Documents found
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4111.More information
Online discussion research has mainly been conducted using case methods. This article proposes a method for comparative analysis based on network metrics such as information entropy and global network efficiency as more holistic measures characterizing social learning group dynamics. We applied social learning optimization analysis of networks (SLOAN) to a data set consisting of Coursera courses from a range of disciplines. We examined the relationship of discussion forum uses and measures of network efficiency, characterized by the information flow through the network. Discussion forums vary greatly in size and in use. Courses with a greater prevalence of subject-related versus procedural talk differed significantly in seeking but not disseminating behaviors in massive open online course discussion forums. Subject-related talk was related to higher network efficiency and had higher seeking and disseminating scores overall. We discuss the value of SLOAN for social learning and argue for the experimental study of online discussion optimization using a discussion post recommendation system for maximizing social learning.
Keywords: social learning optimization analysis of networks, SLOAN, social cognitive theory, social learning, information theory, network analysis
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4113.More information
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted academic life worldwide for students as well as educators. The purpose of this study is to shed light on the collective adversity experienced by international medical students and bioethics educators caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to both personal and academic life. The authors wrote their subjective memoirs and then analyzed them using a collective autoethnography method in order to find the similarities and differences between their experiences. The results reveal some consistent patterns in experience that are captured in two metaphors: Falling apart and Bouncing back. “Falling apart” involves the breakdown of daily lives during the initial stages of the pandemic, shown through subjective quotes contextualized through the authors' commentary. The consensus is that returning home and the transition to remote education were the two main reasons for the breakdown. “Bouncing back” encompasses the authors' recovery after the initial breakdown, achieved by acquiring new information about the virus, discovering how to continue their hobbies at home, such as working out or dancing, and learning to adjust exam expectations. At the educational level, the bioethics course, which guided students through the ethical dilemmas of the pandemic, played an important role in the recovery/bouncing back process. For that reason, we report on how it was to learn about and teach this subject during the pandemic, and how bioethics knowledge was applied for better understanding and coping with some of the moral dilemmas related to the pandemic. The study testifies to the importance of bioethics education during a pandemic and explains how this can contribute to shaping the moral resilience of future medical practitioners.
Keywords: autoethnography, bioethics, COVID-19, infodemic, medical education, online education, public health, moral resilience, autoethnographie, bioéthique, COVID-19, infodémie, enseignement médical, enseignement en ligne, santé publique, résilience morale
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4114.More information
Alcohol-related liver disease (ARLD) is a common indication for liver transplantation yet it is considered ethically controversial in academic, clinical and public discourses. Various social groups consider people with ARLD as personally responsible for their condition and question whether they should have access to a scarce resource. How the news media constructs responsibility for ARLD may influence public opinions toward those who are ill as well as related healthcare policies. Since the organ transplantation system relies on the willingness of individuals to donate organs, understanding how the media portrays controversial issues is a matter of vital importance for public health and health policy. We investigated how responsibility for ARLD requiring liver transplantation is presented for public consumption in the news media. Using a keyword search of two online news databases, we selected 81 articles from the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. We analyzed the articles using a discursive psychological approach. We found that the news media ascribed responsibility for ARLD to three main actors: individuals with ARLD, biological predisposition, and policy and industry representatives. How responsibility for ARLD requiring liver transplantation is presented in the news media may have implications for people diagnosed with other substance-related disorders who present for transplant candidacy or are on the transplant waiting list. Investigating how responsibility for ARLD is constructed in news media may provide insights into how responsibility is understood in other stigmatized health conditions and its potential implications for population health equity.
Keywords: alcohol related liver disease, liver transplantation, responsibility, media analysis, bioethics, stigma, maladie du foie liée à l'alcool, transplantation du foie, responsabilité, analyse des médias, bioéthique, stigmate
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4115.More information
As social media is widely adopted in collaborative learning, which places teams in a virtual environment, it is critical for teams to identify and leverage the knowledge of their members. Yet little is known about how social media influences teams to coordinate their knowledge and collaborate effectively. In this research, we explore the roles of two kinds of social media activity – information processing and social connection in teamwork – by applying communication and transactive memory systems (TMSs) as the mechanisms of explicit and implicit coordination respectively. We test this model using partial least squares (PLS) method by treating team as the unit of analysis. Drawing on the data from a study that involves 40 teams of graduate students performing a complex research report over eight weeks, we find that both TMSs and communication can significantly improve teamwork outcomes, and communication can help teams to better coordinate implicitly. With regard to social media activities, the results reveal that both information processing and social connection can enhance the level of TMSs; however, only social connection is positively related to communication. Unfortunately, information processing cannot significantly strengthen communication quality. The possible reasons are discussed and some theoretical and practical implications are also put forward.
