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Gender Inclusivity in Online Question and Answer Communities: Investigating Community Member Practices and Perceptions to Work towards Equitable Interfaces

2022
Patrick Marcel Joseph Dubois. Gender Inclusivity in Online Question and Answer Communities: Investigating Community Member Practices and Perceptions to Work towards Equitable Interfaces. Ph.D. Thesis (2022). University of Manitoba, Canada.

Abstract

Online Question and Answer communities (Q&As) are one resource that people use to learn complex, feature-rich software, such as graphic design software. Community members, both learners and experts, collaboratively create a knowledge base by authoring content in the form of questions and answers. Q&As benefit from a variety of users drawing from their experiences to contribute content, and the users themselves can grow professionally and personally by participating. However, Q&As might not be fully inclusive, with certain user groups not participating to their full extent. As a result, Q&As may be missing perspectives, content may become biased, and users may miss out on opportunities.