Purpose - Healthcare (HC) is a globally expensive investment, suffering from service quality, due to medical errors caused by physicians’ poor decisions making (DM). Current published literature: (1) encourages clinical DM research to reduce diagnostic errors and (2) stresses on the dearth of means for practitioners’ knowledge shared DM; this research focuses on knowledge sharing for improving medical DM quality through physicians’ social capital (SC) in a virtual community of practice (VCoP). Physicians join a virtual community (VC) to share clinical practice knowledge to aid medical DM. This study aims to assess the effect of physicians’ SC on medical DM and assess the mediating role of knowledge sharing quality, between physicians’ SC and medical DM quality since research lacks to investigate the impact of knowledge management (KM) tools in a HC context. VCoP is a KM tool and medical DM quality is a HC topic of this study. Design/methodology/approach – This positivist, quantitative research utilizes non-experimental survey to empirically assess its conceptual framework. After attaining an ethical approval, from Brunel Business School Research Ethics Committee, online survey was pre-tested and pilot tested for clarity and validity. 10 non-physician Ph.D. academics voluntarily participated during the survey’s pre-test phase. The survey was amendment for its pilot study phase; conducted in “plastic surgery yahoo group” VC. 31 physician VC members voluntarily participated. Again, the survey was amended and distributed for main data collection from 204 voluntary SurveyMonkey’s VC’s physician members. Findings – Data was analysed using SPSS 20 and LISREL 8.80 by means of confirmatory factor analysis and Structural Equation Modeling. Empirical findings supported this study’s four main hypotheses as well as supported this study’s initially proposed conceptual framework. Originality/value – This study customized the Honeycomb framework to establish a definition of professional physicians; HC VCs followed by identifying 51 VCs from social networking platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. This study also fulfilled its aim and hence proposed a structurally fit conceptual framework.

Uppsatsen handlar om hur det går att förstå olika målgrupper på Instagram och hur influencers genom detta enklare kan anpassa sitt innehåll till det som sin målgrupp av följare vill se. Målgruppen som används i uppsatsen är tjejer i åldern 15-20 år från Sverige och genom en enkätundersökningen skapades en bättre förståelse i hur de använder sig av Instagram. Genom en analys av de konton personerna i enkätundersökningen följde på Instagram kunde en sammanställning på vad för typ av personer de följer är. Efter detta skapades ett verktyg för att kunna testa vilket visuellt innehåll målgruppen vill se och studien avslutades sedan med intervjuer både på målgruppen och några av de influencers som de följer.

This thesis uses ethnographic research into online media fandom, focusing on self-reflexive analytical documents that fans call meta, to investigate longstanding questions about the nature of virtual community. It argues that virtual documents should be seen as complete and complex interactions in their original form and as social contexts in their own right, and presents a new approach to ethnographic methodology and ethics suited to working in this context. Fans have incorporated various technologies into the infrastructure that constitutes their community, and these have had various effects on the structure and substance of fannish documents and interactions – and on the character of the community as a whole. The stability and visibility of the digital archive is an important feature of virtual community – one that makes fandom more visible, accessible, and historically grounded for both old and new members. This research also deals with conflict, not as a necessarily divisive force but as a natural and important part of how communities evolve and how members negotiate and articulate what their community should be. It discusses fanfiction as a controversial and sometimes problematic genre, and considers trigger warnings as the solution fans have developed to protect vulnerable members of their community from potentially harmful content (such as rape). It also examines conflict with outside authorities, like creators and the administrators who control the virtual spaces that fans inhabit. These conflicts illuminate creativity and feminism as fannish values, presenting fandom as a community that embraces