#19804
Collaboration via Desktop Videoconferencing: Designing Interactive Environments 
Recent studies suggest that classroom collaboration is not always successful. We designed a course that motivates students to provide adequate help for writers. In this course college students studying to become technical communicators mentored high school students in language arts and content area courses. In order to overcome barriers of schedules, distances, and resources, we created a multimedia system that combined face-to-face communication and networking in one configuration. We collaborated with University of Minnesota groups, local high school personnel, US WEST Communications, Inc., and Compression Labs, Inc. in the development of the system.
Duin, Ann Hill, Linda A. Jorn and Lisa Mason. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Education>Online>Videoconferencing
#21514
Collaboration Via Desktop Videoconferencing: Evaluating Mentoring Environments
Based on the need for mentoring, we developed a multimedia configuration that fostered one-on-one connections. In this study, we examine these connections in terms of what strategies mentors use when mentoring and how mentors respond to students. The two case studies indicate that neither of the subjects took full advantage of the multimedia system or the environments in which it functioned: neither mentor chose to manage the computer screen so that they could adequately see their student or chose to monitor the environments in a manner beneficial to their students. However, mentors tended to differentiate between weak and strong writers in this environment.
Duin, Ann Hill, Linda A. Jorn and Lisa Mason. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Collaboration>Mentoring>Videoconferencing
#21513
Collaboration Via Desktop Videoconferencing: Implications for Technical Communication
From our case studies of technical communication college students collaborating via desktop videoconferencing (DTV) with high school students, we learned that DTV requires that collaborators manage a great deal more than text on a computer screen. Collaborators reliant on viewing computers as conveyors of text alone must learn new strategies for connecting interpersonally with people viewed on screen. Collaborators must macro-manage technology while they micro-manage dialogue about writing.
Duin, Ann Hill, Linda A. Jorn and Lisa Mason. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Collaboration>TC>Online
#10311
Collaboration via E-mail and Internet Relay Chat: Understanding Time and Technology 
The purpose of this preliminary study was to structure and begin to study how collaborators working across distance perceive and use e-mail and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) to facilitate their collaborative and decision-making processes. Students from the University of Western Sydney and the University of Minnesota worked in pairs to respond to four decision-making scenarios over a four-week period. Using e-mail, students came to a decision more quickly than when using IRC, and when IRC was slow, students reverted to a series of rapid-fire e-mail messages to facilitate their work. Students appreciated the cross-cultural experience; however, they struggled to create a shared communicative context via the Internet.
Duin, Ann Hill and Ray Archee. Technical Communication Online (1996). Articles>Collaboration>Email
#13851
The Culture of Distance Education: Implementing an Online Graduate Level Course in Audience Analysis
This essay details the experience of designing, implementing, and evaluating an online course in audience analysis at the graduate level. Through a discussion of the culture of this online course, I describe how the educational culture of the Land Grant Mission flowed into our efforts to create a quality learning experience, and how the Web modules and asynchronous (listserv) and synchronous (MOO) conversations influenced communication and learning.
Duin, Ann Hill. Technical Communication Quarterly (1998). Articles>Education>Audience Analysis>Online
#19782
Using case studies gathered from teaching projects, this paper analyses both electronic mail, and real-time chat data of pairs of American-Australian students. Results show distinct patterns of interaction concomitant with small group theory, but with marked differences with respect to modality. Survey data reveals idiosyncratic preferences for using either e-mail or real-n-me chat. Analysis of the actual discourse highlights contextual cultural difficulties such as level of language proficiency and organisational norms.
Duin, Ann Hill and Ray Archee. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Cyberculture>Regional>Australia
