Assessment

Ke and Hoadley's article discusses research about evaluating the online learning communities. The authors state that in order to learn if online communities of practice make a difference or not, we need to first define the term "effectiveness." Is the effectiveness of online learning communities depend on the context in which it is used?

The article also argues that the higher the social ability the more successful you will be in online community of practice. My question is... What characteristic of social ability would help people become successful in CoP?

Class Notes April 27

Health and Support Groups

HutchWorld's article concludes that Internet access has a meaningful impact on the quality of people's lives under circumstances of stress and social isolation. I find it true with a lot of people and with access of information available. How can the reliability of medical information be improved on internet?

Shaw's article describes how computer-mediated social support can benefits patients and specifically talks about "how women with breast cancer experince the giving and recieving of social support in computer-mediated context." My question is how anonymity within the support group fostered equilized participation?