Resources reference guide 1 : a preliminary reference guide for the resources network database system

IT IS EMPHASIZED THAT THIS PRELIMINARY DOCUMENTATION FOR THE RESOURCES NETWORK DATABASE SYSTEM CONFORMS TO THE SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS. RESOURCES REFERENCE GUIDE 1 is for limited distribution and review. It is not a user manual. Your interaction with the system may not always be exactly as described. All major features except keyword relations are supported in part, if not fully, at this time. Operation of some facilities are some what slow pending funding for optimization. Groups and individuals wishing to use RESOURCES on the Electronic Information Exchange System should make arrangements through the Computerized Conferencing and Communications Center at the New Jersey Institute of Technology to discuss their application and the establishing of user accounts, disk storage charges and monthly account charges, software maintenance, and consultation in the effective use of the system. (A current list of operational commands within RESOURCES is available by entering a single question mark (?) at COMMAND? while in any RESOURCES database.

A discussion of selected aspects of privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity in computerized conferencing

This paper presents a discussion of the potential uses of privacy, confidentiality and anonymity in computerized conferencing. Section I begins with definitions of the concepts, their aspects and allied terms; and briefly discusses their use in general communications and problem-solving activities. Section II explores their use in social research, particularly the survey method, a field that may yield useful analogues for computerized conferencing. Section III outlines the various functions of privacy, confidentiality and anonymity that have been proposed for their constructive use in computerized conferencing. Section IV reports various difficulties and compromises that have been encountered to date in striving to achieve true privacy, confidentiality or anonymity in computerized conferencing. Section V gives preliminary estimates of various ways of enhancing the concepts through computerized conferencing

Initial Specifications Electronic Information Exchange System (EIE)

This document is intended as a SPECIFICATIONS MANUAL to guide the development of the EIE System. It does not represent a User Manual although it contains the specification of the user abilities on the system. It is written in a highly segmented style which reflects the potential use of the material in the on-line EXPLANATION file which will be available as part of the EIE System and which will allow users to retrieve just enough information to satisfy a specific question on system use and options. This comprehensive specification document is much harder to utilize for learning the system than the actual process of learning by doing. We urge any potential user who comes across this document to not try and learn the details of the system from this document. The ordering of the contents is largely from general concepts to specific details and the individual not specifically interested in detailed specifications of interactive computer systems should read the material up to and including the USER\u27S GUIDE and begin skimming thereafter. As an initial specification, this document is subject to modification as it receives further review. At this stage we have not included a number of powerful features that have been considered but will probably wait until the second year in the development effort. We believe a decision on which of these are most beneficial should wait until some actual use is made of the system. However, the experienced Information System Designer will note that extensions to multi-leveled user defined procedures and in-line or indirect text-editing of a document preparation nature can logically be made within the context of these specifications. This system is being implemented on an INTERDATA 7/32 minicomputer with 256,000 bytes of core coupled to a DIVA dual disk system (DD-32) offering 232 million unformatted bytes of disk storage. The software is being implemented by members and staff of the Computer and Information Science Department of NJIT and of Language Systems Development Corporation of Silver Springs, Maryland. This work is supported by a grant from the Office of Science Information Services of the National Science Foundation (SIS 75-06783)

Learning in a virtual classroom : volume 1 of a virtual classroom on EIES : final evaluation report

The Virtual Classroom [TM] is a system for learning and communicating via connected computers. Students in the Virtual Classroom share their thoughts, questions and reactions with professors and classmates using computers equipped with specially designed software. The software enables students to send and receive messages, interact with professors and classmates, read and comment on lecture material, take tests and receive feedback, and more, without having to attend scheduled classes. Learning can take place at any location in the world and at any time of the day using a computer on campus, at home or in the workplace. The primary goal of the project is to demonstrate that it is possible to use computer-mediated communication systems to improve access to, and the effectiveness of, post-secondary educational delivery. The most important product of the project is knowledge about the advantages and disadvantages of this new technology. The two key research questions that arise are: Is the Virtual Classroom a viable option for educational delivery? That is, are outcomes, on the whole, at least as good as outcomes from face-to-face, traditional classroom courses? What variables are associated with especially good and especially poor outcomes in this new teaching and learning environment

