The Good Samaritan Effect: A Lens for Understanding Patterns of

Abstract: We examine patterns of participation in an educational environment that exists solely for the purpose of providing help to those in distress. FreeMathHelp.com is a free, open, online homework help forum that is staffed by volunteers worldwide to help students to complete homework assignments in mathematics. We focus our attention on tutoring exchanges that concern related rates problems, a topic taught in introductory calculus that is often difficult for students. From social theory, the bystander effect has been used to explore online participation between members of a classroom. We propose a variant of the bystander effect in order to account for tutor participation patterns in online exchanges between anonymous participants. The Good Samaritan effect, named to capture the spirit of volunteers who come to the aid of strangers in distress, has four underlying mechanisms: self-awareness, social cues, blocking/inviting, and responsibility. The way each of these contributes to participation is discussed