Abstract

COOPERATION AND COLLABORATION USING COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION IN A DISTANCE EDUCATION CLASS (133 PP.)

Director of Thesis: Albert L. Ingram

The purpose of this study was to operationally define and measure collaboration, and compare the products and structure of collaborative groups using computer-mediated communication.

Characteristics of collaboration, selected from the literature, were interdependence, synthesis, and independence. A model for evaluating these characteristics was developed.

All communication for this study occurred via asynchronous computer-mediated communication, using a threaded Web discussion. Participants in the study were graduate students, studying the same course with the same instructor, at two venues. The students were divided into small groups from one or both venues, and four of these groups were studied. The students were given a problem to solve involving the cost-benefit trade-offs of distance education.

The groups received different instructions. Two of the groups were told to collaborate on a solution and the other two were told to select a role and discuss the problem from that point of view.

Results showed that groups that were instructed to collaborate were more collaborative, but these groups did not produce as good a product as less collaborative groups. No conclusions could be drawn from the results on the structure of the groups.

The role of collaboration in problem solving was discussed as well as methods of creating more effective collaboration. The difference between collaborative problem solving and collaborative learning, and the implications for this in evaluating research studies, was discussed.