Social networking in an academic conference context: insights from a case study

Towards a More Connected Field of Community Development Education: Encouraging Community Well-Being Through an Engaged Symposium

As society continues to shift and progress, the field of community development becomes more salient to the well-being and sustainability of rural and urban communities. Globalization, global pandemics, technological change, and devolution are among several issues impacting the well-being of rural townships and urban neighborhoods nationally and globally. Post-secondary community development degree programs may be vital in developing individuals to address these unique issues. However, due to the multidisciplinary nature of the field, there has been a lack of communication and consensus among educators regarding the necessary skills, theories, and practices to teach in these programs. In 2017, a foundational initiative was implemented to examine community development education higher education programs across the United States. A unique component of this initiative was the inaugural Community Development Education Symposium. This innovative symposium engaged many community development educators from a variety of fields in an intense, purposeful three day event. This article captures the synergy of bringing together community development educators in a uniquely structured symposium, to network, share expertise, and ultimately build a Community of Practice (CoP) towards a more connected field of community development education and ultimately enhancing the well-being of communities through their student graduates.

Online conferences for better learning

Conferences provide an invaluable set of opportunities for professional development. Online, virtual, and distributed conferences do not necessarily mean less opportunity for growth and innovation in science but varied and novel options for communicating the scientific process. Open science and many existing tools are in place in the practice of contemporary ecology and evolution to provide latitude for a much broader scope of sharing and thus learning from conferences. A brief overview of the science supporting online conferences and a highlight of some of the open science concepts in ecology and evolution are provided here to enable better learning through better planning for online conferences.

RE-examining the Effect of Online Social Support on Subjective Well-Being: The Moderating Role of Experience

Building upon the perspectives of social capital theory, social support, and experience, this study developed a theoretical model to investigate the determinants of subjective well-being on social media. This study also examined the moderating role of experience on the relationship between subjective well-being and social support. Data collected from 267 social media users in Taiwan were used to test the proposed model. Structural equation modeling analysis was used to test the measurement model and the structural model. The findings reveal that receiving online support and providing online support are the key predictors of subjective well-being. Furthermore, social capital positively influences the reception and provision of online support. Finally, providing online support has a significant effect on the subjective well-being of users with low levels of use experience, while receiving online support exerts a stronger influence on the subjective well-being of users with high levels of use experience.

Usage of academic social networking sites by Karachi social science faculty

The last decade has seen the emergence of academic social networking sites as a vehicle for scholars to promote their research and communicate with other scholars in their field. Given the small number of studies on the use of such sites by Pakistani academics, the authors conducted an exploratory study of social science faculty members at five Karachi (Pakistan) public sector universities. Analysis of the 68 valid responses revealed that the primary reason for accessing an academic social networking site was to search for articles on the site. Results also showed that accruing citations was the main reason for which respondents uploaded their own publications. The findings validate a role for librarians to support academics in their creation of effective online academic profiles.