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Collaboration via E-mail and Internet Relay Chat: Understanding Time and Technology
Abstract
The purpose of this preliminary study was to structure and begin to study how collaborators working across distance perceive and use e-mail and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) to facilitate their collaborative and decision-making processes. Students from the University of Western Sydney and the University of Minnesota worked in pairs to respond to four decision-making scenarios over a four-week period. Using e-mail, students came to a decision more quickly than when using IRC, and when IRC was slow, students reverted to a series of rapid-fire e-mail messages to facilitate their work. Students appreciated the cross-cultural experience; however, they struggled to create a shared communicative context via the Internet.
... Bales (1950) found that groups struggled to find a balance between the need to accomplish their work, and the desire to achieve a harmonious interpersonal climate. IPA has been used to study face-to-face learning environments (Lockheed & Klein, 1985), and also in online environments to compare interactions between moderators and students, between male and female learners, and between synchronous and asynchronous communication (Chou, 2002;Duin & Archee, 1996;Fahy 2006;Finegold & Cooke, 2006;Kumar, Beuth, Rosé, 2011;Tomai, Mebane, Rosa, & Benedetti, 2014). The KCSI framework (Hou & Wu, 2011) incorporates Gunawardena, Lowe and Anderson's (1997) coding scheme of social knowledge construction, and consists of four dimensions: knowledge construction, task coordination, social interaction, and off-topic discussion. ...
... Interpretation of IPA findings in Table 6 can be aided by drawing comparisons to those found in other studies that utilized IPA in synchronous online learning environments. The proportion of task related comments made by students in WGD was 8% higher than that reported in a study that investigated communication patterns made by two learners in synchronous chat (Duin & Archee, 1996). The students in that study had no facilitator and the learners determined the duration of the session. ...
This paper reports on a case study that explored the benefits and challenges of facilitating group work activities in a synchronous web-conferencing environment for advanced high school students in an undergraduate mathematics course. Results are based on data collected from online student surveys and a content analysis of synchronous online discussions among students during group work and whole group discussion activities. Findings of this study include that, relative to whole group discussions, small group work activities resulted in an increase in the involvement of students, and the comments students made were off-topic, less social-emotional, more academic, and more task-oriented. This case study also confirmed earlier findings that group work in a synchronous environment can facilitate social and cognitive support, foster student satisfaction, and help students share alternate solution pathways and receive individualized feedback. This study has implications for those educators who are involved in distance education programs for high school students, or are considering the use of group work activities in synchronous online environments.
... First, group chats, unlike structured forums, are fast-moving, unstructured, and unthreaded, which makes it difficult for users to keep track of diverse opinions expressed in the group [38]. Second, group chats are associated with procrastination, loss of concentration, and uneven participation [15,38,63]. Thirdly, people may not be accepting of contrasting opinions in online groups [52]. ...
WhatsApp groups have become a hotbed for the propagation of harmful content including misinformation, hate speech, polarizing content, and rumors, especially in Global South countries. Given the platform's end-to-end encryption, moderation responsibilities lie on group admins and members, who rarely contest such content. Another approach is fact-checking, which is unscalable, and can only contest factual content (e.g., misinformation) but not subjective content (e.g., hate speech). Drawing on recent literature, we explore deliberation---open and inclusive discussion---as an alternative. We investigate the role of a conversational agent in facilitating deliberation on harmful content in WhatsApp groups. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 21 Indian WhatsApp users, employing a design probe to showcase an example agent. Participants expressed the need for anonymity and recommended AI assistance to reduce the effort required in deliberation. They appreciated the agent's neutrality but pointed out the futility of deliberation in echo chamber groups. Our findings highlight design tensions for such an agent, including privacy versus group dynamics and freedom of speech in private spaces. We discuss the efficacy of deliberation using deliberative theory as a lens, compare deliberation with moderation and fact-checking, and provide design recommendations for future such systems. Ultimately, this work advances CSCW by offering insights into designing deliberative systems for combating harmful content in private group chats on social media.
... First, group chats, unlike structured forums, are fast-moving, unstructured, and unthreaded, which makes it difficult for users to keep track of diverse opinions expressed in the group [38]. Second, group chats are associated with procrastination, loss of concentration, and uneven participation [15,38,63]. Thirdly, people may not be accepting of contrasting opinions in online groups [52]. ...
