<p> <b>Scope of Study:</b> This study investigates the potential for a diagnosis of Internet Addiction and it&rsquo;s associated subtypes as a conditional diagnosis in future revisions of the DSM-5. This research collects, compiles, and analyzes the existing literature on Internet Addiction and each of its subtypes, as well as the multiple interrelated topics regarding the broad topic of addiction, the generalized topic of behavioral addictions, as well as specific representative behavioral addictions. This comprehensive analysis facilitates a deductive examination of the potential validity of Internet Addiction as a mental health disorder. This study also investigates the decision by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) to fundamentally alter the formally proposed diagnosis of Internet Addiction and insert instead Internet Gaming Disorder as a conditional diagnosis in the first edition of the DSM-5. </p><p> <b>Findings and Conclusions:</b> Over 1,000 peer-reviewed academic articles and books were found on the various topics investigated, nearly 500 of which were cited in the present study. The findings of this study indicate sufficient research for the APA to accept the broader diagnosis of Internet Addiction with subtypes into a revised DSM-5. The study closes with three possible speculative conclusions as to why the APA made the decision to deny the Internet Addition diagnosis in favor of its own Internet Gaming Disorder diagnosis in the current DSM-5.</p>

<p>ABSTRACT Since the late 1990s, access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have seen exponential growth throughout the globe, which the World Bank (2014) estimated to have reached 6.8 billion mobile subscribers, and 2.7 billion Internet users at the end of 2013. This growth is primarily fueled by expanding mobile wireless networks, decentralized telecommunication infrastructures, and innovative mobile and computer based applications. This unprecedented access to technology, coupled with globalization, is bringing multiple cultures closer together in the ever increasing transfer of labor between countries. International guest workers set out to create better lives for themselves and their families with their mobile phone in one hand and worldly possessions in another. Ultimately, these devices are allowing guest workers to connect with their home countries, in an exchange of information and ideas. International guest workers who live dual lives have one foot firmly planted in their home culture while trying to adapt to life in a new country and culture. This adaption, or acculturation, creates a tremendous amount of adjustment and stress. Acculturative stress can arise from financial difficulties, language barriers, discrimination, or extended detachment from one's family (Berry, 1997). Facebook and Skype can provide entertainment, locate employment, and bridge the emotional gaps that are created from the extended absence from one's friends and family. In this paper, we will examine the perception of acculturative stress and perceived social support from Latin American Guest Workers. This quantitative study will measure specifically the effects of Facebook and VoIP (Skype) on increasing the feelings of perceived social support while reducing the feelings associated with acculturative stress.

<p> The advances in information technologies and the Internet significantly promote the prosperous growth of electronic commerce in recent years. Simply surfing the Internet allows consumers to conveniently explore endless product choices and a flood of related product information. As one of the most important sources of product information, Word-of-Mouth (WOM) helps consumers assess product quality, reduces decision risk without physical trials, and thus facilitates locating their best matches. WOM volume on the Internet has been rising fast while the Internet also unprecedentedly enhances the reach of WOM. As a result, online WOM could significantly influence consumer decision-making. More and more firms are embracing and applying online WOM marketing as a complementary strategy for advertising to increase sales. Even so, not much has been known regarding the mechanism underlying the WOM effect on online consumer behavior. A deeper understanding of the economic impact of online WOM is needed to provide practitioners insightful guidance on information systems design and the allocation of firm resources to more effectively develop online WOM marketing strategies. </p><p> This dissertation seeks to shed light on online WOM effect from three angles using a three-essay structure. The first essay of this dissertation investigates how a demand side factor (online user-generated WOM) interplays with a supply side factor (product variety) to affect a product's popularity in the online market where product choices are abundant and consumers can easily access product information. Extant research primarily looks into either demand side or supply side justifications for the heterogeneity of consumption pattern. Alternatively, this study highlights that consumers' reliance on online user reviews to choose products is significantly influenced by the quantity of products available. </p><p> In addition, this dissertation also explores the differential impact of online WOM created by different types of reviewers on online user choices. While consumers are widely exposed to both online user reviews and professional reviews, those two sources of WOM information are generally believed to influence user choices independently. However, an in-depth mediation analysis conducted in the Bayesian framework shows that professional reviews influence online user choices not only directly but also indirectly through the volume of online user reviews. This study also proposes a more robust hierarchical structure to model the interaction effect between online user reviews and product variety, refining the first essay. </p><p> Following this line of inquiry, this dissertation further studies the impact of the distribution of online WOM across retailing and third-party websites on consumers' purchasing decisions. In parallel with the flocking WOM available on the Internet, nowadays consumers are able to reach almost every piece of online WOM information relevant to their interested products. The distribution of WOM information across the Internet may accordingly influence consumers' search costs for product information and affect their final decisions. This research has found empirical evidence that both the dispersion of WOM volume and variation of WOM valence across the Internet significantly influence online retail sales.</p>

