Evaluating Distance Technologies in Group Work and Teaching Judith Molka-Danielsen Associate Professor, Dept. of Informatics, Molde University College Presentaiton for LO205: E-business, April 2002 Reference:Distance Matters, Gary M. Olson and Judith S. Olsen, Human Computer Interactions, 2000, Vol 15 pp How do people interact when working on common goals? Issues Context of the work task Time zone Culture Language ICT technologies promise improvements in Distance communications Features More bandwidth More processing power Smoother interactions More eye contact What issues still exist? (even with technology improvements) 1.Need for establishing common ground 2.Indentify the coupling dependencies of the working groups 3.Identify collaboration readiness (incentives to share) 4.Identify collaboration technology readiness (how well can members use the ICT) Advantages of colocated work (team members in one location) Use of spatiality of human interactions A gesture or a glance can indicate meaning Use of physical reference (point to a model) Drawing in the air, later pointin to the spot to refer to an idea Moving to a point in the room where the ideas were discussed. (Spacially clustered) Problems with non-colocated work Lack of common ground or shared goals can lead to conflict and disruption. It takes longer to fix misunderstandings. Non-colocated group members can feel disoriented or without context. This seldom happens in a face-to-face setting. Advantages of Distance Technology Many scientists at one time being able to simultaneously observe a real time phenomena. The event can be stored and re-played later. New options for display. Multi-stream data and integrating design of simulations The video conference may be a better alternative than travel Members that were not part of the original team can come in later and know the project structure and process. Disadvantages of Distance Technolgy Required Results may be the same but the Process can change. There can be more management overhead. Getting all connected to the conference Establish who is there, who is speaking Establish rules for taking turns Some work is disparate (can be broken into modules and worked on individually), other work cannot. More time needed to reconcile reports and corrections. Trouble with technology: who is talking, what object referred to, pointing to objects not in the system.. Maybe everyone cannot be heard (Should we let is go, do not interrupt the meeting flow?) Small video displays discourage conversation. Do groups have much in common and cleary defined tasks? If not, need common ground first. What is Common Ground? Knowledge that participants have in common and are aware that they have it in common. We frame the way we say something depending on who we say it to. (blank stare, means re- phrase) Negotiated C.G. conducted by back and forth questions and answers Construct C.G. is built from cues on hand. Media provide cues (objects that support conversation, board). C.G. Is important to productivity. Some achieved with ICT and other achieved by face-to- face visits and other channels. Coupling dependencies of work Tightly coupled work is work that strongly depends on the talents of a collection of workers. It can be ambiguous and non-routine. Co-authoring an article (moderately coupled) Co-designing code (tightly coupled in stages) Teaching a course using ICT (moderately coupled?) Tightly coupled work can be too difficult to be remote work. Such work may be re-organized by locations and done asynchronously. Collaboration readiness Organizations must have a culture for sharing Individuals must have a willingness to share An incentive system may be needed Training in technology use is needed Technology readiness The workers: behavior, habits, regular access and use of ICT; how much change? Alignment of support for new ICT with everyday usage Order of adopted technologies (fig 9) Are new ICT needed to complete the task? Introduce new ICT in small steps What is the future use of ICT? How technologies will support synchronous interactions (fig 10) Establish common ground and know where the problem fits into to the larger context. This will lead to trust. Global teamwork and trust Variant of the Prisoners Dilemma (Rocco 1998). He showed people looking for personal benefit over the common good, if contact was not first established face-to- face for investment episodes. But travel is costly. Can trust be built by video? Distance problems: time zone differences Tightly coupled, interactive work can take place only in overlapping periods (but: Norway is 9 hours ahead of California, participants are tired or hungry and at different times). Loosely coupled work can be coordinated and take place asynchronously 24 hours per day. Distance problems: culture From the Olsen & Olsen study: American teams were task oriented, ad hoc, short term European and Asian teams were known to value personal relationships more than the task at hand. More social interactions at meetings. Distance problems: power distance From the Olsen & Olsen study: Europe and Asia workers respect authority. Stategy is proposed by management, and little time is needed for workers to agree to the project or strategy. Manager expects discussion on a given proposal and then workers enact their part. US managers need to have workers buy in to support a project. Workers may not enact directs given by management reports if they were not consulted first. Distance problems: Management Style From the Olson & Olson study: Hamburger style of management Americans start with the sweet talk (top bun), the criticism is slipped in (the meat), and finally some encouraging words (bottom bun). With the Germans, all one gets is the meat. With the Japanese, all one gest is the buns, one has to smell the meat.