WhatsApp groups have become a hotbed for the propagation of harmful content including misinformation, hate speech, polarizing content, and rumors, especially in Global South countries. Given the platform's end-to-end encryption, moderation responsibilities lie on group admins and members, who rarely contest such content. Another approach is fact-checking, which is unscalable, and can only contest factual content (e.g., misinformation) but not subjective content (e.g., hate speech). Drawing on recent literature, we explore deliberation -- open and inclusive discussion -- as an alternative. We investigate the role of a conversational agent in facilitating deliberation on harmful content in WhatsApp groups. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 21 Indian WhatsApp users, employing a design probe to showcase an example agent. Participants expressed the need for anonymity and recommended AI assistance to reduce the effort required in deliberation. They appreciated the agent's neutrality but pointed out the futility of deliberation in echo chamber groups. Our findings highlight design tensions for such an agent, including privacy versus group dynamics and freedom of speech in private spaces. We discuss the efficacy of deliberation using deliberative theory as a lens, compare deliberation with moderation and fact-checking, and provide design recommendations for future such systems. Ultimately, this work advances CSCW by offering insights into designing deliberative systems for combating harmful content in private group chats on social media.
... Internet relay chat, in particular, was created in the late 1980s (Chatterjee et al., 2005); though chat and messaging arguably did not become mainstream until the late 1990s with the development of applications like AOL Instant Messenger. But by the mid-1990s, educators were already experimenting with using chat and instant messaging in distance education courses (Duin & Archee, 1996;Kimbrough, Hochgurtel, & Smith, 1998). The use of text-based synchronous chat increased even more once learning management systems (LMS) began including their own chat tools. ...
The history of distance education in many ways is a history about the evolution of synchronous and asynchronous communication technologies. Distance education, and online learning in particular, has primarily relied on asynchronous communication technologies over the years. However, COVID-19 has sparked a new interest in using synchronous tools for interaction and collaboration in open, distance, and digital education. Given this it is incumbent upon educators and researchers alike to be familiar not only with the current iteration of synchronous communication technologies but also with how they have developed and evolved over time, the affordances and constraints of synchronous communication, interaction, and collaboration, some of the different types, and the overall implications for future research and practice.
... Despite these advantages, a number of difficulties are common when conducting goal-oriented discussions through a group chat. First, reaching timely consensus can be more difficult in a group chat than in a face-to-face meeting, as procrastination and loss of concentration are common in a group chat [25]. Second, messenger-mediated interaction without inperson contact can lead to uneven participation, which reduces the satisfaction of those who do actively participate and thus weakens positive group dynamics [20,30]. ...
Although group chat discussions are prevalent in daily life, they have a number of limitations. When discussing in a group chat, reaching a consensus often takes time, members contribute unevenly to the discussion, and messages are unorganized. Hence, we aimed to explore the feasibility of a facilitator chatbot agent to improve group chat discussions. We conducted a needfinding survey to identify key features for a facilitator chatbot. We then implemented Groupfeed-Bot, a chatbot agent that could facilitate group discussions by managing the discussion time, encouraging members to participate evenly, and organizing members' opinions. To evaluate GroupfeedBot, we performed preliminary user studies that varied for diverse tasks and different group sizes. We found that the group with GroupfeedBot appeared to exhibit more diversity in opinions even though there were no differences in output quality and message quantity. On the other hand, GroupfeedBot promoted members' even participation and effective communication for the medium-sized group.
... A key instructional strategy used in synchronous distance education environments is real-time distributed social interactions. Research literature supports the premise that learning was more successful when peers actively collaborated and interacted socially during learning (Duin, 1996;Riel, 1990). This research found that learning was not based solely on the establishment of new knowledge; rather it began with the needs and interest of individual learners and grew out of discourse and shaping of understanding through social interactions with others in the learning environment. ...
Abstract Synchronous distance education through Internet technologies is emerging as an option for involving experts in training events for dispersed audiences. This article reports on the design and formative assessment of a synchronous distance education demonstration project designed to bring experts to participants at their work locations through internet technologies. The first of three collaboratory demonstration projects used a minimalist approach to involve participants and an expert in a training event. Formative evaluation results indicated that the participants’ experiences were successful and convenient, but more engaging activitieswould provide additional benefits. A more robust model was designed to increase interactivity before, during, and after the live-broadcast training event. Key words: synchronous distance education, instructional design, emerging internet technologies
... Vygotsky's (1990) sociohistorical learning theories placed the individual within a social system that required other learners with whom and from whom learning takes place. Research literature supports the premise that learning was more successful when peers actively collaborated and interacted socially during and after instruction (Brisco & Peters, 1997;Clift, Veal, Johnson, & Holland, 1990;Duin, 1996;Riel, 1990). Learning was not based solely on the establishment of new knowledge; rather it began with the needs and interest of individual learners and grew out of discourse and shaping of understanding through social interactions with peers and the instructor. ...
