From May to June 2021, the members of Students@Digimedia carried out a pilot survey aiming to understand directors of masters’ courses in Portuguese public university and polytechnic education perspectives on the current state of completion of these study cycles. The discussion of survey results is expected to lead to a set of good practices to undertake in the curricular unit of Dissertation/Project/Internship.

Directors of Portuguese master degree courses were asked to answer an online questionnaire, and 303 valid answers were obtained (approximately 20% of the total number of courses).

Questionnaire included questions about the directors’ perception on the current state of completion of these study cycles, as well as their vision of the respective future state. Preliminary results indicate that:

– in only 17.8% (N=54) of the courses more than 60% of the students manage to finish the master’s degree in the normal season (by the end of July);
– 72.9% (N=221) of the course directors consider that the percentage of students finishing in the normal season should be higher than it currently is;
– 67.7% (N=205) of the course directors acknowledge that no specific measures are implemented to promote the delivery of dissertations in the normal season.

This pilot study was led by DigiMedia’s integrated member, Carlos Santos, who challenged a team of volunteers to carry out this research. Participation included  30 hours of scientific research activities, and involved designing, implementing, and disseminating the study. The team was composed by  DigiMedia researchers, and by graduate and PhD students in the Communication Sciences and Technologies field: João Batista, Liliana Costa, Mónica Aresta, Tânia Ribeiro, Francisco Regalado, Lorena Sousa e Maria Clara Rodrigues.

The final phase of the team’s work consists of the preparation of the final results and their dissemination through infographic and scientific publications. More news will be released soon!

For more information on the initiative please check HERE

miOne World was the 1st International Conference on Online Social Environments for Active Ageing, which gathers researchers, practitioners and industry representatives to discuss the design, development and evaluation of digitally mediated products for active ageing, sense of belonging and perceived wellbeing. It took place online on 22 and 23 July 2021, being organized by DigiMedia-Department of Communication and Arts, University of Aveiro, jointly with University of Porto (FLUP) and Polytechnic Institute of Viseu (ESEV).

This conference is a result of the SEDUCE 2.0 research Project, constituting a forum in which researchers, associations, Universities of the Third Age and other entities share their concerns, initiatives and advances in the involvement of older adults in the usage or/and development of technology and integration in communities.

Ana Isabel Veloso (DigiMedia Researcher) was the Conference Chair and is the Responsible Researcher of the project SEDUCE 2.0 and Liliana Vale Costa was the Organizing Conference Chair. Many DigiMedia members were part of the Organizing Committee: Cláudia Ortet (Registration staff), Francisco Regalado (WebDesign), Jesse Nery Filho (Author’s support), Sofia Nunes (Communication Strategist) and Tânia Ribeiro (Registration staff). Several DigiMedia Researchers were part of the Program Committee and session chairs.

The article “Women in Technology Communities: a Communication and Organizational Study” by Renata Loureiro Frade (DigiMedia PhD Student) was published in the Proceedings of the 15th Women in Information Technology (WIT 2021). The Proceedings of the 15th Women in Information Technology (WIT 2021) bring the papers selected and presented in the online edition of the event, on July 18 to 23, as part of the 41st Brazilian Computing Society Congress (CSBC 2021) which had the theme “Innovation and Digital Transformation: Facing the Complexity and Uncertainties of the Contemporary World”.

Abstract: In the last ten years there has been an increase in the creation and development of female communities in technology in Brazil and Portugal. Constituted mainly in a virtual environment, they have been developing multi-platform communication strategies to fulfill their purposes. This work aims to present preliminary results of a doctoral research on how these communities play a catalytic role in the inclusion, education and activism of Brazilian and Portuguese women in technology. This work intends to present organizational and communication characteristics of these communities, related to the technological paradigm of Castells, to concepts such as cyberfeminism, technofeminism and social computing.

Keywords: Tech Feminism, Online Communities, Communication, Activism, Social Computing

Citation:

FRADE, Renata Loureiro. Women in Technology Communities: a Communication and Organizational Study. In: WOMEN IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (WIT), 15. , 2021, Evento Online. Anais […]. Porto Alegre: Sociedade Brasileira de Computação, 2021 . p. 41-50. ISSN 2763-8626. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/wit.2021.15840.

Article available HERE.

To access the Proceedings of the 15th Women in Information Technology, visit the Proceedings of WIT2021.

To access the Proceedings of other events that are part of CSBC 2021, visit the Proceedings of CSBC.

The article “Learning about the customer for improving customer retention: proposal of an analytical framework” by Dora Simões (DigiMedia Researcher) and Joana Nogueira (University of Aveiro) was published in the journal “Journal of Marketing Analytics”.

