When Technology Does Not Support Learning

Central to the design of successful virtual learning initiatives is the matching of technology to the needs of the training environment. The difficulty is that while the technology may be designed to complement and support the learning process, not all users of these systems find the technology supportive. Instead, some users’ conceptions of learning, or epistemological beliefs may be in conflict with their perceptions of what the technology supports. Using data from 307 individuals, this research study investigated the process and outcome losses that occur when friction exists between individuals’ epistemological beliefs and their perceptions of how the technology supports learning. Specifically, the results indicated that when there was friction between the technology support of learning and an individual’s epistemological beliefs, course communication, course satisfaction, and course performance were reduced. Implications for design of virtual learning environments and future research are discussed.

Collaborative Technologies and Innovation in SMEs

This study seeks to assess the impact of collaborative technologies on innovation at the firm level. Collaborative technologies’ influence on innovation is considered here as a multi-stage process that starts at adoption and extends to use. Thus, the effect of collaborative technologies on innovation is examined not only directly, the simple presence of collaborative technologies, but also based on actual collaborative technologies’ use. Given the fact that firms can use this technology for different purposes, collaborative technologies’ use is measured according to three orientations: e-information, e-communication and e-workflow. To achieve these objectives, a research model is developed for assessing, on the one hand, the impact of the adoption and use of collaborative technologies on innovation and, on the other hand, the relationship between adoption and use of collaborative technologies. The research model is tested using a dataset of 310 Spanish SMEs. The results showed that collaborative technologies’ adoption is positively related to innovation. Also, as hypothesized, distinct collaborative technologies were found to be associated to different uses. In addition, the study found that while e-information had a positive and significant impact on innovation, e-communication and e-workflow did not.

The Vineyard Approach

Recent research has noted that individuals engage in multiple collaborations simultaneously and have difficulties managing these different contexts. Studies indicate that awareness of others’ activities plays an important part in collaboration. Proximity also has a strong effect on collaboration, as maintaining awareness of peers becomes harder in distributed environments. Many awareness systems have been proposed to deliver information on peers’ activities or status, which usually either require extensive configuration by the user or disseminate information regardless of users’ interests. With the increase in information available, systems must be sensitive to users’ attention foci, minimizing interruptions, and helping focus and providing information according to current tasks. We have been investigating ways to determine awareness foci through e-mail-based user interaction analysis. Our goal is to be able to draw inferences as to whom and about what a user is collaborating, enabling a system to automatically distribute awareness information and adapt itself according to users’ needs without much configuration.

Supporting Synchronous Collaboration with Heterogeneous Devices

The increasing availability of mobile devices in today’s business contexts raises the demand to shift the focus of groupware framework design. Instead of solely focusing on functional requirements of specific application domains or device characteristics, nonfunctional requirements need to be taken into account as well. Flexibility concerning the integration of devices and tailorability of the framework according to different usage contexts is essential for addressing device heterogeneity. Besides flexibility, in order to support the development of real-world applications involving heterogeneous devices, robustness and scalability concerns have to be addressed explicitly by the framework. This article presents Agilo, a groupware framework for synchronous collaboration. The framework incorporates approaches addressing flexibility, robustness, and scalability issues. The combination of these concerns makes it suitable for development of collaborative applications involving up to hundreds of users. As an example application, a commercial electronic meeting system is presented by illustrating typical usage scenarios, explaining applicationspecific requirements and describing the system design.

A Comparison of Audio-Conferencing and Computer Conferencing in a Dispersed Negotiation Setting

The growing globalization of business is making face-to-face communications, decision-making, and negotiations more the exception than the rule. Internet communication in text-only, audio, and video form are all becoming feasible methods of communication between distantly located parties. However, in order for these new technologies to be used most effectively, more investigation is needed into the impact of various media on decision-making, such as that in negotiation. In particular, negotiators need to have a means of choosing the most appropriate communication medium, based on the amount of richness inherent in the medium, for the particular task at hand. This paper presents the results of an empirical study to examine the effectiveness of a computerized negotiation support system (NSS) in supporting bargaining carried out in a dispersed, but synchronous setting. In the study, pairs of college students, using the NSS, participated in a simulated industrial bargaining scenario that tested the impact of communication media employed and level of conflict on contract outcomes and negotiator attitudes. The subjects, located in separate rooms, played the roles of buyer and seller engaged in negotiations either by telephone (audio-conferencing) or Lotus Notes (computer conferencing). In both low and high conflict, the efficiency aspects of audio-conferencing — a richer medium in which more communication can take place more quickly — overshadowed any negative social cues transmitted.

