PageRank is what Google uses to rank pages that appear in search results. Through a special algorithm, Google assigns a Rank number to each page, the higher the better! A main factor of the ranking is how many links out their connect to a given web page, and the importance of said links. By this I mean you can have x amount of links, and someone else may have half that amount, however if the links to their page come from more popular, more reputable, higher ranked sources, he may have a higher rank than you.
PageRank Algorithm:
As described by Google founders Lawrence Page and Sergey Brin (they should know!)
PR(A) =
(1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + … + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))
- PR(A) is the PageRank of page A,
- PR(Ti) is the PageRank of pages Ti which link to page A,
- C(Ti) is the number of outbound links on page Ti and
- d is a damping factor which can be set between 0 and 1.
Get a basic rundown from the expert!
This guy has a good way of explaining things
1) Is this your first completely online subject?
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No - through studying BIT@Work I have been through several online subject in the last 2 years.
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2) What do you enjoy about the use of blogs during the subject? (Please provide a few sentences or bullet points.)
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I enjoy the less formal nature of it, much of the writing is opinion-based, meaning you can speak your mind and express your understanding in a more natural way, rather than translating all your thoughts into formal essay type language, and backing every comment up with a reference (all properly formatted!).
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3) Do you feel group work via blogs is a productive way to work through the course concepts (e.g., Web 2.0, Information Architecture, Content Management, etc.)?
Please indicate on a scale of 1 to 10 (where 1 = Strongly disagree to 10 = Strongly agree)
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5 - I believe it certainly has it's place in some subjects, however I have mixed feelings on group work in general, on an online subject it increases the difficulty of speaking with team members obviously with not having any classes to physically meet at. That said, collaboration tools are developing all the time so I would think this is something that will get easier and easier with time.
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4) What do you enjoy about the use of Facebook during the subject? (Please provide a few sentences or bullet points.)
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I did not use the Facebook page created for this subject, however there were a couple of questions in earlier blogs surrounding the social networking giant. It was a good experience to actually go and read their policies on several matters (security etc.), it forces one to really think about these things, and be aware of the dangers out there. If nothing else it might make someone tighten their privacy rules for their profile if it was previously wide open for the world to see!
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5) Do you feel that the use of social networking enhanced your sense of being part of the class community given that there was no real-time interaction within the subject (i.e., lectures, tutorials)?
Please indicate on a scale of 1 to 10 (where 1 = Strongly disagree to 10 = Strongly agree)
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5 - I mark this question so low purely because of my response to the previous question. Had I used the Facebook page I imagine I certainly would have had an enhanced sense of being part of the class community and the score would have been higher. That said I did enjoy being able to read other students work (blog entries) and make comments on them. It was a very refreshing option to be able to go read other peoples entries on subjects after completing my own to see if they had written similar things or had totally different view points.
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6) What would you recommend to enhance the experience of a student in an online environment? (Please provide a few sentences or bullet points.)
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I think making the Facebook page mandatory would force students to engage with each other more. It might be interesting to integrate other forms of social media such as Twitter, I was thinking earlier in the week about this and thought it might be a good platform students could use to make comments on the textbook readings, weekly youtube videos etc. Having everyone in the group following each other should create a decent flow of opinion to read through. One tweet, and one response per week should be adequate!
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