The purpose of this case study was to compare the pedagogical and affective efficiency and efficacy of creative prose fiction writing workshops taught via asynchronous computer-mediated online distance education with creative prose fiction writing workshops taught face-to-face in order to better understand their operational pedagogy and correlative affective features to determine if workshops are transferable to a computer-mediated delivery system in order to aid administrative decision-makers regarding the possible pedagogical usefulness of expanding their existing writing program to offer an optional-residency creative writing program in concert with their current high residency program. Qualitative data were collected through non-participatory virtual observation of two computer-mediated workshops and in person at a face-to-face mediated workshop. Both workshops used the traditional social constructivist workshop approach which is widely considered to be the gold standard method by the majority of creative writing programs based on its long-standing success as a pedagogical method. In addition to observing the respective workshops, one-on-one interviews were conducted with three creative writing program administrators and three creative writing instructors, one of whom was also a former program administrator. Creative writing students participating in the three observed workshops were also interviewed one-on-one. Findings revealed that from a pedagogical perspective both the computer-mediated and the face-to-face mediated workshops are pedagogically efficient and effective using a social constructivist model when workshop teachers demonstrate a strong teaching presence focused on honing novice writers’ ability and desire to write. Additionally, the researcher concluded a robust teaching presence is imperative in order to establish and maintain a strong social presence between students and between students and the instructor, as both components are critical for learner autonomy in a social constructivist teaching and learning community. However, teaching presence alone cannot guarantee a strong affective social presence as differences between students’ and/or between students’ and an instructor’s social, cultural, educational, and historical ontogenies can lead to unresolved conflicts that increase psychological distance in the teaching and learning community. Additionally, while pedagogically equivalent, computer-mediated workshops have important time management and potentially affective advantages compared to the face-to-face mediated workshop that help ensure establishment and maintenance of social presence.

The purpose of the paper is to explain the relation between motivations of intention to shareon social media and hedonic value. There has been a deductive approach to the research ofthe paper. The data which have been gathered has been done in a quantitative manner, bymaking use of a survey. The theoretical concepts which have been operationalized for thesurvey are the following, social conversation, social presence, easy-connection, intention toshare and hedonic value. There are four different hypotheses that have been developed andtested in the project. Social conversation has a positive impact on the intent to share contenton social media. Social presence has a positive impact on the intent to share content on socialmedia. Easy-connection has a positive impact on intent to share on social media and intentionto share has a positive impact on the hedonic value of social media use. The findings arefollowing, the first three hypotheses got rejected therefore, motivations of intention to shareon social media are connected with easy-connection, social conversation, and social presence.Additionally, intention to share on social media is accepted as having a positive impact on thehedonic value of social media use.