Distance education is becoming a more popular and accepted method of delivering instructional courses to teachers trying to meet technology integration certifications. Well- designed distance education integrates a variety of design elements to support learners. However, the instructors of such courses are critical to learner success. The instructors can be challenged by the complexity of such courses however, if they prepare well, develop a deep understanding of the relationship between the design elements and course goals and activities, and create support tools and strategies they will be more likely to facilitate their students' learning process.
... For example, Feldman and Sarbaugh-Thompson (1996) suggest that, when used carefully, e-mail can be a very effective tool for addressing organizational communication problems such as groupthink, social deadlock and bureaucratic isolation. E-mail communication has also been shown to be relatively more useful to organizations than other forms of electronic communication, such as Internet Relay Chat, for general administrative purposes (Duin and Archee, 1996 ). In addition, organizations can typically now enhance their general e-mail capabilities into more extensive electronic conferencing options, when using the more current e-mail systems and prototypes that exist today (Graves and Noll, 1999 ). ...
Electronic mail can be a valuable tool within the general resolution and management of administrative problems. However, careful attention to problem definition and clarity of language appears to be needed for the effective use of electronic mail within the often emotional context of problem resolution. If poorly constructed, electronic mail messages may actually interfere with fundamental problem resolution strategies. This article presents a research-based five-step model for the effective use of electronic mail within problem resolution situations that has been developed by the authors and that has been used successfully at their institution. The model is particularly applicable to education and training environments.
... The student responses are discussed below: What is that students want from m-learning? Students appeared to require media that they could use to collaborate with other students (Moriarty, 2008;Clarke and Hermens, 2001) and thus require that the media is flexible pedagogically in terms of learning outcomes and social integration (Duin, 1996). This would seem to be a crucial factor which could use the inherent capabilities of mobile devices through social discourse mechanisms (Mathews, 2004), as well as reducing the element of perceived distance (Zhao etal., 2002). ...
Higher education appears to be changing in Thailand, as students, especially young students whose networking concerns match their obsession with mobile technology, may not accept past staid patterns of teaching practices and opt for more contemporary approaches such as mobile-learning. This research used a qualitative approach and conducted a focus group of students exploring their recent experiences of m-Learning at a university in Bangkok. The major results yield a mixed response in terms of student readiness for m-Learning technology demands. The analysis would appear to suggest that there are crucial technological constraints that have to be overcome relating to mobile devices, the media used and the effects of the delivery mechanism; and that these technological constraints have a considerable impact on student's pedagogic engagement. Future research implications and issues surrounding the development of mobile-Learning in Thai higher education is also discussed.
... Ukamienować. Zranić jak zatruta strzała 8 . Najgorsze są słowa polukrowane, lecz zawierające złe intencje. ...
What will it be like to admit Artificial Companions into our society? How will they change our relations with each other? How important will they be in the emotional and practical lives of their owners – since we know that people became emotionally dependent even on simple devices like the Tamagotchi? How much social life might they have in contacting each other? The contributors to this book discuss the possibility and desirability of some form of long-term computer Companions now being a certainty in the coming years. It is a good moment to consider, from a set of wide interdisciplinary perspectives, both how we shall construct them technically as well as their personal philosophical and social consequences. By Companions we mean conversationalists or confidants – not robots – but rather computer software agents whose function will be to get to know their owners over a long period. Those may well be elderly or lonely, and the contributions in the book focus not only on assistance via the internet (contacts, travel, doctors etc.) but also on providing company and Companionship, by offering aspects of real personalization.
... Belcher (1999) has cautioned that computer conferencing feedback can face difficulty of the technologically challenged process (Lindblom-Ylanne & Pihlajamaki, 2003) and observed that their Finnish students felt threatened by sharing their drafts with peers in this way. Van der Geest & Remmers (1994) found the benefits of computer-mediated peer review offset by technical problems while Braine ( & 2001 discovered that students in a face-to-face class produced better quality essays by the end of the semester than classroom is more successful when peers collaborate, share technology successes and challenges, and practice with technology (Brisco & Peters, 1997;Clift, Veal, Johnson, & Holland, 1990;Duin, 1996;Emery, 1986;Ingesman, 1996;Kies, Williges, & Rosson, 1997;Livingston & Borko, 1989;Metzler, 1996;Riel, 1990;Smylie, 1992;Wiburg, 1997). ...
