Exploring the relationship between undergraduate students and student services practitioners is nuanced. By using Twitter as a platform, tool, and community, this dissertation explored this relationship. Previous research has indicated that social media and higher education have been explored broadly, however, relationships between two groups of…

To what extent are farmers in Illinois using the social networking platform Facebook and for what purpose? Do they use it to seek information related to farming? If so, what types of farming-related information are they looking for? This study aims to examine farmers' acceptance, use of, and information seeking behaviors as they engage with others…

The patient portal is an electronic repository of health information, including doctor's notes, laboratory test results, and diagnostic imaging reports. There are limited studies that explore how individuals make sense of their health information, and use that understanding to increase health literacy. Education leaders should consider the ways…

A mainstream course has several components that deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students must reconcile. In class, components can include the instructor, projection display, whiteboard, interpreting, and real-time captioning. Outside the classroom, components can include materials from the instructor, notes generated by a note-taker, and a lecture…

The original goal of this project was to build a peer e-mentoring program for parents and measure the effect of the program on persistence. In spite of strong mentor participation, two terms of focused recruiting did not attract mentees. This sparked the question of why those who had successfully navigated the higher education system thought a…

Computer facilitated Social Networking (SN) is becoming more prevalent in our society, both in our personal and professional lives. As its use grows, there is a desire to determine how it will impact an organization. If it can positively impact an organization then it is an initiative that could be embraced and leveraged for any number of business…

Research has established the central role of high quality discussion in the developing understandings of readers and writers (e.g., Applebee, 1994; Freedman & Delp, 2007; Nystrand, 1997). Studies particularly have focused on the promise of dialogic teaching, or instruction that provides students with ongoing opportunities to engage in…

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of an online workspace component of a community in the work of a community of practice. Much has been studied revealing the importance of communities of practice to organizations, project success, and knowledge management and some of these same successes hold true for virtual communities of…

The recent trend toward patients participating in their own healthcare has opened up numerous opportunities for computing research. This dissertation focuses on how technology can foster this participation, through user interfaces to effectively communicate personal health status and care progress to hospital patients. I first characterize the…

This dissertation presents the results of an exploratory study which examined the use of synchronous text-based communication technologies (SMS texting and instant messaging) by undergraduate university students generally 18 to 24 years old. Preliminary focus groups were conducted in order to gain additional understanding of their usage of these…

The growth of Internet usage in American society has added new modes of communication, primarily through computer-mediated communication (CMC)on the Internet. Research on the relationship between Internet use and psychological well-being has been mixed and this study attempted to reconcile the discrepancies in results by exploring the…

The arrival of a new generation of students, known as the Net Generation (Junco, 2010), into colleges and universities has demanded changes to the traditional administrative and support services provided on campuses across the nation. In times of ever-changing technological advances, colleges and universities have begun to utilize new and…

Context: This dissertation examines beliefs and uses regarding tagging among current undergraduate students, and examines the ecology of communications practice and implications for formation and maintenance of identity within the population. Currently enrolled undergraduate students at UNC-Chapel Hill formed the population for examination. …

This study was designed to determine whether faculty members utilized collaboration tools within Desire2Learn Inc., in accordance with Chickering and Gamson's (1987) "Seven Principles of Good Practice: A Framework for Evaluating Effective Teaching in Undergraduate Education." The population for this study was faculty members at…

The purpose of this study is to explore systems users' behavior on IS under the various circumstances (e.g., email usage and malware threats, online communication at the individual level, and IS usage in organizations). Specifically, the first essay develops a method for analyzing and predicting the impact category of malicious code, particularly…