Mahesh Vanjani

A comparison of two electronic idea generation techniques

Abstract Much research has compared verbal with electronic brainstorming, but very few studies have investigated the effects of different electronic techniques. Most studies of electronic brainstorming have been based upon the individual poolwriting technique. However, gallery writing may be superior to it in some situations. Here, we report on an experiment involving 88 subjects in nine groups of approximately ten people each. The subjects used both electronic techniques to discuss different problems. Results show that the subjects were more satisfied with gallery writing and preferred it. Although more raw comments were generated using poolwriting, the number of quality comments and the number of unique, quality comments were not significantly different.

College student Internet use

Many surveys of World Wide Web and Internet use have been conducted, but few have focused on students at colleges and universities. Here, a case study of 214 undergraduate and graduate students at two universities in the USA, provides a glimpse of how students use a campus information system for e‐mail, downloading movies and music, and other purposes.

A comparison of synchronous and virtual legislative session groups faced with an idea generation task

Abstract An experiment was conducted with groups of about eight people in face-to-face and geographically-distributed electronic meeting environments. While similar studies have focused on the behavior of group members working together in a single room or working individually in different rooms (a nominal group), this research looks at a hybrid environment in which part of a group is working in one room and another part is working simultaneously in a different room that is linked via a local area network, both parts forming a virtual group. Experimental results showed that such groups generated significantly more unique, quality comments than did face-to-face groups, and that participants were significantly more satisfied with that type of meeting. These and other results indicate that groups may be able to meet effectively when distributed geographically.

Total quality management : a GDSS approach

Teams are a major factor in total quality management (TQM), so any technology that improves team performance facilitates the TQM process. This article describes how group decision support systems (GDSSs) can be used to increase team productivity and effectiveness within the TQM framework.

Efficacy of English to Spanish automatic translation

With an increase in global business, travel, and communication, there is a growing need to accommodate multiple languages. While human translators are still important, automatic natural language translation can increase the productivity of global travellers and office workers reading e-mail, browsing web pages, and reviewing documents. But, how good are these computer-based translations? In this paper, we compare English-to-Spanish translations from two computer programmes with two human-generated translations. As expected, the results show that the computer translations were much faster but less accurate. However, the tradeoff in speed vs. accuracy might allow computers to be used for a rough, first pass, while more expensive, and time-consuming human translation can be used for more critical text.

Group Decision Support Systems in Higher Education

A Group Decision Support System (GDSS) can be an effective tool in teaching groups of college students. This article describes a typical GDSS in use at the University of Mississippi and shows how the system can be used in teaching at the college level. A GDSS can enhance communication and learning in seminar, foreign language, and hearing-impaired classes. Teachers may interactively test their students with a GDSS and can present a lecture through the system. Moderate to large groups involved in exchanging comments or preferences experience more efficient and effective communication along with greater group satisfaction when using the system.