Moderating online conferences, Revised Manuscript

While considerable lore has accumulated about effective leadership techniques for groups interacting electronically, until now it has not been systematically presented. This material is culled from the experiences of those who have moderated past online conferences, the knowledge common to the EIES User Consultants, and observed behavior from thousands of conferences convened on EIES in the past. While this is a system-specific guide, the general principles ought to be generalizable to other systems, with different structures for group discussion. Robert Burns put it well: The best laid schemes o\u27 mice and men Gang aft a-gley; An\u27 lea\u27e us nought but grief and pain, For promis\u27d joy. Dashed hopes can be prevented. This manual attempts to synthesize the acquired wisdom by presenting a set of guidelines for the effective facilitation of electronic groups, rather than a list of programmed specifications or conventions. Whether or not a conference is successful depends on the leader\u27s skills, which are both intuitive and learned by experience. The leadership techniques needed to moderate an online conference are significantly different from those appropriate for face-to-face meetings. This is a compendium of lessons learned, written to help the leaders of future conferences. But since the rules change for each group, it is meant only as a set of guidelines. Desirable leadership qualities include sensitivity to the needs of participants, knowledge, persistence, willingness to spend the time and effort, enthusiasm, creativity, and flexibility. Although the ideal leader doesn\u27t exist, successful conferences have proliferated. Many items are not covered here, such as pre-conference preparations, selection of the leader and members, invitations, finances and sponsorship, the mechanics of establishing accounts and conferences, intermediary or follow-up face-to-face meetings, and post-conference implementation. Note that this manual references features on the EIES system, which differ from those of other computer-mediated communication systems

Communication Processes in the Design and Implementation of Models, Simulations and Simulation-Games: A Selective Review and Analysis, From the Vantage Point of Computerized Conferencing

Computerized conferencing is a new form of communication which permits a group of individuals, who could be separated in time as well as space, to engage in an interactive dialogue with each other through the convenience of their computer terminals. The software for a computerized conferencing system is designed to keep track of all messages communicated in the system, as well as insure that the various protocols for communication are observed by all. Our objectives in this report are to examine the communication processes found in the design and implementation of models, simulations and simulation-games, and to identify those areas where computerized conferencing, as a new form of communication, has the potential to impart a significant impact on the aforementioned disciplines. The theme which underlies this report is that computerized conferencing presents us with the capability to structure a communication process to satisfy a set of preformulated design objectives. In Part I, we introduce the reader to some basic terminology used to identify models, simulations and simulation-games. Part II attempts to enumerate the potential impacts computerized conferencing is expected to have on the model building process. A key component of this section is the author\u27s causal-loop model of the modeling process which seeks to capture the feedback relationships responsible for both the growth processes and limitations inherent in modeling, and the key role computerized conferencing is expected to play. Our attention next turns to the area of simulation-games. In Part III, we define a simulation-game as a gestalt communication process, and reiterate many of Richard Duke\u27s thoughts on the communication processes found in simulating-games. The next chapter examines the marriage of computerized conferencing and simulation-games, and identifies the numerous benefits to be achieved by this union. These benefits include not only logistic breakthroughs and the attainment of new degrees of verisimilitude to the object human interaction systems being modeled, but an opening up of the simulation-game as a research tool to gain theoretical insight into the sociological processes that take place in human interaction systems. In Part V, we present to the reader summaries of those major efforts relating to conferencing based simulation-games. These include the work of Lincoln Bloomfield and his associates at MIT (the CONEX simulation-games), the Polis system of R. Noel at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the experiments conducted by the Institute for the Future with the CRISIS simulation-game. In Part VI, we explicity prescribe some methodologies by which a simulation-game designer can structure the communication processes found in simulation-games to satisfy certain design objectives. We refer to this as a constrained computerized conference (i.e., dynamic constraints are imposed on the communication process). A mathematical model is developed for the communication that takes place in the simulation-game. Design applications are then discussed as specific extensions of the mathematical model. The penultimate chapter presents a hypothetical language for describing the communication processes found in simulation-games and other group communication models. The language begins with the world view of SIMSCRIPT 11-5, acknowledged to be the most powerful discrete event simulation language, and builds in some powerful features designed to model and structure human communication processes. The language is illustrated with both a university fiscal crisis simulation-game and the SYNCON communication model. The final chapter synthesizes the ideas expressed in the preceding chapters by an analogy of models, simulations and simulation-games with the conceptual foundations of the scientific method, and sees computerized conferencing as a key aspect in making scientists out of systems scientists. It calls for a conferencing-based International Archives of models, simulations and simulation-games, both to aid in model scrutinization and confirmation as well as to provide a mutual pooling of resources from which users can draw as they please

