TY - JOUR
T1 - Ritual in Online Communities
T2 - A Study of Post-Voting in MOOC Discussion Forums
AU - Longstaff, Emily
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2017/8/3
Y1 - 2017/8/3
N2 - When building a community, whether online or offline, rituals are key. They guide social interaction by expressing standards of behavior and social boundaries through patterned series of symbolic words and acts. With Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as a case study, this article demonstrates how post-voting in online discussion forums—including those in education contexts—can both enforce and undermine the development of community precisely because of the ritual power such mechanisms assume, inclusive and exclusive. Anyone seeking to cultivate communities online through the use of discussion forums should be wary of this issue with regard to user interaction.
AB - When building a community, whether online or offline, rituals are key. They guide social interaction by expressing standards of behavior and social boundaries through patterned series of symbolic words and acts. With Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as a case study, this article demonstrates how post-voting in online discussion forums—including those in education contexts—can both enforce and undermine the development of community precisely because of the ritual power such mechanisms assume, inclusive and exclusive. Anyone seeking to cultivate communities online through the use of discussion forums should be wary of this issue with regard to user interaction.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85013361141&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/10447318.2016.1277639
DO - 10.1080/10447318.2016.1277639
M3 - Article
SN - 1044-7318
VL - 33
SP - 655
EP - 663
JO - International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction
JF - International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction
IS - 8
ER -