Constructing a Sense of Community in a Graduate Educational Setting using a Web 2.0 Environment

This chapter posits that information technology and “Web 2.0 technology” such as blogs and wikis can be used to expand the “Claremont Conversation” by changing the nature of scholarly communication. By using social technologies, conversations outside class among students and professors help build an intellectual community that is the hallmark of a liberal education. We describe the design and implementation of an initial project that targeted only the School of Information Systems and Technology (SISAT) at Claremont Graduate University (CGU). The artifact developed was an online community for the purpose of improving the sense-of-community amongst students, faculty, and alumni of SISAT. This chapter then proposes future steps in how to improve the intellectual community at CGU by expanding the online intellectual community established for SISAT to the entire campus. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61520-937-8.ch003

[1]  Martin Ebner,et al.  Lurking: An Underestimated Human-Computer Phenomenon , 2005, IEEE Multim..

[2]  Elizabeth Stacey,et al.  Social Presence Online: Networking Learners at a Distance , 2001, Education and Information Technologies.

[3]  C. Tu,et al.  The Relationship of Social Presence and Interaction in Online Classes , 2002 .

[4]  Rajiv Kohli,et al.  Informating the Clan: Controlling Physicians' Costs and Outcomes , 2004, MIS Q..

[5]  A. Collins,et al.  Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning , 1989 .

[6]  Steve Cayzer,et al.  Semantic blogging and decentralized knowledge management , 2004, CACM.

[7]  C. Gunawardena.  Social Presence Theory and Implications for Interaction and Collaborative Learning in Computer Conferences , 1995 .

[8]  Les Gasser,et al.  A Design Theory for Systems That Support Emergent Knowledge Processes , 2002, MIS Q..

[9]  Ulrike Cress,et al.  Group awareness and self-presentation in computer-supported information exchange , 2008, Int. J. Comput. Support. Collab. Learn..

[10]  J. Walther.  Computer-Mediated Communication , 1996 .

[11]  M. Feldman,et al.  Electronic Mail and Organizational Communication: Does Saying Hi Really Matter? , 1998 .

[12]  Coy Callison,et al.  Do PR Practitioners Have a PR Problem?: The Effect of Associating a Source With Public Relations and Client-Negative News on Audience Perception of Credibility , 2001 .

[13]  Trevor Wood-Harper,et al.  A critical perspective on action research as a method for information systems research , 1996, J. Inf. Technol..

[14]  Richard Baskerville,et al.  Investigating Information Systems with Action Research , 1999, Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[15]  Chih-Hsiung Tu,et al.  The Measurement of Social Presence in an Online Learning Environment , 2002 .

[16]  D. Chavis,et al.  The meaning of “community” in community psychology , 1986 .

[17]  Robert W. Zmud,et al.  Behavioral Intention Formation in Knowledge Sharing: Examining the Roles of Extrinsic Motivators, Social-Psychological Factors, and Organizational Climate , 2005, MIS Q..

[18]  Richard L. Daft,et al.  Organizational information requirements, media richness and structural design , 1986 .

[19]  Yun Yang,et al.  Using an experimental study to develop group awareness support for real-time distributed collaborative writing , 2006, Inf. Softw. Technol..

[20]  D. Chavis,et al.  Sense of community: A definition and theory , 1986 .

[21]  Jeremy B. Williams,et al.  Exploring the use of blogs as learning spaces in the higher education sector , 2004 .

[22]  Bertjan Doosje,et al.  Self and social identity. , 2002, Annual review of psychology.

[23]  U. Cress,et al.  The social psychology of knowledge management , 2008 .

[24]  David W. McMillan.  Sense of community , 1996 .

[25]  Samer Faraj,et al.  Why Should I Share? Examining Social Capital and Knowledge Contribution in Electronic Networks of Practice , 2005, MIS Q..

[26]  Dimitrina S. Dimitrova,et al.  Computer Networks as Social Networks: Collaborative Work, Telework, and Virtual Community , 1996 .

[27]  Alan R. Hevner,et al.  Design Research in Information Systems , 2010 .

[28]  Thomas A. Horan,et al.  A Design Theory Approach to Community Informatics: Community-Centered Development and Action Research Testing of Online Social Networking Prototype , 2007, J. Community Informatics.

[29]  Frank Biocca,et al.  The Effect of the Agency and Anthropomorphism on Users' Sense of Telepresence, Copresence, and Social Presence in Virtual Environments , 2003, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[30]  C. Wagner,et al.  Supporting knowledge management in organizations with conversational technologies: Discussion forums, weblogs, and wikis , 2005 .

[31]  G. Pretty,et al.  A review of the sense of community index: Current uses, factor structure, reliability, and further development , 1999 .

[32]  Douglas D. Perkins,et al.  CONFIRMATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS OF THE SENSE OF COMMUNITY INDEX AND DEVELOPMENT OF A BRIEF SCI , 2003 .

[33]  Frank Biocca,et al.  Toward a More Robust Theory and Measure of Social Presence: Review and Suggested Criteria , 2003, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[34]  R. Rice.  Media Appropriateness Using Social Presence Theory to Compare Traditional and New Organizational Media , 1993 .

[35]  Rikard Lindgren,et al.  Design Principles for Competence Management Systems: A Synthesis of an Action Research Study , 2004, MIS Q..

[36]  C. Gunawardena,et al.  Social presence as a predictor of satisfaction within a computer‐mediated conferencing environment , 1997 .

[37]  Starr Roxanne Hiltz,et al.  Asynchronous learning networks as a virtual classroom , 1997, CACM.

[38]  Alan R. Hevner,et al.  Design Science in Information Systems Research , 2004, MIS Q..

[39]  Enid Mumford,et al.  Advice for an action researcher , 2001, Inf. Technol. People.

[40]  Kazuhiro Kuwabara,et al.  Connectedness oriented communication: fostering a sense of connectedness to augment social relationships , 2002, Proceedings 2002 Symposium on Applications and the Internet (SAINT 2002).

[41]  Ulrike Cress,et al.  Improving quality and quantity of contributions: Two models for promoting knowledge exchange with shared databases , 2007, Comput. Educ..