sex-positive female sexuality. More importantly, they suggest that the creation and maintenance of a ‘safe space’ where all members feel respected and comfortable is a key feature of online community. In addition, fannish storytelling (particularly the creation of what fans call fanon) is part of the production of local knowledge, of boundary mechanisms that mark and separate members of the community from outsiders. These stories as part of the process by which fans position themselves within the broader community – and in so doing, locate themselves within smaller cohorts of fans who affirm and support aspects of their personal experiences and marginalised identities (e.g. as women, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, or people of colour) through the reorientation and appropriation of story.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:31:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rael Bispo Beserra.pdf: 523303 bytes, checksum: 685828ba2fc76039fc8f0489ed1206d4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-10-19 / The present research that works with the prospect of Social Psychology aims to understand the processes involving the metamorphosis of identity (CIAMPA, 1987, 1995) of people using the communities of virtual relationship as an important means of social constructions and their identity. The intensification of the virtual nowadays is an emerging issue that still generates some controversy as to the consequences for the individual and their socialization processes. It is likely and natural that differences remain for some time, we are facing a new reality. The research is just another contribution to other studies that certainly will happen. Virtual reality is becoming more real in people's life. This is a qualitative research technique that has as main, the Life History. This is a technique used in NEPIM (Center for Studies and Research in Identity-Metamorphosis), the program of Postgraduate Studies in Social Psychology from PUC-SP, coordinated by Prof. Drº Antonio da Costa Ciampa, with important results to Social Psychology. The research was based on a report of a person for about 12 years has systematic relationships with the same virtual community. The dissertation seeks to understand how a person uses virtual reality as potentiating agent of emancipation in their life trajectory. The critical and ethical position also allowed us to realize the risks of considering the realities - and virtual - disconnected, making clear the importance of understanding them as complementary and interdependent realities / A presente pesquisa que trabalha com a perspectiva da Psicologia Social pretende compreender os processos envolvendo a metamorfose identitária (CIAMPA, 1987, 1995) de pessoas que utilizam as comunidades de relacionamento virtual como um meio importante para suas construções sociais e identidade. A intensificação do virtual na contemporaneidade é uma questão emergente que ainda gera algumas controvérsias quanto às consequências para o indivíduo e seus processos de socialização. É provável e natural que as divergências permaneçam por algum tempo, estamos diante de uma nova realidade. A pesquisa é apenas mais uma contribuição para outros estudos que certamente acontecerão. A realidade virtual é cada vez mais real na vida das pessoas. Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa que tem como técnica principal a História de Vida. Essa é uma técnica utilizada no NEPIM (Núcleo de Estudos e Pesquisas em Identidade- Metamorfose), do programa de Estudos Pós-Graduados em Psicologia Social da PUC-SP, coordenado pelo profº Drº. Antonio da Costa Ciampa e tem alcançado resultados importantes para a Psicologia Social. A pesquisa apoiou-se em um relato de uma pessoa que durante cerca de 12 anos manteve relacionamentos sistemáticos com uma mesma comunidade virtual. A dissertação procura compreender como uma pessoa se utiliza da realidade virtual como agente potencializador de emancipação em sua trajetória de vida. O posicionamento ético e crítico permitiu, também, perceber os riscos de considerar as realidades presencial e virtual desconectadas, deixando clara a importância de compreendê-las como realidades complementares e interdependentes