O objetivo deste estudo é investigar a forma como diferentes participantes de fóruns digitais desenvolvidos em uma sala de aula virtual da plataforma Moodle, marcam sua presença social, cognitiva e de ensino nesse contexto, favorecendo a formação de uma comunidade de aprendizagem. Fundamentam teoricamente este estudo: a) uma reflexão sobre a relação entre tecnologia e ensino, com base em estudos desenvolvidos por Coll (2010), Prensky (2011), Rojo (2012), Castells (2003; 2013), Braga (2013), Levy (2014 [1999]), Mayrink e Albuquerque-Costa (2015), Moran (2003; 2015), entre outros; b) uma discussão a respeito da formação crítico-reflexiva de professores para o uso de tecnologias no ensino, partindo das contribuições iniciais de Dewey (1938) e seus desdobramentos nos estudos de Schön (2000 [1998]), Freire (1987), Perrenoud (2008, [2002]), Liberali (2010) e Mayrink e Albuquerque-Costa (2015); c) o entendimento de Vygotsky (1984) em torno da ideia de aprendizagem colaborativa por meio da interação com o outro e sua repercussão no modelo proposto por Garrison e Anderson (2005), que definem a importância das presenças social, cognitiva e de ensino como base para a formação de comunidades de aprendizagem em contextos de interação online. Os dados foram coletados ao longo do segundo semestre de 2015, no contexto da disciplina Língua Espanhola do curso de Letras de uma universidade pública de São Paulo. Participaram do estudo a professora, duas tutoras e os catorze alunos da disciplina. A pesquisa, de cunho etnográfico, seguiu a abordagem qualitativa-interpretativista. Os dados analisados correspondem ao discurso dos participantes produzidos em três fóruns desenvolvidos na plataforma (um fórum de notícias e dois fóruns de discussão). Também constituem dados deste estudo dois questionários aplicados no início e no fim do curso e os relatórios de participação dos alunos gerados pela plataforma Moodle. A análise focalizou, particularmente, os fóruns digitais, por este ser um espaço profícuo para uma observação da interação entre os participantes, visando à busca de evidências dos indicadores das presenças de ensino, social e cognitiva propostos por Garrison e Anderson (2005). A interpretação dos dados revelou que, considerando a quantidade e qualidade da participação dos interagentes nos fóruns e da forma como estes marcaram, discursivamente, sua presença social, cognitiva e de ensino, o grupo caminhou em direção à formação de uma comunidade de aprendizagem. / This research aims at investigating how different participants of digital forums in a virtual classroom using the open source platform Moodle mark their social, cognitive and teaching presences in this context, in order to contribute to the formation of a learning community. This study is grounded on: a) a reflection upon the relationship between technology and teaching, based on studies developed by Coll (2010), Prensky (2011), Rojo (2012), Castells (2003; 2013), Braga (2013), Levy (2014 [1999]), Mayrink and Albuquerque-Costa (2015), Moran (2003; 2015), among others; b) a discussion about critical-reflective teacher education for the use of technologies in teaching, built on Deweys early contributions (DEWEY, 1938) and their developments in the studies of Schön (2000 [1998]), Freire (1987), Perrenoud (2008, [2002]), Liberali (2010), and Mayrink and Albuquerque-Costa (2015); c) Vygotskys understanding of collaborative learning through interaction with the other (VYGOTSKY, 1984) and its repercussion on the model proposed by Garrison and Anderson (2005), who define the importance of the social, cognitive and teaching presences as the basis for the formation of learning communities in online interaction contexts. Data were collected throughout de second semester of 2015, in the classes of Spanish language, a subject which is part of the Spanish Language Teaching Program at a public university in São Paulo. The professor of this subject, two tutors and fourteen students participated in the study. This ethnographic research followed the qualitative interpretative approach. The data analyzed here are part of the discourse of the participants built in three forums setup on the platform (a news forum and two discussion forums). Two questionnaires applied at the beginning and at the end of the course and reports of students participation generated by the Moodle platform also constitute the data used in this study. The analysis focused on the digital forums in particular since they constitute a rich space for the observation of interaction among participants with the objective of looking for evidences of the indicators of teaching, social and cognitive presences as proposed by Garrison and Anderson (2005). Considering the quantity and quality of the participation of the forum interactants and the way they have marked their social, cognitive and teaching presences discursively, the interpretation of these data showed that the group tended to form a learning community.

L’objectif principal de cette thèse était de caractériser et d’analyser la présence sociale dans la / les transition(s) de femmes brésiliennes de classes aisées à la maternité, au Brésil, en France, au Portugal et en Suèdedans des années récentes. L'objectif final était de contribuer à la déconstruction du modèle hégémonique de la «bonne maternité» au Brésil, établi à partir des expériences de femmes brésiliennes blanches de la classe moyenne.en. En tant que stratégie méthodologique, elle a mis l’accent sur les expériences de présence des mères brésiliennes, en utilisant la communication par ordinateur et trois méthodes en parallèle: une recherche documentaire de rapports de travail de recherches sur la santé périnatale et les politiques familiales des institutions nationales et internationales, des entretiens biographiques et enregistrement des journaux quotidiens; les trois méthodes sont articulés dans une perspective phénoménologique. Ainsi, à partir de mon travail de terrain, j’ai cherché, comme une dérive en spirale, comment certaines rhétoriques morales associées aux normes de genre, de classe et de race sont reproduites par des mères privilégiées en transition maternelle. Au-delà de ce processus de reproduction de la représentation hégémonique de la maternité, j’ai également constaté des hésitations et des mises en oeuvre éthique de ces femmes vis-à-vis des mères marginalisées telles que les femmes racialisées, célibataires et pauvres. Enfin, cette thèse développe la manière dont l’éthique du care découle des relations parentales quotidiennes et aussi comment l'intensification de la présence sociale est importante pour la promotion de cette éthique au-delà du travail genré. / The main objective of this thesis was characterizing and analysing social presence in the transition(s) of Brazilian women from privileged classes to motherhood, in Brazil, France, Portugal and Sweden, inrecent years. As a final goal, it intended to contribute to de-construct the hegemonic model of ―good motherhood in Brazil, which is established from the experiences of middle-class white Brazilian wom-en. As methodological strategy, it focused on Brazilian mothers‘ experiences of presences, using Computer-Mediated Communication and three methods in parallel: a documentary research on official re-ports of perinatal health and family policies, biographical interviews and recording of daily diaries, articulated through a phenomenological perspective. Therefore, in my fieldwork I searched, in a spiral drift-ing, how certain moral rhetorics associated to gender, class and racial norms are reproduced by privileged mothers in maternal transitions. Beyond of this process of reproducing hegemonic representation of motherhood, I also found generating hesitations and ethical enactment among these women towards marginalized mothers such as racialized, single and poor ones. Finally, this thesis discusses how care ethics raise from daily parental relationships and how improving responsive social presence is quite significant for the promotion of such ethics beyond of feminine care work.

