Hyo-Joo Han

Does Medium Matter? A Comparison of Initial Meeting Modes for Virtual Teams

Research Problem: There are no prior studies comparing modes of communication for virtual teams working over a substantial period of time that combined an initial synchronous desktop audio or video meeting with subsequent text-based computer-mediated communication (CMC). Research Questions: Does the initial medium condition impact decision-making quality, creativity, group development, and process satisfaction? Literature Review: Previous literature on media richness (the ability of a medium to carry and reproduce information based on feedback, multiple cues, language variety, and personal focus) and group outcomes (the level of creativity and quality of the work delivered by the group) suggests that ad-hoc groups using asynchronous CMC alone (without any initial meeting) or asynchronous CMC combined with an initial face-to-face (FTF) meeting have significantly higher levels of creativity and decision quality, compared to single-mode synchronous CMC groups or FTF groups. Methodology: In this study, a laboratory experiment was conducted with 136 participants from 14 countries. All teams used asynchronous CMC for two weeks for a software requirements task, following an initial synchronous meeting in one of four conditions: FTF, desktop audioconferencing, desktop videoconferencing, or text only. Results and Discussion: Results suggest that there are no significant differences among the four conditions. This research indicates that it does not matter what medium is used for an initial short meeting of a group that is to subsequently work together via asynchronous text communication.

Constructivist learning with participatory examinations

Can we improve the examination process, making it more enjoyable and increasing perceived learning? The participatory exam process provides opportunities for students to learn from creating, reading, answering and grading exam questions. An online asynchronous learning network system facilitates the process. This paper presents the process framework, our research model and experimental results. A majority of students preferred the participatory exam and believed that it increased their learning.

PECSNET: The next generation pervasive and context aware social network

Social networking applications are changing the way people communicate with their peers and family. Social networking applications have several features that help in connecting one to another, from finding old friends to browsing for new friends and contacts. To harness the true power of social networking, sometimes it may be important to seamlessly identify and connect individuals who are geographically nearby with similar interests at a given time. In this work, we develop and discuss a pervasive and context-aware social networking system in a mobile environment that is able to report the presence of like-minded individuals in real time based on users location. We discuss how our system computes closeness between two individuals and develop an application to test its efficacy.