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Issues in CSCW and Groupware:

Delve into the origins, components, and evolution of groupware in CSCW, encompassing historical context, key concepts, and collaborative design approaches. Understand group work dynamics and technology advancements that have shaped its development.

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Issues in CSCW and Groupware:

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  1. Issues in CSCW and Groupware: Anders Mørch TOOL 5100, 02.02.06

  2. Outline • What is CSCW and groupware and their relation to CSCL • Historical development • Basic problems addressed • Research areas and concepts • Components of groupware

  3. What is CSCW? • CSCW: Computer Supported Cooperative Work • Introduced by Irene Greif and Paul Cashman in 1984, meaning • “A set of concerns about supporting multiple individuals working together with computer systems” • Can be divided into two main areas, associated with 1) CS and 2) CW, respectively

  4. Illustrating the situation • HCI is the precursor of CSCW and was concerned about supporting the work of individuals using a computer system CSCW HCI (Human Computer Interaction)

  5. CSCW computer science HCI CSCL cognitive science AI distributed systems sociology pedagogical design distributed cognition office info. systems cooperative design communications eductational context Relationships between HCI, CSCW, and CSCL

  6. What is groupware? • Associated with the CS part of CSCW • Defined by Ellis et al. In following way: • “computer-based systems that support groups of people engaged in a common task (or goal) and that provide an interface to a shared environment” • This creates a need for concepts to describe the various aspects of groupware

  7. Aspects of groupware • Common task / goal • Interface to a shared environment • In addition, because there are more than one users: • Division of labor, explicit role assignment • Awareness of the others who are interacting with the shared environment (often not directly visible)

  8. Shared environments • At least three ways to design them • Extending a single user environment to a multi user environment (technology approach) • Identifying a collaborative situation that is currently unsupported by groupware technology (empirical approach) • Basing the design on theories developed for related activities or application domains (theory based approach)

  9. Examples for discussion • Do you know of groupware or other systems that have been developed according to the above approaches • aa • bb • cc • Etc.

  10. Early examples • Ellis et al identifies the following type of groupware (1991) • Message systems (e.g. email) • Multi-user editors • Group decision support systems (e.g. discussion forums) • Computer conferencing systems • Intelligent information sharing systems • Workflow coordination systems

  11. What is group work? • Related to the CW part of CSCW • Grudin says the following: • Small group usually consisting of 2-3 people who works together to reach a common goal • There are also larger groups, but they are less efficient when supported by technology • Why do you think groupware works best in small groups?

  12. Historical development (Grudin, 1994)

  13. Basic concepts in CSCW • Ellis et al. identify the following three terms are basic for CSCW research and design: • Communication • Coordination • Collaboration (sometimes divided into 2) • Cooperation • Collaboration

  14. Supporting communication • Groupware fall into two categories depending on the type of interaction mode it provides: • Synchronous communication (real time) • Asynchronous communication (indirect)

  15. Synchronous communcation • Advantages • Provides support for awareness of others (approaching F2F) • Appropriate for certain type of situations • Disadvantages • Complexity of supporting this form of communcation can outweigh its advantages • Work that require high amount of individual concentration (time consuming work) is not well supported (e.g. write a report with a shared editor)

  16. Asynchronous communcation • Advantages • More time for individual reflection before making next move in interaction with other • Division of labor is easier to decide on • Disadvantages • Less social interaction • Less motivation to work together over an extend period dof time

  17. Time/place matrix From Ellis et al, 1991

  18. Extended matrix for CSCL • One of the approaches to CSCL we address in this course is to use groupware for educational purposes • What additional dimensions would be necessary or recommended to add to the time/place matrix in order to be able to better account for the factors that emerge when groupware is put in an educational context?

  19. Extended matrix for CSCW From Grudin, 1994

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