My reading of the DZX222 Help Conferences suggests a problem built into the online course idea. These days, we expect sotware and gadgets to be intuitive. If they’re not we get frustrated, angry and, more than likely, give up. Now, DZX222 has a detailed set of printed materials, as you would expect from an OU […]
Martin LeVoi referred to ‘critical mass’ – the size that an online group needs to be in order to be effective. Thought I’d go and check this out. ‘Critical mass’ doesn’t appear to be a technical term in regular use in the literature, but there is some discussion of group size. Glass and Smith looked at […]
At the DZX222 weekend, Martin LeVoi gave a very interesting talk on how the virtual res school had originated (1994: 12 students, 14 staff, all the students had to have computers and mobile phones shipped to them). Now that it’s been running annually since 2002 and is attracting 700 students in one year, Martin […]
Ingvill says that ‘in studying an educational activity such as project work, it is essential to take into acoount that participants have existing and established relationships.’ That’s obviously true of her work in the classroom, but I wonder to what extent it would relate to an asynchronous conference? There may be pre-existing relationships from other […]
Quentin Jones (1997) Virtual communities, virtual settlements and cyber-archaeology: a theoretical outline JCMC 3(3) Defining a cyber-settlement and a virtual community Cyber settlement is a cyber-place that is symbolically delineated by a topic of interest and within which a significant proportion of interrelated group-CMC occurs. A virtual community is a set of social relationships forged […]
Haythornthwaite, C., Kazmer, M. M., Robins, J. and Shoemaker, S. (2000) Community development among distance learners: temporal and technological dimensions JCMC, 6 (1) Student quotes include this: “I’ll have to tell you that it has been one of the most stressful times in my whole life… I started to have a lot of anxiety…. Just […]
Haythornthwaite, C. (1998) A social network study of the growth of community among distance learners Information Research, 4, 1 * Communication frequency is associated with the maintenance of more relations and the use of more media. * Patterns of media use are highly influenced by the media established by the instructor for class interaction * […]
Back in 1994, Mike Godwin drew up these principles for making virtual communities work: * use software that promotes good discussion * Don’t impose a length limitation on postings * Front-load your system with talkative, diverse people * Let the users resolve their own disputes * Provide institutional memory * Promote continuity * Be host […]
Now I’m reading a piece by Peter Kollock. I think it was a conference paper, as it’s quite short. He looks at theories of community which could be applied to internet communities. Looking at them, I think i shows that the theory was generally wrong – these aren’t guidelines for all types of community as […]
I’ve decided to make a point of emailing researchers when I have read their article and found it useful. This was recommended in U500 last year, and seems like a good idea. Apart from the fact that they might get back to me with some useful ideas or references, it also helps me to fix […]