<p> The goal of this study is to determine the effectiveness of social media in advancing transformational change. Successfully implementing transformational change in an organization is heavily dependent on the support of key stakeholders. But engaging those stakeholders requires effective communication. Transformational efforts often fail because of the lack of credible communication or a failure to define a vision that can be easily communicated (Kotter, 2007). </p><p> Researchers say that the key to successful transformational change is embracing a communication based in the realm of conversation where there is genuine two-way dialogue that is focused on listening and probing for more information (Dobbs, 2010). Creating conversations is a key component of social media: a platform of online tools designed to connect people and easily share information (Jue, Marr &amp; Kassotakis, 2010). Social media has the potential to achieve employee engagement, enhance productivity and increase collaboration (Ou, C. J., Davison, R. M., Zhong, X., &amp; Liang, Y.,2010). </p><p> To determine the effectiveness of social media at driving transformational change a study of existing literature related to transformational change and social media was coupled with a qualitative and quantitative study of organizational users of social media and stakeholders of those organizations. The study employed both a questionnaire and interviews. Results showed a clear preference for the use of social media as an effective form of relationship development and effective communication, but a challenge remains on how organizations can best use social media to create and sustain the relationships required to accomplish transformational change.</p>

<p> This study examined the relationship of Internet-Mediated Social Network, the formation of adult Christian community, and its affect on adult Christian growth. The researcher compared and analyzed three types of adult Christian learning communities: traditional, hybrid, and virtual. Each week over the course of six weeks, the three types of learning communities met weekly. Participants were pretested and posttested, utilizing instruments that evaluated spiritual maturity. Analysis of interactions on Internet-Mediated Social Networking was conducted. Findings were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Results indicated the usage of Internet-Mediated Social Network offers potential for adult Christian education and should be further explored. </p>

<p> Technology continues to evolve and become accessible to students in higher education. Concurrently, teamwork has become an important skill in academia and the workplace and students have adopted established technologies to support their learning in both individual and team project work. </p><p> Given the emergence of social media technologies, I examined how these new technologies supported or interfered with group development processes underlying the development of team skills as students completed a group project. Using case studies, I examined 11 undergraduate students in an upper level blended class at a public university in the southeastern United States. Data were collected through a variety of sources including focus groups, individual interviews, reflection logs, and other group support tools provide by the instructor to see how students were using social media technologies to support their group project work. Data analysis resulted in six themes: 1) social media technology choices used to support group project work depended on individual team members' prior use and attitudes about technology; 2) social media technology is most useful for the "people" aspects of team projects; 3) certain technologies are more useful at different stages of the project; 4) lack of an explicit social media technology "contract" within a group leads to some unintended, negative consequences; 5) the immediacy associated with social media technology can blur the lines among specific team roles, ownership of tasks, and overall integrated project planning perspective; 6) social media technologies are used to produce a cooperative, not collaborative, deliverable. </p><p> For students to continue to make the best use of evolving technology, institutions may want to provide resources such as workshops and self-paced tutorials to students and instructors on how to use social media technologies to support learning outside the classroom. Instructors can enhance students' connections with their coursework by using social media technologies themselves and for class assignments. Researchers can extend this study by studying other student populations, such as adult learners and international students, as well as studying how social media is used in a variety of course delivery modalities, such as traditional classroom-based environments and distance learning.</p>