Abstract: The market faces new challenges in retaining customers, since they have very high expectations, which translate into the demand for a swift response and intransigence to empty promises on the part of brands. These requirements result from the ability to disseminate and infuse information, which in turn makes customers more informed, more participative, and more uncompromising. This change in behavior implies redesigning the strategic management of the brands, in terms of the relationship with the customer. In view of this challenge, the relevance of developing an adequate differentiation model for customer retention prevails. Based on this premise, this paper presents a proposal based on RFM and ABC analytical methods applied to customer relationship management and contextualized in a particular case of the printing industry. The proposed model defines a set of metrics aimed at customer segmentation, which improves the customers knowledge. The outcomes will allow to define more assertive marketing strategies for customer loyalty and to increase the volume of a brand’s revenue.

Citation: 

Simões, D., Nogueira, J. Learning about the customer for improving customer retention proposal of an analytical framework. J Market Anal (2021). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41270-021-00126-7

Article available HERE.

Maria Helena Reis, a DigiMedia PhD Student, participated in the Doctoral Consortium of CHItaly 2021 – Frontiers of HCI, which took place in Bozen-Bolzano (Italy) and online, in July 11-13, and presented the paper “Prototyping an app to assist game-based activities: co-design using a qualitative approach”. The article is available in the CHItaly 2021 Joint Proceedings of Interactive Experiences and Doctoral Consortium and HERE.

The goal of the Doctoral Consortium is to provide a setting in which PhD students can present and receive feedback on their work. Students at different stages of their research will be able to articulate and discuss their problem statement, goals, methods, and results. The Doctoral Consortium also aims to provide students with useful guidance on various aspects of their research from established researchers and the other student attendees. Finally, the Doctoral Consortium seeks to motivate students in the development of their scientific curiosity and facilitate their networking within the research community.

The topics of the Doctoral Consortium are the same as CHItaly’s. The main scope of the consortium is to enable PhD students to interact with their peers, as well as with more senior researchers, on a wide range of Human-Computer Interaction related topics, and related to the conference theme.

The article “Instagram como herramienta de salud pública: un estudio sobre América del Sur” by Pâmela Pinto (DigiMedia Invited Researcher), Maria João Antunes(DigiMedia Researcher) and Ana Margarida Almeida (DigiMedia Researcher) was published in the journal “Ámbitos – Revista Internacional de Comunicación ”.

Abstract: Between 2015 and 2020, the adherence of South American health authorities to Instagram has increased. In 2015, from a total of 12 countries, there were three active profiles and, in 2019, there were nine. However, a few studies analyze the use of Instagram as a strategic tool in the context of public health in developing or low-income countries. Therefore, this study aims to map health authorities’ Instagram profiles in South America. An exploratory study was carried out based on a literature review and a content analysis of these profiles. It conducts a qualitative and quantitative analysis on the uses of the platform to expand information related to public health. The sample is composed of 2,418 posts, published between April and May 2020 and January and February 2021. Regardless of the region’s deep socio-economic inequalities, it presents an intense use of the Internet and social media. The results pointed to Instagram as an emerging communication tool for the analyzed countries’ authorities, which used it with different approaches. In the sample, messages that focused on prevention, health promotion, and institutions predominated. The card was the dominant language for presenting the posts. The COVID-19 pandemic was the most frequent topic. In the final considerations, there are good practices suggestions directed to the evaluated profiles, based on the issues presented in the analysis.

Citation: 

Pinto, A. P., Antunes, M. J., & Almeida, P. A. M. (2021). Instagram como herramienta de salud pública : un estudio sobre América del Sur. Ámbitos Revista Internacional de Comunicación, 53(2), 63–81. https://doi.org//dx.doi.org/10.12795/Ambitos.2021.i53.04

Article available HERE.

The article “ICT tools’ contributions in a technology-enhanced peer learning program involving EFL learners” by Ana Raquel Carvalho (DigiMedia PhD Student) and Carlos Santos (DigiMedia Researcher) was presented in the conference IEEE 21st International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT 2021) (July, 12 – 15).

Abstract

English as a foreign language (EFL) instruction strongly benefits from the authenticity, immediacy, and innovativeness brought by technology-enhanced learning (TELL) to more traditional educational settings. TELL promotion of peer interaction, collaboration and relationship building also facilitates the incorporation of innovative instructional methods within the scope of peer learning, with potential to foster learners’ language and soft skills. However, excessive use of TELL from a teacher-centred perspective is still an issue, demanding reflection on the pedagogical potential and purpose of technology-assisted language learning. Within the framework of Educational Design Research, this study reports findings from the implementation of a technology-enhanced peer learning program involving EFL upper and lower secondary students from three Portuguese basic and secondary schools. It aims at finding evidence of ICT tools’ contributions for the promotion of criteria “practicality” and “effectiveness” of the developed educational solution through teachers, peer teacher students, and peer learners’ perceptions. Data were collected by means of surveys and analysed with the support of descriptive statistics and content analysis. Findings suggest ICT tools’ effective role in promoting the criteria under analysis, despite the technical and logistical problems identified.

