MA, Kent State University, 2012, College of Communication and Information / School of Communication Studies

Recent instructional research has suggested that students have expressed their need to be actively and emotionally engaged in the classroom. Student engagement decreases student attrition and increases student retention. Instructors who promote positive communication and facilitate relationship developments in the classroom influence positive classroom climates, which helps satisfy the social and emotional needs of students. Although student-centered instructors can satisfy these needs, the instructor-student ratio in the classroom may keep some students invisible, therefore, potentially unengaged. Instructional methods have begun to recognize the relational and individualized communication potential of peer learning, specifically peer tutoring. Moreover, peer learning engages students through observational and vicarious learning experiences of positive student models. This project explores the inclusion of peer tutors as positive student models embedded within the communication basic course and the potential affects this may have on student engagement, classroom climate, affective learning, and communication competence.

Committee: Jeffrey T. Child PhD (Advisor); Paul M. Haridakis PhD (Committee Member); Jennifer L. McCullough PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Curriculum Development; Education; Educational Evaluation; Higher Education; Instructional Design; Pedagogy; Personal Relationships; Teacher Education

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2016, Management

In an effort to deepen customer relationships (Relationship Marketing), marketers and online firms deliver personalized communications based on a consumers' digital footprint and other Big Data that they think will improve its effect; but the personalized messages are sometimes perceived to be “creepy” by the recipient. Marketers are admonished to not be creepy, but, there is not a unified definition of what creepy is or isn't, nor have the factors leading to perceived creepiness been clearly identified—there is a common feeling of discomfort, but no unified definition. The goal of this study is to address three research questions. First, what is creepy? Second, what factors lead to perceived creepiness? And third, can a scale to measure perceived creepiness be operationalized and used to validate those factors? I conducted a three-part; sequential, mixed methods study to define perceived creepiness and to identify the antecedents and consequences of perceived creepiness in personalized online messages. The study confirmed that transparency by the firm about their data collection, use and sharing practices and that enabling the consumer to exercise control over the collection, use and sharing of their personal information (including the ability to opt–out of personalized messages) are antecedents of perceived creepiness. Also, whether the message was “in context” or “out of context” had an effect on if the message was perceived to be creepy. It also suggests that trust in the sender has a direct effect on perceived creepiness; and perceived creepiness has a negative effect on customer satisfaction, which can harm brand reputation, sales, and revenue. This research makes a scholarly contribution by providing a theoretical framework for a Theory of Perceived Creepiness. It also makes a contribution to practice by providing marketers with an understanding of what leads to perceived creepiness, so that they can take action to avoid negative effects of personalized com (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Richard Boland Jr. (Committee Chair); Mary Culnan (Committee Member); Kalle Lyytinen (Committee Member); Casey Newmeyer (Committee Member) Subjects: Information Science; Management; Marketing; Mass Media

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2011, Communication

The evolution and diffusion of communication technology has consistently changed interactions between members of the public sphere in forming public opinion. Some democratic scholars have worried recent developments in personalization technologies will degrade public opinion formation. They worry that personalized news allows citizens to only pay attention to news coming from their preferred political perspective and may isolate them from challenging perspectives. Empirical research has shown people with access to more highly selective information technology demonstrate increases in both selectivity and incidental exposure to diverse perspectives. This dissertation focuses on these behavioral and attitudinal outcomes of using personalized news technologies. Dual-processing theories of information provide the foundation for analyzing opinion formation within the bounded rationality model of public opinion. Personalized news technologies are hypothesized to increase the amount of news exposure and elaboration through increased personal relevance. Two studies test these broad hypotheses. First, results from a national random sample of adults show users of personalized web portals are more likely to engage in increased news viewing both online and offline. No differences in preference for perspective sharing or challenging sources of news is found between personalized portal users and non-users. Next, results from an online experiment of Ohio adult Internet users show an increase in time spent reading news articles in personalized news portals compared with a generic portal. An interaction between using customized news portals with source recommendations based off of explicit user preferences and increased time spent reading per news article is found on news elaboration. No differences in news elaboration are found in other personalized news designs including implicitly recommended news sources based on user profile information and only showing users recommended stor (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Gerald M. Kosicki PhD (Advisor); David R. Ewoldsen PhD (Committee Member); R. Kelly Garrett PhD (Committee Member); Andrew F. Hayes PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Sciences; Behaviorial Sciences; Communication; Experiments; Information Systems; Information Technology; Journalism; Mass Communications; Political Science