<p> This quantitative study examined the relationship between problematic Internet usage, self-efficacy, and proactive coping skills. This study compared demographic characteristics against three scales: Compulsive Internet Use Scale, General Self-Efficacy Scale, and Proactive Coping Subscale. A total of 146 Internet users over the age of 18 participated in this study. The results found a significant correlation between gender and, age, and ethnicity and proactive coping skills. There was also a significant relationship between age and compulsive Internet use. Compulsive Internet use was negatively correlated with proactive coping, suggesting improved proactive coping skills will lead to a lower level of compulsive Internet use.</p>

<p> The purpose of this qualitative case study research was to explore in-depth the research question, "How do texting and Textese influence students' learning of writing in Standard English in composition classes?" Yin's Five-Phase Cycle guided the research and aided in the determination of a qualitative case study research. The literature review identified that no single theory covered the phenomenon, so research was guided by five key theories: Technology Acceptance Model, Transactional Distance Theory, Media Richness Theory, Uses and Gratification Approach, and Threaded Cognition Theory. Participants included college English faculty from Illinois, 25 students enrolled in Composition I classes, and three consecutive semesters of former composition students' e-mails. Semi-structured, one-on-one interviews were held with faculty and member checked. A pilot study was conducted prior to inclusion of the 25 student volunteers completing the student questionnaires, and three consecutive semesters' e-mails from former students were analyzed for frequency data. All qualitative data were coded using MAXQDA+ software and analyzed. Results from data analysis revealed an evolving perception and usage of texting and mobile communication devices among faculty and students, a disconnect between faculty and students concerning use of texting and Textese, and frequency data revealing the influence did not permeate writing as much as previous studies implied. Results indicated most faculty and students had mixed attitudes, leading to implications that faculty needed to incorporate lessons involving texting, code switching, and detail richness into the course pedagogy. </p><p> <i>Keywords</i>: Texting, Textese, composition, social media, short message systems, formal/informal writing, Technology Acceptance Model, Media Richness Theory</p>

<p> This dissertation summarizes a study of the use of online homework with developmental mathematics students at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. To address the problem of high failure rates in developmental mathematics courses this study investigated the relationship between online homework and academic achievement, persistence, and attitude. Special focus was placed on non-traditional and Alaska Native students. </p><p> A matched pair experimental design was employed. The independent variable was homework type and the dependent variables were achievement, persistence, and attitude. Nineteen sections of developmental mathematics, six instructors, and 423 student participants were involved. </p><p> The main effect of homework type was not statistically significant to any of the dependent variables. However, the effect of the interaction between homework type and course level was significant (p = 0.005). Upon further analysis it was found that one of the four levels (beginning algebra) had significantly higher post-test scores when online homework was assigned. The interaction effects of homework type/Native status and homework type/ non-traditional status were not statistically significant on any of the dependent variables. </p><p> Also, results from homework questionnaires were compared. In general, students rated paper homework slightly higher than online homework. Instructors rated online homework higher than students did. Non-traditional students scored paper homework higher than online homework. </p><p> The conclusion of this study is that while students have a slightly more favorable attitude toward paper homework, online homework in conjunction with graded paper quizzes and face-to-face instruction does not have a negative effect on achievement or persistence.</p>

<p> This quantitative study investigates cyber-plagiarism among undergraduate college students, particularly the prevalence and motives for copying and pasting unattributed sources on written assignments within the theoretically rich and broader context of self-efficacy theory. </p><p> Four-hundred-thirty-seven students from three universities completed an online survey designed to examine the relationship between cyber-plagiarism and measures of self-efficacy. A Pearson Correlation revealed no empirical evidence to support the hypothesis that students cyber-plagiarize because they lack an ability to synthesize. The results also indicated that students do not perceive cyber-plagiarism as a socially acceptable practice at their universities, and that they strongly believe in an author's ownership in the digital age. Respondents reported that they almost never participate in cyber-plagiarism, yet perceive cyber-plagiarism as a prevalent practice among their peers.</p>