In this study the technology acceptance model (TAM) serves as the foundation to analyze the behavior of consumers with regards to their use of the smartphone and its associated services. The research also aims to provide a basis for companies that need a complete theoretical framework to better understand the behavior of consumers using smartphones and related services under the intensely competitive environment and constantly evolving changes in consumer demand. The extensive version of TAM will assist in analyzing consumer behavior and influences affecting the use of smartphones, which will be validated through the empirical data collected. This research utilizes one questionnaire to conduct investigations pertaining to the study. Questionnaires were distributed to consumers that use mobile services and/or applications. The majority of the questionnaires were filled out by students in college and graduate institutions in Taipei, Taiwan. In addition, a majority of the subjects who participated have already purchased smartphones. A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed and 266 were returned, making a 53.2 % return rate. Results retrieved from this study are as follows: 1. When a user experiences deeper social presence, higher subjective norms are created by the application. 2. When a user experiences deeper social presence, perceived usefulness of the application increases. 3. When a user experiences deeper social presence, perceived ease of use of the application fluctuates. 4. The higher the application’s subjective norms are, the more significant is the increase of the user’s image. 5. The higher the application’s subjective norms are, the more significant is the increase of perceived usefulness 6. As the user’s perceived ease of use of the application increases, the greater the influence becomes on perceived usefulness. 7. The higher the application’s subjective norm is, the more the user’s behavioral intention to use increases. 8. As the application’s perceived usefulness increases, the user’s behavioral intention to use the application also increases. 9. As the user’s perceived ease of use for the application increases, the greater the influence on behavioral intention to use becomes. Undoubtedly, companies need to understand consumer behavior and their use of the smartphones. Consequently, this study seeks to use theories from TAM as a basis and consider principles of external factors influencing a consumer-----social presence and society’s influences. The components of TAM, social presence and society’s influences are analyzed to compile this research.

Humans rely on all their senses when interacting with others in order to communicate and collaborate efficiently. In mediated interaction the communication channel is more or less constrained, and humans have to cope with the fact that they cannot get all the information that they get in face-to-face interaction. The particular concern in this thesis is how humans are affected by different multimodal interfaces when they are collaborating with another person in a shared virtual environment. One aspect considered is how different modalities affect social presence, i.e. people’s ability to perceive the other person’s intentions and emotions. Another aspect investigated is how different modalities affect people’s notion of being present in a virtual environment that feels realistic and meaningful. Finally, this thesis attempts to understand how human behavior and efficiency in task performance are affected when using different modalities for collaboration. In the experiment presented in articles A and B, a shared virtual environment that provided touch feedback was used, making it possible to feel the shape, weight and softness of objects as well as collisions between objects and forces produced by another person. The effects of touch feedback on people’s task performance, perceived social presence, perceived presence and perceived task performance were investigated in tasks where people manipulated objects together. Voice communication was possible during the collaboration. Touch feedback improved task performance significantly, making it both faster and more precise. People reported significantly higher levels of presence and perceived performance, but no difference was found in the perceived social presence between the visual only condition and the condition with touch feedback. In article C an experiment is presented, where people performed a decision making task in a collaborative virtual environment (CVE) using avatar representations. They communicated either by text-chat, a telephone connection or a video conference system when collaborating in the CVE. Both perceived social presence and perceived presence were significantly lower in the CVE text-chat condition than in the CVE telephone and CVE video conference conditions. The number of words and the tempo in the dialogue as well as the task completion time differed significantly for persons that collaborated using CVE text-chat compared to those that used a telephone or a video conference in the CVE. The tempo in the dialogue was also found to be significantly higher when people communicated using a telephone compared to a video conference system in CVEs. In a follow-up experiment people performed the same task using a website instead, with no avatar but with the same information content as before. Subjects communicated either by telephone or a video conference iv system. Results from the follow-up experiment showed that people that used a telephone completed tasks significantly faster than those that used a video conference system, and that the tempo in the dialogue was significantly higher in the web environments than in the CVEs. Handing over objects is a common event during collaboration in face-to face interaction. In the experiment presented in article D and E, the effects of providing touch feedback was investigated in a shared virtual environment in which subjects passed a series of cubic objects to each other and tapped them at target areas. Subjects could not communicate verbally during the experiment. The framework of Fitts’ law was applied and it was hypothesized that object hand off constituted a collaboratively performed Fitts’ law task, with target distance to target size ratio as a fundamental performance determinant. Results showed that task completion time indeed linearly increased with Fitts’ index of difficulty, both with and without touch feedback. The error rate was significantly lower in the condition with touch feedback than in the condition with only visual feedback. It was also found that touch feedback significantly increased people’s perceived presence, social presence and perceived performance in the virtual environment. The results presented in article A and E analyzed together, suggest that when voice communication is provided the effect of touch feedback on social presence might be overshadowed. However, when verbal communication is not possible, touch proves to be important for social presence. / QC 20100630

