Information Technology Reference
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2.
effects on users in terms of users satisfaction
as well as impact on topic knowledge and
critical thinking skills,
map visualization to facilitate content searching
and display, introduction of a search functions
whose algorithm helped to find “similar” posts
(and thus help avoid redundant posts as well as
assure new posts are properly located), the ability
to upload files, and the addition of new features
for moderators such as a merge tool to aggregate
overlapping posts and a queue tool to show the
queue of uncertified posts.
We observed a very high level of user partici-
pation as we achieved thousands of posts in just
a few days (Figure 6).
Remarkably, the deliberatorium was active al-
most 24 hours per day, except for a hiatus between
roughly 3 and 6 am. About 180 out of 220 users
3.
quantity and quality of contents.
Consequently we can report only some pre-
liminary results. Nevertheless the experiment was
very useful for observing the behavior of users in
the field and for improving the software based on
users feedback. These changes will help to plan
and design future experiments.
Among the more relevant modifications to
the software there were: the introduction of a
chat room for users, changes to the argument
Figure 6. Number & kinds of posts after two weeks
Posts since midnight 12/4/07
5000
4500
4000
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
0
24 8 2 6
120
144
168
192
216
240
264
288
312
336
360
384
408
432
time/hours
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
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