(based on Shneiderman Chapter 14)

• focused partnerships
  (two partners work directly together on task; documents and direct communication necessary)
• conferences
  (communicate over time from distributed locations; messaging systems and online discussions)
• structured work processes
  (distributed but cooperative work on multi-role tasks)
• electronic commerce
  (negotiations and collaborations)
• meeting and decision support
  (realtime anonymous contributions during face-to-face meeting levels participant playing field)
• teledemocracy
  (online town meetings, conferences, debates, voting)

1. Participants are in same place at same time (face to face)
2. Participants are in different places at same time (synchronous distributed)
3. Participants are in same place at different times (asynchronous interaction)
4. Participants are in different places at different times (asynchronous distributed)

CSCW difficult to design and evaluate because:

• complexity of task
• number of people involved
• difficulty in defining and measuring metrics
• difficulty in designing experiments to explore/support design choices

Shared screens are commonly used for remote presentation and customer assistance.

Major issues include:

• synchronization,
• locking,
• sharing, and
• delays.

One such application is the group editor:

• multiple users to edit the same document simultaneously
• Several specific products are described.
• Locking is a major issue here
  (one study: different people typically work on different parts of the document at a given time).
• How does location of participants (same room or different locations) affect interactions, productivity?

Shneiderman sites a large number of studies (p 492-3) which evaluate conferencing systems on:

• productivity
• user satisfaction

when the conferencing system uses combinations of

• shared workspace
• audio
• video

The general results:

• workspace + audio: much higher productivity and satisfaction than workspace only
• workspace + audio + video: about same productivity as workspace+audio but higher satisfaction

Electronic conferencing tools add the necessary structure.

Lack of standards has hindered multimedia email (loosely refers to anything beyond plain text).

Lotus Notes is discussed as an example of a successful cooperation tool which incorporated email, document sharing, scheduling, newsgroups and primitive database.

Other interaction activities:

• newsgroups,
• listservs,
• online newsletters,
• freeware/shareware,
• online conferencing.

Shniederman electronic classrooms at U of Maryland.

• The electronic classrooms provide a same-time, same-place CSCW environment.
• There is no single best or correct teaching methodology for use with this technology
• Viewpoint supported by anecdotal evidence.

Consider delivery methods for distance education:

• Video lectures with email/telephone feedback
• Videoconferencing (live video with audio or A/V feedback)
• Desktop videoconferencing (DTVC)
• Web-based: WWW plus BBS and email (and others?)

Some pertinent references (full reference at end of chap 14) are:

• Harasim, et al, Learning Networks: A field Guide to Teaching and Learning Online, MIT Press, 1995. (SHOULD BE IN SMSU LIBRARY: LB1028.43 .L43 1995)
• Hiltz, The Virtual Classroom, Ablex, 1992. (SMSU LIBRARY: LC5803.C65 H55 1994 -- also look for LB1044.7 .H573 1997)
• Shneiderman, et al, Windows of opportunity in electronic classrooms, CACM, Nov 1995, p 19.
• Hofstetter, Multimedia Literacy, McGraw-Hill, 1995. (SMSU LIBRARY: QA76.575 .H645 1995 -- 1997 edition is in process)
• Norman, Kent, navigating the educational space with Hypercourseware, Hypermedia 6:1, Jan 94
• Alavi, Computer mediated collaborative learning: An empirical evaluation, MIS Quarterly 18:2, June 94 (SMSU PERIODICALS T58.6 .M55)

Last reviewed: 7 December 1998