Information Technology Adoption by Groups Across Time

Today’s technologies can support joint, but physically disparate work efforts. Some groups of professionals that could benefit from using these technologies do not adopt them, while others use the technologies frequently. This study provides an in-depth examination of how and when one organization accepted technology in their decision-making efforts. The research examines actual usage of the technology rather than the less strong, but more common measure, intention to use technology. As a result, the paper has helped bridge the gap between what people intend to do and what they actually do, thereby providing both a stronger theoretical basis for the TAM model and some insights into the evolution of the TAM model. It examines an emerging extension to the TAM and provides evidence of the behavior of users when they must act as a group.

The Launch of Web-Based Collaborative Decision Support at NASA

Today, organizations rely on decision makers to make mission-critical decisions that are based on input from multiple domains. The ideal decision maker has a profound understanding of specific domains coupled with the experience that allows him or her to act quickly and decisively on the information. Daily, decision makers face problems and failures that are too difficult for any individual person to solve; therefore, teams are now required who share their knowledge in spontaneous collaborations. Since requisite expertise may not all reside in the same organization, nor be geographically colocated, virtual networked teams are needed. This chapter presents a case study describing the development and use of Postdoc, the first Web-based collaborative and knowledge management platform deployed at NASA.

Designing for Creativity in Computer-Supported Cooperative Work

We are investigating the design of tools to support everyday scientific creativity in distributed collaboration. Based on an exegesis of theoretical and empirical literature on creativity and group dynamics, we present and justify three requirements for supporting creativity: support for divergent and convergent thinking, development of shared objectives, and reflexivity. We elaborate on these requirements by describing three implications for design to support creativity in context of computer supported cooperative work (CSCW): integrate support for individual, dyadic, and group brainstorming; leverage cognitive conflict by preserving and reflecting on minority dissent; and support flexibility in granularity of planning. We conclude by outlining a future research trajectory for designing and evaluating creativity support tools in the context of collaboratories.

Capturing the Appropriation Dynamics of Web-Based Collaboration Support in Project Team's Work Context

This research applies contributions from the social sciences to examine how organizations adapt information systems in a project team setting. Its main concern is to study the set of events and actions implicated in the institutionalization of an information system. The motivation for this research has been to address the following questions: why well designed information systems are so often not successfully adapted or used by organizations? How the adaptation process affects and is affected by work context characteristics? In our research we are focusing on analyzing the adaptation process of a collaborative platform in a project team, in the context of the construction industry by applying adaptive structuration theory.

Interpretation of Computer Based Interaction Analysis Indicators

DIAS is an Asynchronous Discussion Forum Platform, mainly developed in order to offer extended monitoring and interaction analysis support, by providing a wide range of indicators jointly used in various situations, to all discussion forae users (individual students, groups, moderators/teachers or even researchers/observers), appropriate for their various roles in different activities. This chapter focuses on the explanatory and interpretation issues that arise when the integrated Interaction Analysis (IA) features are used by teachers – moderators. The importance of applying additional interpretative value to seemingly simple quantitative measurements is highlighted through several implemented case studies. This research indicates that the teachers’ tasks can be supported using such approaches. More complex diagrams, with potentially increased underlying interpretation power, provide a more insightful examination of the status and evolvement of a discussion, as well as the contribution and performance of the participants (as individuals or as groups). Students cooperate more fruitfully, by utilizing IA indicators for assessing and selfregulating their actions, thus facilitating the moderator’s tasks. It relies upon the moderator to manage this aspect of such tools to his/her benefit. Core objective of this chapter is to outline the importance of appropriate Interpretation of the IA indicators, thus enhancing collaboration in multiple levels. The notion of Interpretative Schemas is deployed and their potential exploitation is thoroughly explored, using examples from real teaching settings. In fact, the significance of interpreting visualization data in a combined way and from different perspectives is designated, leading to the conclusion that this issue needs to be further researched.