EFL essay writing is considered one of the most important academic courses in the teacher education programmes that should help develop students' skills to write cohesively and coherently. Teachers' feedback plays a crucial role in improving and enhancing the quality of students' written essays. The aim of the current study was to shed light on the potential of e- feedback for student teachers and their university lecturers in an EFL essay writing class at the Faculty of Education, Helwan University in Egypt. Eighty student teachers of English and seven essay writing lecturers exchanged e-mails to investigate the effect of potential of e-feedback on student teacher's performance in essay writing. Eighty student teachers completed the questionnaire, 14 student teachers and 7 essay writing lecturers were interviewed to pinpoint the effectiveness of e-feedback as a pedagogic practice in the essay writing course. Findings of the study revealed a number of issues. First, student teachers perceived lecturers' e-feedback as impacting their revision than oral feedback. Second, student teachers perceived peer e-feedback as artificial and not valuable as students are nearly the same language proficiency level. Third teachers stressed that e-feedback was a good experience but exhausting with students repeating the same mistakes. Fourth, electronic feedback as a new pedagogic practice was generally effective in terms of the following: providing positive learning environment different from the physical rigid classroom environment, encouraging students' responsibility for their own written work, facilitating peer and teacher collaboration, increasing student participation, sharing learned outcomes between students, and giving writing feedback to students electronically was a well-received and helpful pedagogic practice. Thus, the current study recommends the use of electronic feedback as a solution to help both teachers and students overcome the feedback related challenges and students' proficiency in essay writing. Three appendices are included: (1) Students' Questionnaire; (2) Students' Interview Questions; and (3) Teachers' Interview Questions. (Contains a bibliography.)
... Students appeared to desire media that they could use to collaborate with other students (Moriarty, 2008;Clarke and Hermens, 2001) This requires that the core course media is flexible pedagogically in terms of learning engagement, consequent learning outcomes and social integration (Duin, 1996), as one student (S8) stated ...we all learn in different ways, and so the technology should help us do just this.... Another student (S4) insisted that ...we've paid for our phones [sic technology] so if we sign-up for online courses we should get more [than] that with just normal lessons... This would seem to be a crucial factor which could use the inherent capabilities of mobile devices through social discourse mechanisms (Mathews, 2004), as one student (S2) seems to underpin this with a comment that ...since we are socially aware online, then the university could tap into this to make our learning better... as well as reducing the element of perceived distance (Zhao et al., 2002) as depicted by one student (S9) ...by bringing us closer... (Main Theme -Flexibility). ...
Higher education appears to be changing in the Thailand, as students, especially younger students whose social networking concerns match their obsession with mobile technology, may take issue with past academic teaching patterns and practices and opt for more contemporary approaches such as mobile-learning (m-Learning). This research used a qualitative approach and conducted a focus group of students (N=15) drawn from a target population of 256 using a simple random sampling process exploring their recent experiences of m-Learning at a small HE institution in Thailand. The major results yield a mixed response in terms of student readiness for m-Learning technology demands. The analysis would appear to suggest that there are crucial technological constraints that have to be overcome relating to mobile devices, the media used and the effects of the delivery mechanism; and that these technological constraints have a considerable impact on student's pedagogic engagement. Future research implications and issues surrounding the development of mobile-Learning in Thailand higher education are also discussed.
... The literature has explored the benefits of online learning in depth and is suggestive of how Internet technologies integrate well with open and distance education. Most reporting has been on the way in which email, newsgroups, bulletin boards, and listservs may be used (Boehmer & Waugh, 1996;Burke, 1996;Duin & Archee, 1996;Laaser, 1998;Meyen & Lian, 1997). They address issues such as involving all students in discussions (Meyen & Lian, 1997) and using hypermedia and the Internet to move from "delivery" to "interactivity" (Brown & Duguid, 1996). ...
The Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) offers 199 courses with online features to enhance the distance learning environment. The university has arranged these courses to provide students with greater flexibility in interacting with tutors, classmates, and the content itself. Integral to learner flexibility online is access, valuing computers and online learning, endorsement, and language proficiency. The current investigation attempts to explore these issues by examining the perceptions of OUHK students enrolled in courses with online tutorial supports. The methods of questionnaire survey and semi-structured interview were employed. Surveyed using multistage stratified sampling technique were 449 OUHK students enrolled in 18 upper level courses (9 English, 9 Chinese) at the OUHK. Forty-two students were randomly selected for a follow-up interview. Five major topics were explored including: (1) accessing the Internet; (2) perceptions of technology; (3) rationale for using the Internet in course work; (4) learning strategies used by the tutor online; and (5) perceptions of the online tutorial support.
