observation and recording of all virtual interaction in the unit's website; interviews and dialogues with the lecturer and designer involved; email interviews with some students; and the collection of course artefacts and related documentation. The methodological arguments and design addressed the complexity of grasping how culture is lived in globalised times, and how it is invoked, performed and marked in virtual interactions. Using layered textual analyses synthesising Bernstein's theory of pedagogic discourse and Systemic Functional Linguistics, a description of the unit drew out contradictory aspects in its macrogenre design. On one hand, the design aimed for cultural saming in terms of delivering undifferentiated curriculum and pedagogy for the diverse cohort of students. On the other hand, it also aimed for cultural differencing in the 'student subsidy'of the curriculum. The analysis showed how cultural difference was thus produced as both a curricular asset, and as a series of pedagogical problems in the case study unit. The 'student subsidy' design involved allocating students to purposefully mixed groups for assessable small group discussions in order to enrich the curricular treatment of cultural diversity as a topic of interest. This design invoked expressions of a range of cultural identities and knowledge claims about cultural differences. These claims were analysed with reference to how they were legitimated, and who invoked what culture on behalf of which groups. Despite the design of an undifferentiated process, the conduct of the unit displayed a number of pedagogical problems or 'regulative flares' in which groups of students complained about being overly or insufficiently differentiated. The analysis focused on three such flares: troubles with naming protocols; troubles around genre expectations for assessment tasks; and trouble over 'local' markers for the Malaysia students. These were summarised as trouble with the unit's 'default settings' and presumptuous assumptions about whose cultural terms applied in this educational setting. The study makes a contribution to the sociology of education, in particular with regard to internationalisation and online modes of delivery. The empirical study also contributes to the sociology of the cultural processes of globalisation. More practically, it is suggested that such programs could profitably embrace a version of culture more in line with the entangled routes and global flows that have brought the students and provider together, one that can accommodate and celebrate glocalised identities.

This thesis explores the technical feasibilty of creating a remote laboratory in the field of microelectronics fabrication. It also includes the evaluation of the developed laboratory as a teaching tool. / PhDElectronicEngineering

Submitted by Edileide Reis (leyde-landy@hotmail.com) on 2014-01-31T14:07:00Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Zelinda Barros.pdf: 4774922 bytes, checksum: eb1a95ea1cdf85394ce32935dc969a31 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Rodrigo Meirelles (rodrigomei@ufba.br) on 2014-02-03T20:03:35Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Zelinda Barros.pdf: 4774922 bytes, checksum: eb1a95ea1cdf85394ce32935dc969a31 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-02-03T20:03:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Zelinda Barros.pdf: 4774922 bytes, checksum: eb1a95ea1cdf85394ce32935dc969a31 (MD5) / A formação docente a distância ensejou a criação de um novo espaço para a abordagem de conteúdos relacionados à História e Cultura Afro-brasileiras, ampliando as possibilidades de estudo da etnicidade. Características particulares da EAD, como o uso intensivo de tecnologias de informação e comunicação e a ênfase à expressão escrita, passaram a demandar investigações que analisem os desdobramentos da formação a distância para o ensino de História e Cultura Afrobrasileiras, assim como outros temas ligados à diversidade cultural. Esta tese investiga as implicações de um curso a distância voltado para o ensino de História e Cultura Afro-brasileiras, em particular, a forma como os sujeitos se apropriam dos conteúdos sobre a temática e os reelaboram no espaço virtual. Trata-se de um estudo de caso do Curso de Formação para o Ensino de História e Cultura Afrobrasileiras do Centro de Estudos Afro-Orientais (CEAO/UFBA), em que se utilizou o lurking (observação à espreita) como estratégia de observação. É adotada uma abordagem interdisciplinar – Estudos Étnicos, Comunicação, Educação, Sociologia, Antropologia, Linguística – e operacionalizado o conceito de etnicidade virtual em referência ao fenômeno de produção e reprodução de diferenças no ciberespaço, marcado pelo reconhecimento de experiências e memórias consideradas comuns a determinado contingente humano. Por meio da análise das interações nos fóruns de discussão, dos projetos pedagógicos apresentados pelas/os cursistas como trabalho de conclusão de curso e dos questionários de avaliação aplicados ao longo do curso, foram explorados os significados atribuídos à participação num curso de formação para o ensino de História e Cultura Afro-brasileira. Entre outros aspectos, a pesquisa identifica as características e peculiaridades de um curso online que aborda a diversidade cultural e localiza as lógicas de produção e reprodução que orientam a expressão da etnicidade em ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem.

abstract: The discussion board is a facet of online education that continues to confound students, educators, and researchers alike. Currently, the majority of research insists that instructors should structure and control online discussions as well as evaluate such discussions. However, the existing literature has yet to compare the various strategies that instructors have identified and employed to facilitate discussion board participation. How should instructors communicate their expectations online? Should instructors create detailed instructions that outline and model exactly how students should participate, or should generalized instructions be communicated? An experiment was conducted in an online course for undergraduate students at Arizona State University. Three variations of instructional conditions were developed for use in the experiment: (1) detailed, (2) general, and (3) limited. The results of the experiment indentified a pedagogically valuable finding that should positively influence the design of future online courses that utilize discussion boards. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Communication Studies 2012