A presente tese tem como objetivo conhecer o perfil dos participantes de uma comunidade de prática na perspectiva da educação inclusiva e compreender os discursos e as práticas que podem ser tecidas por eles. Esta investigação surge ao observar que o cenário educacional brasileiro sofreu recentes modificações ao implementar a Política Nacional de Educação Especial na Perspectiva da Educação Inclusiva, o qual passou a situar alunos com deficiência também como público a ser abarcado pelo sistema regular de ensino. Dessa forma, tornou-se imperativo que os professores atuantes na rede educacional sejam capazes de contemplar a diversidade humana em suas práticas pedagógicas. Para que isso ocorra, a legislação vigente prevê a oferta de cursos de formação que capacitem os docentes frente à temática inclusiva. No entanto, ao observar-se a latente impossibilidade de as ações formais atenderem as demandas geradas por todo um coletivo de professores oriundos de diferentes regiões do país, passou-se a buscar alternativas que pudessem apoiar a construção de conhecimentos de tais docentes. Nessa procura, encontrou-se nas comunidades virtuais de prática um importante conceito a ser investigado. Baseadas em ferramentas originadas sob a lógica da participação e colaboração geradas a partir da efetivação da WEB 2.0, tais comunidades promovem a reunião virtual de pessoas que compartilham interesses mútuos, podendo, assim, revelar-se como um espaço que fomente a troca de recursos e experiências entre pares. Da identificação de suas potencialidades, instituiu-se a comunidade virtual de prática Inclusão na Educação - CPIE, ambiente implementado a partir da solução Ning Mode Midia 3.0, que angariou mais de 320 membros oriundos de todo o país. Os dados obtidos, observados a partir da metodologia de análise textual discursiva, demonstraram que o perfil do professor que aceita fazer parte de uma iniciativa como a que foi proposta, é aquele que já detém certos conhecimentos sobre o domínio delimitado e que, reconhecendo a sua importância, passa a buscar novas oportunidades de construir conhecimentos acerca do tema. Os resultados ainda indicam que iniciativas como a CPIE, podem adquirir uma conotação mais ligada à suplementação da formação docente, onde práticas desencadeadas a partir dos eixos de comunicação ou de resolução de problemas contribuem para que professores notadamente experientes sigam em contato, colaborando uns com os outros na busca pela construção de conhecimentos que subsidiem suas ações pedagógicas. / This thesis aims to know the profile of participants in a community of practice, in the context of inclusive education, and understand the discourses and uses that can be forged by them. This research emerged from the observation that Brazilian educational scenario has undergone recent changes to implement the National Policy for Special Education in the Perspective of Inclusive Education, which has situated students with disabilities as a public to be placed in the regular education system. Thus, it has become imperative that teachers working in the educational network are able to contemplate human diversity in their teaching practices. For this to occur, the current legislation states the provision of training courses that enable teachers to address inclusive education topics. However, observing the potential impossibility that formal actions can meet the demands generated by the collective of teachers from different regions of the country, we have started to look for alternatives that could support the construction of knowledge for those teachers. In this search, we have found in virtual communities of practice an important concept to be investigated. Based on tools originated under the logic of participation and collaboration, arising from development of Web 2.0, these communities promote the gathering of people who share the same interests and they can act as environments that foster the exchange of resources and experiences among peers. Identifying their potential, we have developed a virtual community of practice called Inclusion in Education - SCRS, implemented with Ning Mode Media 3.0 solution, which has congregated more than 320 members from all over the country. The data obtained, evaluated under the methodology of discourse textual analysis, have shown that teachers that accept to take part in initiatives as the one we have proposed, already have some knowledge about the delimited area, recognize its importance and seek for new opportunities to build knowledge on the subject. The results also indicated that initiatives such as SCRS can act as a supplement to teacher education, where practices triggered from communication axes or problem solving contribute to keep trained and experienced teachers in contact, collaborating with each other in the quest for knowledge that can support their educational activities.