... A collaborative course involving students at the Universities of Western Sydney (Australia) and Minnesota (Duin & Archee, 1996) that used both Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and email led to a higher level of student satisfaction with email than with the IRC. ...
The research problem for this study is focused on the need to know how students acquire and use information. Research indicates a lack of understanding of what students know about information and how they use information and this study used the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (Appendix A) as the basis for acquiring a better understanding of what kind of information freshman students at Virginia Tech need and how they acquire it during their first semester at college. Students were asked questions about their information use during fall semester 2000, using both email questioning and in face-to-face interviews. The data collected was used to develop insights into how students acquire and use information and resulted in suggestions that could be used in revising and improving instruction for freshman students that is provided by the University Libraries at Virginia Tech.
... These dimensions and their subcategories were derived bottom-up as well as from theory. With regard to the later, only a few useful ideas could be abstracted from studies on e-mail exchanges (e.g., Atkinson-Christie, 1997; Duin & Archee, 1996; McKeon, 1999; Williams & Meredith, 1996). Our main source of inspiration was the work of Mercer (1996) on analysing face to face communications between children. ...
Email was embedded in a project in design and technology education in elementary school. During four lessons children worked in groups on building a flying object. These groups communicated through email with groups of children from another school. The analyses of the emails, as viewed from distributed cognition theory, focus on the exchange patterns and content. Two characteristic exchange patterns are stacking and compounding. In stacking emails are sent out quickly enough to afford a “just-in-time” exchange of information. In compounding the emails transcend lessons. An “old” section of the email reacts to the partner’s email about a previous lesson. A “new” section deals with the current lesson.
Question-answer exchanges accounted for only about 15% of the communications. Connected discourse with explicit or implicit references to the partner’s email was likewise scarce. Groups mainly connected to each other through adoption, leading to shared scenarios of “We tell you our story—You tell us yours”. The conclusion discusses the impact of the task on the children’s communication. Among others, a precise definition and teaming of the task is deemed necessary to favour embedded email use. Because the genre of email use in elementary school is yet to be defined the authors caution against imposing many constraints on what children write to each other.
... However, these authors observe the management of process and the organization of group activities as they exist within organizations and among those who are usually from the same discipline [10]. Management issues and effective organization become more challenging when persons begin collaborating across organizational cultures and across disciplinary boundaries [6], [11], [12]. ...
This study contributes to a discussion on collaboration and technical/professional communication in indeterminate zones or less familiar sites for collaboration. The interdisciplinary group for this case study collaborated to write a project proposal to solicit funds from the US government for constructing a test bed for immune buildings as a tactic for combating potential biological and chemical terrorist incidents. Their approach to collaboration coincided with several approaches previously addressed in professional and technical communication research. Novel and creative approaches emerged as a result of this collaboration, but in some instances, disciplinary differences, as manifested by disputes over concepts and terminologies, posed obstacles to collaboration. Such challenges necessitated strong leadership, which was also critical for managing group process.
Technology is rapidly spreading throughout society and our public and private organizations. Tools like electronic mail, computer conferencing, and other groupware applications are being used in public and private organizations to more effectively and efficiently communicate, make decisions, and facilitate team projects. This article describes one experience using computer conferencing as a supplement in a graduate public administration class. The use of computer conferencing in the classroom are described, usage patterns are presented, and strategies for enhancing conferencing in the public administration classroom are discussed. The article concludes that, when properly facilitated and supported by the faculty member, conferencing can effectively supplement and enhance the traditional public administration classroom; in fact, using conferencing as a supplementary teaching strategy can enhance student discussion and student-initiated classroom participation. Using these strategies, the instructor also moves from being a provider of information toward being a facilitator of learning for students taking an active part in their own learning process.
This contribution presents a distance learning model based on the traditional educational model that joins synchronous and asynchronous communication components. We also analyze the integration of the proposed model to teach a subject whose educational methodology is based on the resolution of practical exercises in a laboratory. This adaptation process is divided in two phases and in this paper we explain the tele-education tools used in both phases and how to take advantage of the specific characteristics of each tool to improve the learning. Finally, the results obtained during first implantation stage are exposed and we show the changes that will take place in order to reach the second phase.