Keywords: social media, implicit coordination, transactive memory systems, communication, teamwork outcomes
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4116.More information
This article is an analysis of the discursive space surrounding the terms and conditions of belonging in the Franco-Manitoban community of Saint-Boniface (Manitoba) in 2005. The discourse that is herein analyzed appeared in La Liberté, a French language weekly newspaper. Daniel Lavoie, a Franco-Manitoban singer-songwriter who moved to Québec in the 1970s, addressed a letter to La Liberté expressing his disagreement with the construction of a high-rise, privately owned, residential building on historical ground (the “500 Taché” project). His statements became the center of a spirited debate in the newspaper's pages, as this construction project deeply divided the local community at that time. This analysis of the “500 Taché” project is part of a larger, ongoing analysis of the role of language in the creation of social boundaries in French Manitoba, and the legitimacy of people who left the province as social actors in present day community events and decisions.
Keywords: discours médiatique, légitimité, Manitoba français, Québec, La Liberté, patrimoine, appartenance, identité, mobilité, media discourse, legitimacy, French Manitoba, Québec, La Liberté, cultural heritage, belonging, identity, mobility
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4117.More information
There has been a huge revival of interest in the role of translators and their visibility. Some Translation Studies scholars have mobilized French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's theorical concepts of field, habitus and capital to carry out empirical research studies in an attempt to understand how translators or interpreters perceive their roles and what kind of capital they pursue. This article presents part of the findings from a large empirical study in which quantitative and qualitative approaches are combined in an attempt to carry out a thorough investigation of translators' visibility, understood as the capacity to communicate directly with clients and/or end-users. The present article reports on the quantitative analysis of the relationship between translator's visibility and the amount of capital that they say they receive. The analysis is based on 193 Chinese translators in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao. The findings suggest that visibility is rewarding in terms of social exchanges and learning experience, but not in terms of pay and prestige. In addition, the analysis shows that some social variables including sex, level of education, region that the translator lives in, the translator's major field of study and the time spent on translation are not related to visibility or capital received. Meanwhile, the appearance of the translator's name on translations is significantly related to the capital received.
Keywords: visibilité, capital symbolique, capital social, capital culturel, capital économique, visibility, symbolic capital, social capital, cultural capital, economic capital
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4118.More information
Introduction: Changes in the care of pregnant women and childbirth conditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic may increase the stress experienced during pregnancy. This study aims to examine prenatal maternal stress in the context of the pandemic and the variables associated with its variations. Methods: 180 pregnant women from the province of Quebec, Canada, reported their general stress, the impact of the pandemic on their pregnancy, their stress related to the pandemic, their sociodemographic data as well as information about their pregnancy and exposure to the pandemic. Results: 16 % of the women in the sample reported a high level of general stress, 34 % reported that the pandemic had a significant impact on their pregnancy, and 9 % reported a high level of stress related to the pandemic. Younger mothers, the presence of other children in the family, a higher number of weeks of lockdown during pregnancy, and having been tested for COVID-19 during pregnancy are associated with higher general stress. Mothers reported a higher perceived impact of the pandemic on pregnancy when they did not have other children, did not experience complications during pregnancy, used alcohol during the prenatal period, and when a member of their immediate family tested positive for COVID-19 during pregnancy. Conclusion: The characteristics of expectant mothers, their pregnancy, and their exposure to COVID-19 should be considered in the provision of prenatal services and the follow-up of children born in the context of the pandemic.
Keywords: Stress prénatal, COVID-19, pandémie, grossesse, Prenatal maternal stress, COVID-19, Pandemic, Pregnancy
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4119.More information
Environmental issues in the context of housing reveal a resurgence of the commons in contemporary property law. If the commons are sometimes identified with common things and are in this sense outside the field of the appropriable—which the Anglo-Saxon terminology of ‘commons' emphasizes by avoiding the term property—they can also refer to property that can be appropriated in a common or collective way, whether this community operates under private or public law. Using selected examples, namely a study of ecological cohousing and green alleyways, this paper reveals a resurgence of the collective and the commons, both in private and public space, thus erasing the traditional opposition between the public and the private. More specifically, we are witnessing a renewal of collective usage rights through the commons as well as a transformation of ownership towards what could be called polyfunctional ownership that has a collective as well as an individual dimension. The fact that private property has largely been thought of through the prism of individualism cannot mask the social function of property and its more collective origins. Moreover, alongside access to ownership, the question of access to housing, through collective rights of use or holding, becomes fundamental.
Keywords: Communs, logement, environnement, cohabitats, ruelles vertes, propriété polyfonctionnelle, Commons, housing, environment, cohousing, green alleyways, polyfunctional ownership
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4120.More information
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of experts, surveys and statistics was put at the forefront of the management of the health crisis in Quebec. This situation gives rise to fears of governance by experts (epistocracy) and by numbers (numerocracy). The analysis of the legislation and cases related to public health measures shows that it is complex to conclude to the existence of epistocracy and numeracy. This article proposes a legal framework for analyzing these normative phenomena, namely that of the law of governance. The law of governance offers another explanation for expertise and information, as these are understood as legitimizing data for decisions made during the health crisis. From this perspective, it is less about governance by experts and numbers, but more about governance with experts and numbers.
Keywords: Gouvernance, crise sanitaire, experts, sondages, statistiques, Governance, crisis health, experts, surveys, statistics