Les communautés virtuelles ont de plus en plus d’influence dans nos activités quotidiennes. Qu’elles soient sociales, d’affaires, professionnelles, d’apprentissage, ces communautés sont en concurrence pour la conquête de l'Internet, en ciblant une audience de plus en plus large et en proposant une offre de services de plus en plus variée. Par voie de conséquence, le succès ou l'échec de ces communautés dépend largement des services proposés dont la diversité, la qualité et l'adaptation sont les facteurs clés de satisfaction des clients. C’est pourquoi la démarche SOA (Service Oriented Architecture /Architecture Orientée Service) favorise la vision d'environnements ouverts où services, fournisseurs et clients sont indépendants les uns des autres, grâce au découplage et à l'allocation dynamique des services. Malheureusement, les environnements de communautés virtuelles ne prennent pas vraiment en compte les principes SOA et sont considérés fermés d’un point de vue des services offerts car ceux-ci sont limités aux fonctionnalités de la plateforme qui les hébergent. Cette dépendance des services vis-à-vis de la plateforme est considérée comme une limitation qui influence d'une manière négative le succès et la durabilité des communautés virtuelles. Du point de vue des membres d’une communauté, cette limitation entraine le départ de certains d’entre eux, et/ou impose à ses membres de joindre d'autres communautés afin de bénéficier des services offerts par ces dernières qui ne sont pas disponibles dans leur communauté d'origine. Du point de vue de l’environnement, l'introduction de nouveaux services nécessite de modifier la plateforme existante, et peut demander dans certains cas une migration vers une autre plateforme, ce qui peut perturber la communauté en question lorsque celle-ci est opérationnelle avec des membres en ligne. Dans ce contexte, ce travail a pour but de palier les limites de la gestion de services dans les communautés virtuelles afin de satisfaire les besoins de leurs membres, d'assurer une meilleure gestion des services d'un point de vue individuel et d'un point de vue de la communauté, et de garantir une évolution dynamique des services au sein de la communauté. L’objectif principal est donc de " Fournir le bon service, au bon utilisateur, au bon moment et avec la bonne qualité". L’hypothèse fondatrice de ce travail est que les communautés virtuelles peuvent être construites en commençant par un ensemble minimal de services de base, cet ensemble pouvant ensuite être étendu par l'ajout de nouveaux services selon les besoins des membres de la communauté. En adoptant cette approche, nous proposons un cadre de gestion de services qui aborde les difficultés rencontrées par les communautés virtuelles et leurs membres. En conséquence, le focus porte sur la satisfaction de ces membres plutôt que sur le service lui-même ou le fournisseur du service. Ainsi, nous définissons une nouvelle structuration des services au sein d’une communauté qui s’appuie sur une classification en différentes catégories fonctionnelles. Puis, nous étendons l'architecture SOA avec les concepts nécessaires pour modéliser ces catégories et leur associer un ensemble de propriétés non fonctionnelles de Qualité de Service (QdS ou QoS en anglais) utilisées par un système de médiation pour proposer les services adaptés aux besoins des usagers. Une description des unités fonctionnelles de ce système, ainsi que la façon dont elles opèrent, coopèrent et collaborent afin d'accomplir l’objectif défini ci-dessus constitue le cœur de notre contribution. / Virtual Communities are dominating our daily activities from different insights. Social, Business, Professional, Educational and many virtual communities are competing among each other to conquer the internet by targeting more audience through the services they provide. Consequently, the success or failure of virtual communities depends to a great extent on its services. In a world driven by services, diversity, quality and adaptation are key factors to achieve customer satisfaction. Accordingly the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) approach promotes the vision of open environments where services, providers and consumers are considered independently from one another thanks to decoupling and dynamic allocation of services. But virtual communities environment did not really care about SOA and are considered closed with respect to the services they provide since they are bounded to the capabilities of the platform that host them. This implies the delivery of services inside the virtual communities is dependent on the platform used which is considered a limitation that have negative influence on the success and sustainability of virtual communities. From a member perspective this limitation causes community members to leave the community, and/or imposes them to join other virtual communities to benefit from the services they host and that are not available in their home virtual communities. From an environment perspective, introducing new services into these communities require modifications on the existing platforms or might require a complete shift to another platform in some cases which might affect the target community in case it is operational with active users. In this context, our research work aims to overcome the limitation in managing services of virtual community to satisfy community members’ needs, to provide better service management from a member perspective as well as from a community perspective, and to guarantee dynamic evolution of services inside the community. Our main objective is “To provide the right service to the right user in the right time with the required quality of service”. Our assumption is that virtual communities can be built starting from a minimal set of basic services and then add more services based on the needs of the community members. This drives us to adopt this approach and propose a service management framework that address the challenges faced by virtual communities and their members. Accordingly, we approach the problem from a members’ perspective and choose to work on members’ satisfaction more than we care about the service itself or the provider of the service. Thus, we define a new structure of services within a community that is based on a classification into different functional categories. Then, we extend SOA with the concepts necessary to model these categories and associate a set of non-functional properties of Quality of Service (QoS ) used by a mediation system to offer services best suited to the needs of members. Finally, we provide a description of the functional units of the system and how they operate, cooperate and collaborate to achieve the aforementioned objective. This is the core of our contribution.