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>This investigation has been carried out at the RoyalInstitute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. The main goal hasbeen to investigate the factors determining the production of asense of presence and reality in video mediated communication.Presenceis in these studies defines as the subjectiveexperience of being together in one place when one isphysically situated in another. Presence is an emergentproperty; it has no physicality, but arises as a mentalsensation. Special attention has been paid to spatial factors,embodiment issues, and narrative elements related to theproduction of presence.</p><p>A context map has been used in order to model the semanticsof presence production and to visualize the relationshipsbetween the determining factors. The conclusions may besummarized as follows:</p><p>    Knowledge about physical and extended spaces and bodiesand of the shifting of attention between these is importantin presence production.</p><p>    Well planned design of physical and virtual spacesenhances the sense of presence.</p><p>    Coherent design and production of mediated embodiment canenhance the sense of presence.</p><p>    Conscious use of content characteristics, e.g., goodstorytelling, can enhance the sense of presence.</p><p>    Different communication modes need the support ofdifferent combinations of presence production factors.</p><p>    Even technically poorly mediated communication maysupport a sense of presence and reality if the storytellingis good.</p><p>    The human sensory environment should be supported by asense of non-mediation, technological transparency, on theplane of discourse.</p><p>    The results indicate that individual differencesinfluence the sense of presence and reality.</p><p>The perception of video mediated communication evolves aspeople become daily users. People seem to intuitively begin tointerpret new types of mediated cues, adding what is missing incomparison to a real time physical communicationexperience.</p><p><b>Keywords:</b>Telepresence, presence, social presence,co-presence, concept modeling, virtual reality, person space,task space, narration, video mediated communication, videoconferencing.</p>

Obwohl sich aus medienpsychologischer Sicht auch nach der vorliegenden Untersuchung bisher nur eine eingeschränkte Perspektive zur Bewertung von prosozialen Verhaltensweisen in MMORPGs ergibt, zeigen die ersten Ergebnisse, dass die Problematik eine nicht zu unterschätzende Relevanz in der Erklärung sozialer Präsenz in virtuellen Welten hat. Prosoziales Verhalten tritt in allen MMORPGs auf und ist wahrscheinlich ein konstituierender Faktor sozialer Präsenz. Diese wiederum scheint das Spielerlebnis von "World of Warcraft" und ähnlichen Spielen entscheidend zu prägen und erklärt, unter Umständen, ihren Reiz für die Spieler. Daher müssen weitere Anstrengungen unternommen werden, den scheinbaren Widerspruch zwischen prosozialem Verhalten in MMORPGs und deren Regelspielcharakter aufzulösen und das Phänomen Altruismus in virtuellen Welten stärker zu operationalisieren. In diesem Kontext ist anzunehmen, dass Erfolg im Spiel nicht nur durch das Erreichen von expliziten Spielzielen, sondern auch in Form eines verdeckten Prestiges als sozialer Status manifestiert wird. Beide Bewertungskategorien des Erfolges stehen dabei in Interdependenz. Wie in der wirklichen Gesellschaft, kann ich Hilfe in schwierigen Situationen nur erwarten, wenn ich selbst bereit bin zu helfen.

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