Computer Mediated Communications
Week 12
LBSC 690
Information Technology
Agenda
•	Questions
•	Computer mediated communications
•	Computer-supported cooperative work
•	Educational computing
•	Project testing
Computer Mediated Communication
•	CMC refers to human communication via computers--including computer network communication on the Internet and the World Wide Web. People interested in CMC study a range of phenomena--from the dynamics of group communication in Usenet news articles to how people use hypertext to shape meaning. 
Describing CMC Applications
•	How many participants? 
–	One or many

•	When?
–	Synchronous or asynchronous

•	Where?
–	Local or remote
Cooperative systems
Electronic Mail (email)
•	Asynchronous and distributed
•	A great start for Internet communication
–	Available even beyond the Internet
•	Many email providers
–	AOL, MSN, Yahoo, universities
•	Mailing lists provide simple way to talk to many people at once
–	listservs
USENET News and BBS
•	Asynchronous and distributed
•	USENET are similar to a large set of mailing lists
–	Hierarchical organization
•	Most general appears first (comp., soc., alt. …)
•	Most specific appears last (comp.edu.languages.natural)
•	Google groups keeps all the news
•	Bulletin Board Systems are Web extension
–	Not through emails, but web pages
–	More popular than USENET now
–	An example: http://www.bianca.com/
Hands on point: try online BBS
•	Go to http://discus.hope.edu/f03/
•	Pick up a board to read
•	Describe how it is organized
•	Powered by discusware at http://www.discusware.com/
Threads in emails and news
•	Many ways to organize messages 
–	Chronologically
–	Same sender
–	Same receiver
•	Threads provides another way
–	under the same subject, in the same topic
–	Easy to retrieve a set of topic related messages 
Instant Messenger (IM)
•	Synchronous and distributed
•	“talk” on UNIX in old days
•	Popular for similarity to human talking
•	A common space shows dialogue history
–	Both people can type at the same time
•	Must has a screen name
–	e.g., atouchofwind
–	both sides have to use the same provider
Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
•	Synchronous and distributed
•	Like IM, but with lots more people
–	Same thing as a chat room on AOL
•	Whole lines are sent at a time
–	Each line is labeled with the sender’s screenname
•	Still not allowed in open labs at UMD?
–	Was simply too popular!
•	Yahoo chat: http://chat.yahoo.com/
Netmeeting
•	The idea of real-time communication between pairs or groups over the internet or intranet using audio, video and data communication. 
•	Also refers to Microsoft software
•	Popular in corporations
–	Especially in economic downturns
Successful Story: Glass wall
•	Glass wall at PARC
–	Facilitates unplanned interactions

–	Supports informal communications

Hands on Point: 
Shared White Board
•	Open a browser
•	Go to http://products.figleaf.com/
•	Login with a screen name
•	Click “draw” if it is available 
•	Draw a circle or add things
•	Click “release” once you are down
•	Another example: Coccinella: http://hem.fyristorg.com/matben/
Tools inside class/meeting room
•	Synchronous and Local 
•	Support face to face communication
•	Meeting support systems
–	Brainstorming
–	Online review
–	Annotated minutes
•	Example
–	Multichat, one minute paper
Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)
•	Also known as “groupware”
•	Work
–	Grounded in the study of work processes
•	Cooperative
–	Assumes a shared objective, task
•	Information technology supported
–	Computers are just one type of tools used 
Key factors in CSCW
•	Combined, integrated technologies

•	Communication and coordination within the group,

•	Main challenges are from social, not technical or economic
Key Issues in CSCW
•	group awareness, 
•	multi-user interfaces, 
•	concurrency control, 
•	communication and coordination within the group,
•	shared information space and 
•	the support of a heterogenous, open environment
Case Study: Virtual Reference
•	Reference and virtual reference

•	Is virtual reference CSCW?

•	What are the required functions of virtual reference systems?
Case Study: Virtual Reference and CMC tools
•	Pros and cons of using each CMC techniques in virtual reference?
The Real Example
•	What about your project team coordination?
–	Face to face meetings

–	What about other means of CMC?
Educational Computing
•	Computer Assisted Education
–	What most people think of first
•	Computer Managed Instruction
–	What most people really do first!
•	Computer Mediated Communication
–	All that CSCW stuff applied to education
•	Computer-Based Multimedia
–	Just another filmstrip machine?
Rationales
•	Pedagogic
–	Use computers to teach
•	Vocational
–	Computer programming is a skill like typing
•	Social
–	Computers are a part of the fabric of society
•	Catalytic
–	Computers are symbols of progress
Conditions for Success
•	Most prerequisites are not computer-specific
–	Need, know-how, time, commitment, leadership, incentives, expectations
–	In one study, only one addressed resources
•	The most important barrier isn’t either
–	Teacher time is by far the most important factor
Alternatives
•	Facilities
–	Computer classrooms (e.g., teaching theaters)
–	Computers IN classrooms (e.g., HBK 3108)
•	Objectives
–	“Computer Literacy” is the most common class
–	Not so in the Maryland teaching theaters
•	Comparatively few technology classes
Discussion Point: Computers as Educational Media
•	What are the most salient characteristics 
–	Books

–	Video

–	Computers

Distance Education
•	Correspondence courses came first
–	Focus on dissemination and evaluation
•	Instructional television was next
–	Dissemination, interaction, and evaluation
•	Ordinary television supports only dissemination
•	Computer Assisted Instruction
–	Same three functions
–	Goal is to be better, cheaper, or both
Discussion Point: distance education vs face-to-face teaching
•	What we gain from distance education?

•	What we lose from distance education?

Case Study: How WebCT was selected
•	Course Management System
–	CT stands for Course Tools
•	Integrated set of education tools for 
–	Facilitating learning, communications
–	Organizing course and admin materials
•	Face-to-face to online distance learning
Evaluating a Web course management tool 
•	FeaturesBack-endOther
Project Evaluation
•	Review:
–	Informal colleague review
–	Formal expert review
•	Usability testing
–	Study the usefulness of the system
–	Informal or formal
•	Survey 
–	Clear goal first, then focused items next
Usability Testing
•	Two key issues
–	Test types
–	Sampling strategies
•	Black box tests
–	Assumes no knowledge of the design
•	For example, test every link on every page
•	Glass box tests
–	Use design knowledge to test likely failures
•	For example, run queries that exercise joins
Sampling Strategies
•	Systematic tests
–	Broad tests
•	Web page example:	test every link from the top page
•	Database example:	Run each query once
–	Deep tests
•	Web page example:	follow a full sequence of links
•	Database example:	Run a query with different data
•	Ad hoc tests
–	Specify how users are selected, give them a task
Golden rules
•	Test often
–	During the development stage
–	After completion 

•	Select the right tester
–	Anyone but the developer