This thesis is a case study of three virtual communities for parents of children with special needs in Taiwan. The main focus of this research was on understanding the role that virtual communities play in providing support for parents. This study addressed the following research questions: How do virtual communities provide support for parents of children with special needs in Taiwan? What motivates Taiwanese parents of children with special needs to search for support through virtual communities? How does the support provided through virtual communities impact the relationship between Taiwanese parents of children with special needs and professionals? This thesis constructs an analytical framework that helps in understanding the concept of support in virtual communities for parents of children with special needs. Employing this framework identified three broad types of support: informational support, advocacy, and emotional support. In this study, informational support included parenting skills, advice, and access to services; advocacy referred to articulating needs and rights; and emotional support included solidarity, increased self-esteem, acceptance, and affirmation. All three virtual communities were established by parents; two are managed by parents, and one is managed by a professional. Web-based observations were conducted in each virtual community from November 2014 to December 2015. Semi-structured interviews were held with 14 parents, 7 professionals, and 6 administrators and concentrated on experiences of, and motivations for, seeking and providing support through virtual communities. The analytical framework was used to identify broad themes in the data. A thematic analysis was employed to look across the cases to identify commonalities and differences, and finally, a systematic analysis borrowing from social network analysis was used to map the interactions among the participants. The main findings of this study indicate that information and support related to parenthood and parenting skills was easily accessed through virtual communities. Parents were found to join together to share their experiences of parenting, comfort one another, and advocate for their needs through the virtual communities. The parents occasionally excluded members of the community to ensure that all members shared similar parenting values. In addition, parents are beginning to gain control of knowledge and their relationships with professionals through virtual communities. This paper's main contributions to knowledge are as follows: (1) Virtual communities allow parents to redefine themselves in ways that they believe are publicly acceptable. (2) Parents are using virtual communities to exercise power to renegotiate their identity and obtain resources. (3) Parents are also starting to alter the power relationships between themselves and professionals.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:23:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Davidson Scarano.pdf: 2483710 bytes, checksum: 9f4b87686156c19988c9eb7b5df91c0e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-11-19 / It made a presentation of virtual social networks as social software. We used the qualitative methodology literature related to the issue of giving theoretical support for the analysis of sites for such, we used the authors Pierre Levy, Don Tapscott, Henry Jankins and Erik Qualman. I analyze Facebook, YouTube and Twitter because each network has a feature that makes it unique. The three chosen are: Facebook (one of the largest social networks today). YouTube (social networking to post videos). Twitter (the microblogging social network for rapid dissemination of information). The forms of analysis are exploratory in the context of the site. Shows the effect of these social networks in the real world and its influence in politics, success stories like Barack Obama in the United States of America, the national mobilization against the FARC in Colombia, the revolution of the Arab world and Islam's successes in Brazil, Plinio de Arruda and Silva in the presidential elections of 2010. After the effect of these social networks on television stations showing Survivour the case in the U.S. and in Brazil, two cases that influenced the Globo network. In addition, trends and interactions between businesses developed by broadcasters and social networks. By analyzing the community 4chan, I see how the community started a joke / b / has become one of the two largest groups in the world Hackerativismo. I conclude this work by analyzing how social networks are, in fact, increasingly used to support actions in the real world thanks to the collective rapid deployment / É feita uma apresentação das redes sociais virtuais como softwares sociais. Foi utilizada a