(Browning, 1994) Distance Problems: talking styles From the Olson & Olson study: Americans use turn taking styles, making it difficult for the other cultures to break into conversations. Need longer pauses to allow this. Setting up meetings: must know the others holidays, or what hours of the day are work hours. There is little time to adjust to cultural differences during a video conference. Having employees stay for a year in another country gives them more time to see the differences (of a process in another setting) and this can be reported back to fellow countrymen. Evaluation of ICT in Teaching Part II of the Lecture today. From the class survey given in LO205 Consider 1.Do we have common ground? 2.What are the coupling dependencies of the task? 3.Do we have collaboration readiness? 4.Do we have technology readiness? Evaluation of ICT in Teaching 1.Do we have common ground? Common cues chalk board, overhead, power point slides, video image (problem focus controlled at recording) Establishing other channels ( , drop-ins, phone, course assistants) 2.What are the coupling dependencies of the task? (spactial and temporal limitations of activating students during lectures, boring) 3.Do we have collaboration readiness? (faculty prefer it to travel) 4.Do we have technology readiness? (support from IT center, waiting better technology alternatives) Dimensions of the evaluation Who is being evaluated? Students in e-business What is it to evaluate? We are using rank ordering and verbal dialogue and experiences. What dimensions of evaluation are used in the study? Both quantitative and qualitative. Direct or indirect use? The feedback was being used immediately while the course was in progress. What is the focus of the study? On a small part of the teaching method, Particularly on IT tools in the presentation of lectures, Evaluate if the IT provides a usable teaching environment where the students experience different presentation channels. Characteristics of the Respondents Question 1. Are you viewing this course in the classroom in Molde or in Kristiansund? Question 2. What is your academic program? Question 3. Are you Male or Female? Question 4. How many Lectures have you attended so far (total number)? Question 7. If you have a problem with a particular medium (ie. Seeing the board, hearing the speaker, or even accessing the notes before class), state the problem briefly here. State also what distance you are from the medium. Question 5: Presentation channels Question 5. The lecturer can use several types of presentation channels in the lectures? Rank the types in the order that you most prefer her to use. (1= Most preferred, 2= 2nd most preferred, and so on.) Power point transparencies with verbal description at the same time. Overhead projection of physical transparencies with verbal description at same time. Hand written notes on the board (tavle) with verbal description at the same time. Verbal descriptions (talking only) without reference to visual media. Question 6. More or Less Question 6. Describe if these media should be used more or less. Power point transparencies -----more -----the same -----less Overhead projection of physical notes -----more -----the same -----less Board with hand written notes -----more -----the same -----less Verbal descriptions only -----more -----the same -----less The viewers interface to video lectures The video image can be played separately in a window. The video image in full screen mode will fit the entire PC display screen. The class room overhead viewed in full screen mode is difficult to read. The chalk board viewed in full screen mode is possible to read. The camera must focus close to the board to be able to read characters. Readability diminishes as a broader view is taken. When looking at the big picture only positions of objects are visible. Conclusions The remote students are having a generally positive experience. (And it is more than better than nothing.) The local students receive a more prepared presentation, because the powerpoint slides must be used during a recording. This can make presentations easier to view locally (less hand written notes) but also a little boring (less spontaneous). Overall, students in e-business seem to like seeing technology in action. The IT can be somewhat a substitute for human resources, but there are both costs and savings.