Keywords: Technology-enhanced language learning; peer learning; upper and lower secondary education; Educational Design Research; mixed methods.

ICALT 2021 Conference Proceedings’ Table of Content and Preface available HERE

The article will be available soon.

The Research Summit 2021 was held on July 7-9, under the theme “ Art, Science and Innovation in times of trouble”.

All PhD students were invited to present a pitch on their research project. In this edition of the Research Summit, two DigiMedia PhD students won the Best Pitches Award (1 award per doctoral program):

PhD Programme: Multimedia in Education
Ana Carvalho – Peer learning and its impact on peer teacher students’ academic performance – proposal of a procedure model. Supervision by Carlos Santos.

PhD Programme: Information and Communication in Digital Platforms
Inês Santos Moura – Participatory methodologies in the creation of a Web documentary with the community of Bairro Herculano. Supervision by Vania Baldi.

According to the Organizing Committee of the event, there were around 700 presentations in 2 days and more than 2100 classifications were submitted by the jury members, with some doctoral programs engaging more than 6 jury members for rating each of the presentations. As of the quality of the presentations, for a total of 22 points possible, the average of the rating of the pitches was 16, showing good quality and rigor from both the presenters and the jury members. The global average for the presentation was 4.9/7, the scientific merit 3.82/5, the potential impact 3.79/5 and the achieved impact 3.46/5.

The application submitted for the journal Journal of Digital Media & Interaction has been accepted into DOAJ.

Benefits of DOAJ indexation:

– The statistics show more than 900 000 page views and 300 000 unique visitors a month to DOAJ from all over the world.
– Many aggregators, databases, libraries, publishers and search portals collect DOAJ’s free metadata and include it in their products. Examples are Scopus, Serial Solutions and EBSCO.
– DOAJ is OAI compliant and once an article is in DOAJ, it is automatically harvestable.
– DOAJ is OpenURL compliant and once an article is in DOAJ, it is automatically linkable.
– Over 95% of the DOAJ Publisher community said that DOAJ is important for increasing their journal’s visibility
– DOAJ is often cited as a source of quality, open access journals in research and scholarly publishing circles.

More information available HERE

The DigiMedia Dialogs#3 took place on July 9 with the talks of Raissa Sales (DigiMedia PhD Student), Vania Baldi (DigiMedia Researcher) and Lídia Oliveira (DigiMedia Researcher), followed by a participated discussion on the topic Research in times of platformization: opportunities and methodological challenges in the analysis of digital sharing economy services.

Raissa Sales is a PhD student in Information and Communication at the University of Aveiro (2016). Master in Business Administration from the Postgraduate Program in Business Administration (PPGA), Marketing line, University of Fortaleza – UNIFOR. Graduated in Social Communication – Journalism (2009) and specialist in Communication Counseling (2011) by the same Institution.

Vania Baldi is an Assistant Professor at the University of Aveiro, has a degree in Sociology from La Sapienza University of Roma, has a master’s degree in “Identité et Unité de l’homme” (CETSAH/EHESS/CNRS, France) and Phd in “Ethics and Anthropology” from the University of Salento (Italia). His research interests are related with Network Society, Hypermediated Space and Civic Media, Affordance of Algorithms in Our Lives, relationship between Immediacy and Hypermediacy in Digital Culture, Culture and Imaginary of Consumption, Anthropology and Epistemology of Technique, Spreadable Media among Open Innovation and InfoWar, Engagement and Authorship in WebDoc, Analysis of Discourses on Technological Innovations.

Lídia Oliveira (full name: Lídia de Jesus Oliveira Loureiro da Silva) holds a degree in Philosophy from the University of Coimbra (1990), a Master’s degree in Educational Technology from the University of Aveiro, in partnership with the University of Valenciennes (France) and Mons (Belgium) (1995), and a PhD in Communication Sciences and Technologies  from the University of Aveiro (2002).

Abstract:

he creation and development of digital platforms dedicated to the sharing economy have generated discussions about some economic implications in the markets where it operates and social implications within the scope of its users’ experiences. In addition to the existence of a great diversity of digital services for the sharing of goods and services, the platformization of social experience opens the way to a new set of research practices. In fact, if the functioning of some platforms can limit researchers’ knowledge about intermediation phenomena, at the same time, the researcher’s skill can make some of their functionalities profitable by combining opportune methods and techniques.