metodologia qualitativa relacionada à questão da bibliografia que dá suporte teórico para análise dos sites, para tal, foram utilizados os autores Pierre Lévy, Don Tapscott, Henry Jankins e Erik Qualman. Analiso o Facebook, o YouTube e o Twitter pois cada rede tem uma característica que a torna única. As três escolhidas são: Facebook (uma das maiores redes sociais da atualidade). YouTube (rede social para divulgação de vídeos). Twitter (rede social de microblog com rápido poder de disseminação da informação). As formas de análises são de cunho exploratório no contexto do site. Mostra-se o efeito destas redes sociais no mundo real e a sua influência na política, com casos de sucesso como Barack Obama nos Estados Unidos da América; a mobilização nacional contra a FARC na Colômbia; a revolução dos países Árabes no mundo Islã e os sucessos, no Brasil, de Plínio de Arruda e Marina Silva nas eleições presidenciais de 2010. Depois o efeito destas redes sociais nas emissoras de televisão mostrando o caso de Survivour nos EUA e, no Brasil, dois casos que influenciaram a rede Globo. Além, das tendências e interações entre os negócios desenvolvidos pelas emissoras e as redes sociais. Ao analisar a comunidade do 4chan, percebo como uma brincadeira iniciada na comunidade /b/ se tornou um dois dos maiores grupos de Hackerativismo no mundo. Concluo o trabalho analisando como as redes sociais, são de fato, cada vez mais utilizadas para apoiar ações do mundo real graças à rápida mobilização coletiva

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-27T13:54:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CLAUDIA VALENTE CAVALCANTE.pdf: 613154 bytes, checksum: 40c2942fa9245f263006f0dc691e3ee5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-09-15 / Due to technological advance changes new spaces for sociability and formation are being set up in society, in particular, the cyberspace has extended new possibilities of interaction and communication as well as virtual societies are becoming more popular among youngsters. This work aims to understand how youngsters from different backgrounds deal with Jardim Novo Mundo Virtual Community and which educational and social strategies are being used in order to achieve digital and real life insertion. Based on Pierre Bourdieu references the world appreciation and perception varies according to the social position of the social agents, in which tastes and lifestyles are attached to their social space position, Strategy concept is used for analytical purposes and it refers to the agent capacity of taking action in different social fields along with ownership and maintenance of different types of capital. The main question is to know how these youngsters are taking advantage of the virtual community to raise both cultural and social capital. To what extend these strategies meet educational and social purposes? Aiming to answer this question a questionnaire, online and face to face interview and observation of a virtual community were used which have enabled apprehend the dynamics and socialcultural insertion forms of the young people and the social representations and practices of use of Internet. The Jardim Novo Mundo Virtual Community participants expose two different concepts of being young: a group perceives youth as time to enjoy life and the other group manifests the absence of such freedom. The school is perceived not only as a mobility factor, but also as a symbolic goods acquisition way. The school trajectory is discontinuous as their parents . Work is taken as an activity carried out for survival. Religion is an important issue for some youngsters as an upholder and spaces of sociability venues. For those out of school they tried to be connected to the socialcultural environment through Internet, therefore obtaining social and cultural capital through both individual or collective strategies. The Jardim Novo Mundo Community comprises the youngsters highlighted in this research and for them it is a resistance area to challenge negative media portrait. It is also a place for sociability, formation and work presentation. Summing up, youngsters access social networks at local lanhouses where collaborative learning is effective. The comprehension of youth relations, school, family, religion, work and social networks allows us to state that these young people build up their own educational strategies to take part in the sociocultural world. / Em decorrência de mudanças resultantes dos avanços tecnológicos no mundo, novos espaços de sociabilidade e formação estão se constituindo na sociedade. No campo informacional, em especial, o ciberespaço tem proporcionado novas possibilidades de interação e de comunicação e as comunidades virtuais estão se tornando cada vez mais populares entre os