Stakeholders within autism spectrum disorder communities use Twitter for specific purposes. The goal of this study was to characterize patterns and themes of tweet content and sentiment and intercommunications between users sending and retweeting content to their respective user networks. The study used cross-sectional analysis of data generated…

Engaging in interactions with peers is important for student learning. Many studies have quantified patterns of student interactions in in-person physics courses using social network analysis, finding different network structures between instructional contexts (lecture and laboratory) and styles (active and traditional). Such studies also find…

Purpose: Agricultural extension services in poor countries often identify opinion leaders based on criteria such as wealth and social status. We explore the effectiveness of this top-down approach by analysing the role of so-called model and nodal farmers in the diffusion of malt barley in a highland community in Ethiopia. Research approach: We…

Objective: The impact of social media on public health has been examined in various studies. However, none have explored user engagement based on the type of Facebook posts related to renal disease. Therefore, the present study sought to determine which type of nephrology-related posts have greater user engagement. Setting: Facebook pages.…

Extant literature on social media in education highlights the importance of improving social media-supported learning environments. This study adds to the literature by examining students' perception and participation for three types of Twitter-based instrumental activities--backchanneling, exploring hashtags, and topics discussion--in two unique…

Despite the importance of trustees for higher education institutions, few studies address how they influence the institutions they steward. To address this gap, we used a social network approach within a comparative case study design to evaluate how trustees interacted with two private, elite universities: Harvard University and the Massachusetts…

An asynchronous online discussion (AOD) is one format of instructional methods that facilitate student-centered learning. In the wealth of AOD research, this study evaluated how students' behavior on AOD influences their academic outcomes. This case study compared the differential analytic methods including web log mining, social network analysis…

Using a qualitative horizontal comparative case study approach, this paper explores the experiences of female leaders in Central Asian academia to identify challenges they face in transition/performance, the sources of the challenges, and any differences in the experiences of the female leaders. The results of the study are consistent with prior…

This study aims to develop a network design to meet the connection and interaction needs of students during the online learning process. The research and development method used in this research is divided into four stages, namely needs analysis, design, formative evaluation and revision. The results of the formative evaluation showed the learning…

In network meta-analysis, the use of fixed baseline treatment effects (a priori independent) in a contrast-based approach is regularly preferred to the use of random baseline treatment effects (a priori dependent). That is because, often, there is not a need to model baseline treatment effects, which carry the risk of model misspecification.…

Within the framework of the CaixaProinfancia programme, networks have been developed in 18 regions of Spain which promote intersectoral cooperation to combat the social and educational exclusion of children. Their emerging nature and simultaneous development have enabled a comparative study to be made of their organisation, the supporting and…

Recent economic pressures have demanded higher education institutions respond with strong, authentic brand promises. This mixed method multi-case study explored the authenticity of common brand promises at three Universities in Canada through Twitter and Facebook postings from February to April 2016 using a cloud-based text and network analytic…

This ethnographic case study explores intercultural and ethnographic engagement by undergraduate Hong Kong students enrolled in an Intercultural Communication course at a public research university. Ethnographic projects originated from virtual exchanges with undergraduates in a professional writing course at a private research institution on the…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore how customer-facing professionals (CFPs) created learning paths to adapt to changing customer needs in a digital environment. Design/methodology/approach: Two groups of CFPs were created from a previous single-case study to examine the learning paths of the two groups. Both groups were digitally…

Background: Networks play an important role in today's societies. As a consequence, changes are apparent in the political, economic, cultural, educational and social agendas. Purpose: The main goal of this article is to map the situation of school networks in Spain. The research questions are focused on what forms collaboration and networking take…