Despite the advantages of problem based learning (PBL) and the fact that it has been utilised for some time in conventional higher education settings, it is not widely used in distance education in Hong Kong. Recently, a small group of course co‐ordinators at the Open University of Hong Kong engaged in a series of action learning projects to explore ways in which it could be incorporated into their courses. The purpose of this paper is to report the opinions of these academics about the suitability of PBL for a distance education environment. Generally, they concluded that it is possible, and perhaps desirable, to consider implementing PBL as one learning approach. However, most of the projects focussed on a fairly narrow application of PBL, namely in face‐to‐face tutorials. The limitations of the participants’ interpretations are discussed in the light of the constraints they face, and some recommendations are made for other ways of implementing PBL into distance education.
Teachers of technical and professional writing in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) Programmes need to understand the particular needs and social contexts of students for whom English is not a first language. The focus of this paper is on technical writing, and the paper presents the findings from four broad areas surveyed in a meta-analysis of research articles on curricular, teaching, learning and assessment practices for university-level English technical communication in multilingual contexts. Communication lecturers in the SET professions are faced with decisions regarding the kind of language forms, topics and purposes to address when teaching, developing materials, or designing assessment tasks for a multilingual technical communication class. It is hoped that this meta-analysis will provide communication lecturers, who work within SET fields, with information for effective and inclusive practice.
Course developers can be distracted from applying sound instructional design principles by the amount of flexibility offered through online course development resources (Kidney & Puckett, Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 4 (2003), 203–212). Distance education course manage-ment systems (CMS) provide multiple features that can be easily integrated into online instruc-tion. Easy integration does not equal good design, and poor design can impede learning (Kearsley, A guide to online education (1997) http://gwis.circ.gwu.edu/ etl/online.html). A taxonomy of the instructional value for CMS features is described. An example of how a course was translated into an online version, initially a failure, and redesigned using this taxonomy is presented. A taxonomy that strategically guides the use of appropriate CMS features to integrate informational, instruc-tional, and learning elements into online courses can support designers in the development of quality of online instruction.
This paper describes a technique to blend distance learning with traditional educational methods using Electronic Office Hours. Electronic Office Hours can connect the teacher and students outside the classroom by using existing computer mediated communication tools and techniques. The teacher and students have a choice as to the times and locations of the meetings. Short descriptions are presented along with advantages and disadvantages of each technique. The descriptions are based on the authors’ experiences over a period of 18 years of use in the classroom.
Widespread social change and the emergence of online information technologies are transforming the curricula and learning cultures of the higher education sector. This paper presents a case study of one course in a preservice teacher education program that attempts to model in its pedagogy the relationship between information technology, teaching and collaborative learning that is taught in its content. The content is a blend of media, cultural, computer and technology studies that draws upon and extends the technological literacies and knowledges that prospective teachers bring to their studies, and will subsequently take to their teaching practice. Analyses of data from a range of sources confirm that the design and delivery of the course generates a new sociality and spatiality for learning that is both independent and interdependent.
Researchers have pointed to the influence of sex with respect to the attributes of the computer medium. The author elaborates upon possible sex differences in reference to perceived attributes of the computer medium, i.e., Richness, Accessibility, Velocity, Interactivity, Plasticity, and Immediacy. Data from both a pilot and main study are reported and interpreted. The pilot study included 78 participants, while the main study involved 211. The independent samples were composed of Communication Studies students enrolled at two Mid-Atlantic universities. Nine items with anchors of 1: strongly disagree and 7: strongly agree were taken from the 2000 Computer Mediated Communication Competence Scale of Spitzberg to assess the attributes of computer-mediated interaction. The results indicate that women scored higher than men on perceptions of Accessibility, Velocity, Interactivity, and Immediacy.
In this qualitative content analysis, I examined 55 articles with
keywords relating to collaboration published in the 1990-1999 issues of
five major technical communication journals. I considered the frequency,
types of research, and themes in the 55-article collection. My analysis
reveals differences in the authors' discussions of collaboration
depending on whether the collaboration occurred in the classroom or the
workplace. I also found that most of the 55 articles were more concerned
with collaborative practice than with theoretical discussions of
collaboration. Suggestions for future research include investigating how
experienced workplace collaborators and experienced teachers of
collaborative skills in technical communication courses solve the
nonroutine problems that occur when practice becomes difficult. From
these investigations, researchers might determine what constitutes
expertise in collaboration
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