jovens. Este trabalho procura entender como jovens de camadas populares lidam com a Comunidade Virtual Jardim Novo Mundo e quais estratégias educativas e sociais utilizam para inserção no mundo digital e no real. Com base nos referenciais de Pierre Bourdieu, considera-se que as formas de perceber e apreciar o mundo diferem conforme a posição na estrutura social dos agentes sociais, cujos gostos e estilos de vida estão ligados a sua posição no espaço social. Para efeito analítico, faz-se uso do conceito de estratégia, que se refere à capacidade de o agente participar do jogo em diferentes campos sociais e à apropriação e/ou manutenção de distintas espécies de capital. A questão norteadora é saber como os jovens utilizam estrategicamente a comunidade virtual para elevarem os seus capitais tanto cultural como social. Em que medida essas estratégias podem ser consideradas estratégias educativas e sociais? Para responder à questão, foram utilizados questionário, entrevista online e observação de uma comunidade virtual que permitiram apreender a dinâmica e a forma de inserção sociocultural dos jovens e as representações sociais e práticas de uso da Internet. Os participantes da Comunidade Virtual Jardim Novo Mundo revelaram modos distintos de ser jovem: um grupo percebe a juventude como um tempo de aproveitar a vida e outra pela ausência dessa liberdade. A escola é percebida como um fator de mobilidade e aquisição de bens simbólicos. A trajetória escolar é descontínua, assim como dos seus pais. O trabalho é tido como uma atividade realizada para sobrevivência, A religião é importante para alguns jovens que a veem como arrimo e as igrejas como espaços de sociabilidade. Por estarem fora da escola, os jovens da pesquisa tentam manter-se inseridos no mundo sociocultural por meio da Internet, adquirindo capital cultural e social por meio de estratégias educativas individuais e coletivas. A Comunidade Jardim Novo Mundo representa o bairro dos jovens pesquisados e, para eles, é espaço de resistência, de contestação da imagem negativa veiculada pelas mídias. Também é um espaço de sociabilidade, de formação e de divulgação do seu trabalho, Em geral, os jovens acessam as redes sociais em lanhouses do bairro, lócus em que a aprendizagem colaborativa se efetiva. A compreensão das relações existentes entre juventude, escola, família, religião, trabalho e redes sociais, permite afirmar que os jovens pesquisados da Comunidade Jardim Novo Mundo, necessariamente, constroem estratégias educativas para manterem-se no mundo sociocultural.

abstract: The purpose of this action research study was to measure the transactional distance of computer science students who participated in an online virtual community after completing a college preparation program. Using data and results generated from previous cycles of research I developed and moderated an online virtual community designed to lessen transactional distance using a sequential exploratory mixed-methods research design. This study addressed the following research questions: 1. How and to what extent will participation in a virtual community influence the transactional distance between students and course content? 2. How and to what extent will participation in a virtual community influence the transactional distance between students and their instructors/teaching assistants? 3. How and to what extent will participation in a virtual community influence the transactional distance between students and other students in the same courses? The participants for this action research study included approximately 200 students enrolled in six online sections of an entry level computer programing course from various locations around the world. Also participating in the community were the online instructors who taught the course, teaching assistants, advisors, and the action researcher. Using the sociocultural, transactional distance, self-determination, and adult learning theories as a framework, the virtual community provided occasions for students and instructional team members to share experiences and support each other academically and socially. The community was designed to enable students to give and receive frequent feedback, increase autonomy and their sense of belonging, and provide additional opportunities for them to learn from each other. Through a descriptive analysis of the transactional distance survey results, I was able to determine that transactional distance between students and their teachers, and students the course content slightly increased, while the transactional distance between students and their classmates somewhat decreased. There was also an increase in average final grade and pass rate and a decrease in student withdrawal rate. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2018