Musings on telepresence and virtual presence. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual. Environments, , 1(1), 120 â 126. Vleugel, Hans v. d., Gerrisen, J., Jansen, ...
Session 13b2 Presence and Awareness Support in VirtualBusinessTeams Karel Kreijns, Jack Gerrissen Open University of the Netherlands Department of Natural and Technical Sciences e-mail {karel.kreijns, jack.gerrissen}@ouh.nl
Abstract - A VirtualBusinessTeam (VBTeam) is a learningthrough-working community with geographically dispersed membership, engaged in business-task-driven learning. Groupwork is typically performed in an asynchronous mode, where participants’ contributions and interactions are being produced at the individual’s convenience, in terms of place and time. Asynchronous co-working plus colearning brings additional strengths to the collaborativelearning setting (Westera en Sloep, 1998), but there are barriers in developing a sense of community to keep members attentive, motivated and inspired to complete the tasks. The central problem area in our research relates to the design of technical infrastructures that allow for the building or emergence and the maintenance of social presence and awareness in teams, apart in time and space, a collaborative-learning condition as yet rarely researched.
Introduction Presently, at the Open University of the Netherlands, we attempt to bridge the gap between educational knowledge and skills and its application in professional practise. Task or role performance in a VBTeam connects the knowledge and skill construction to the realistic problematics of working in the business or industrial context of a real life company. A VBTeam is a networked community; the teammates engage in collective activities from behind their desktop computers to perform tasks that require a personal competence growth, the fundamental objective behind the VBTeam concept.
Constructivism Much of the design of the VBTeam environment stems from the implications of constructivist-learning principles. According to the constructivists, thinking –and therefore knowledge and understanding– arise from our individual perception of and interaction with the physical and social environment (Duffy and Jonassen, 1991). It can be concluded that ultimately the construction of knowledge is a process of social construction, reflecting social transactions and agreements (Westera and Sloep, 1998). The implications of constructivism are discussed by Jonassen by
giving some guidelines for the design of learning environments (Jonassen, 1994). Amongst others, it is stated that a learning environment (e.g. a VBTeam) should support collaborative knowledge constructions through physical and social negotiation. However, such learning environments can only be successful if the participants (i.e. the teammates) can relate to each other, share a sense of community and a common goal (Gunawardena, 1995).
Social Presence theory It is recognized that, from a social psychological perspective, a sense of community which encompasses adequate group cohesion and a setting favorable to other elements of group dynamics can only be achieved if the communication media allows for the development of the necessary social context. Several theories and experimental reseach show that traditional computer-mediated communication (CMC), which is text-based, negatively influences the way teammates communicate and interact. The common explanation is that CMC, in contrast to face-to-face communication, lacks nonverbal cues and that, therefore, the relational tone of communication tends to be impersonal, less friendly, less emotional and more taskoriented or businesslike. Besides that, CMC may be questionable for certain communication purposes or it may affect group problem-solving effectiveness (Walther, 1992). An important theory in this area is the Social Presence theory of Short et al. (Short, Williams and Christie, 1976). This theory introduces the term Social Presence to describe the ability of a communications medium to give a teammate the feeling of the presence of the other teammates for direct communication and interaction. The lower the degree of Social Presence, the more impersonal the communication will be, and the lesser attention is given to the other teammates. The development of Social Presence and a sense of online community is key to promoting collaborative learning and knowledge building (Gunawardena, 1995)
0-7803-5643-8/99/$10.00 © 1999 IEEE November 10 - 13, 1999 San Juan, Puerto Rico 29th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference 13b2-4
Session 13b2 Independence of time and place Traditionally, it is pre-supposed that the collaboration takes place in real-time, but the VBTeam concept also allows for asynchronous collaboration. We think this is typical for a VBTeam operation. The degree of Social Presence is difficult to retain in such asynchronous situations. Literature on Social Presence theory [(Short, 1976) (Gunawardena, 1995) (Walther, 1992)] shows that this issue has not been addressed yet. Our present research will concentrate on this subject, and is directed towards technological solutions within the communications media that will enhance the degree of Social Presence in case of asynchronous collaboration.
Virtual Environments It is our intention that VBTeams will ultimately use Virtual Environments as an interaction space for performing a certain class of tasks apart from the more traditional textbased communications. It is for this reason that we will also take into account the current research about telepresence and virtual presence (Sheridan, 1992). Virtual presence is considered to be a special case of telepresence, where the teleoperator and the remote environment are simulated inside a computer; the simulated remote environment is termed a virtual environment.
Our goal Our goal is to formulate design rules which are generally applicable to the construction of virtual communities like
the VBTeam. We will present our first results to facilitate the development of social presence and awareness in communities that are geographically dispersed and time deferred.
References Duffy, T.M., and Jonassen, D.H. (May, 1991). Constructivism: New implications for Instructional Technology? Educational Technology, 31(5), 7 – 12. Jonassen D.H. (April 1994) Thinking technology: Toward a Constructivists design model. Educational Technology, 34(4), 34 – 37. Gunawardena, Charlotte N. (1995). Social Presence Theory and Implications for Interaction and Collaborative Learning in Computer Conferences. International Journal of Educational Telecommunications, 1(2/3), 147 – 166. Walther, Joseph B. (Febrary, 1992). Interpersonal Effects in Computer-Mediated Interaction: A Relational Perspective. Communication Research, 19(1), 52 – 90. Sheridan, Tom B. (1992). Musings on telepresence and virtual presence. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, , 1(1), 120 – 126. Vleugel, Hans v. d., Gerrisen, J., Jansen, D., Sloep, P., and Petegem, W. v. (June 1999) Modes of Personal and Organizational Learning in VirtualBusinessTeams, Enable 99, Helsinki, Finland Westera, W, and Sloep, P. (January-February, 1998) The Virtual Company: Toward a Self-Directed, CompetenceBased Learning Environment in Distance Education, Education Technology, 38(10, 32 – 37.
0-7803-5643-8/99/$10.00 © 1999 IEEE November 10 - 13, 1999 San Juan, Puerto Rico 29th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference 13b2-5