The virtual classroom: building the foundations

This is a report on the first year of a three-year project concerned with the development and assessment of new types of software capabilities designed to support university level courses. A virtual classroom or university without walls is being created within a computerized conferencing system. During the first year of the project, students in twelve courses at three universities completed part or all of their coursework online. Pre and post-course questionnaires and automatic monitoring of their computer-mediated communications are the main sources of data. Independent variables include the expectations and attributes of the individual students; characteristics of the particular hardware and software which they use; and variations among classes in the nature of the assignments and activities required or facilitated by the instructor. Intervening variables include the amount and type of use of the system by the students, and the extent to which group learning takes place. Dependent variables are course outcomes and judgments by the students about the relative value of traditional and virtual classrooms. There is considerable variance in outcomes, particularly in student assessments of whether the virtual classroom is a better learning experience and whether they learned more or learned less. There was also extreme variation in measures of activity levels by students. For instance, the mean number of student sessions online was 41, but the standard deviation was 61; and the mean number of comments (contributions per student to the class discussion) was six, while the standard deviation was eight. Variations in measures of online activity and outcomes were significantly related to course, pre-use expectations of the students, sex, and system access variables including workstation hardware and response time. However, the strongest relationships are for measures of process vs. outcome. Those students who actively participated (by making comments rather than just reading the comments of others, and by engaging in private communication online with a number of other students as well as the professor) and those students who experienced group learning (learning from peer-group activity rather than one-way transmission of knowledge from professor to student) reported the most positive outcomes

Teaching in a virtual classroom : volume 2 of a virtual classroom on EIES : final evaluation report

A Virtual Classroom is a teaching and learning environment located within a computer-mediated communication system. As a teaching environment, it provides a set of tools, strengths, and limitations which are available to an instructor for delivering course materials and structuring learning experiences. Its characteristics are merely potentials, just as the empty classroom with its chalkboards and desks awaits the efforts and creativity of the instructor and the students to make it come alive. This is the second volume of the final research report on experiences with the prototype of a Virtual Classroom system constructed and operated on EIES, the Electronic Information Exchange System at NJIT. The amount of data collected during this field experiment and the number of issues examined as part of the evaluation proved to be too much to be bound in one volume. The materials included in the first volume describe the project as a whole, and focus on the results related to the experiences of and impacts on the students. This volume looks at the Virtual Classroom from the teacher\u27s point of view. Its purpose is to present the lessons learned by the faculty members who participated in the project, particularly in terms of guidelines or generalizations that may be of use to future instructors who are considering using computer-mediated communication as a mode of educational delivery

The impact of a computerized conferencing system on scientific research communities

The author is indebted to Murray Turoff for coauthoring the sections describing the EIES system and for his suppport and encouragement for this study at all stages. Mary Anne Solimine served as a research assistant, supervising the distribution, coding and tabulations of questionnaire responses. Without her diligent efforts, the study would not have been possible. Ann Marie Rabke, Joanne Garofalo, Diane Price, Duchess Brooks, Margaret Wnorowski, Christine Naegle, Sonia Khalil, and Marion Whitescarver provided valuable assistance with coding and data entry and editing tasks. Larry Landwebber was most cooperative in providing access to the Theory Net group. Alan Leurck, Thomas Moulton, and Sanjit Chinai are among those at NJIT who prepared statistical data from information on users recorded by the system monitor. Among those who have made helpful contributions to the project are Diana Crane, Kenneth Johnson, Peter and Trudy Johnson-Lenz, Elaine Kerr, Ian Mitroff, Nicholas Mullins, Ronald Rice, Julian Scher, and Barry Wellman. Initial interest in the sociology of science was inspired by the work of Robert Merton, who of course bears no responsibility for the directions taken by his student. Last but certainly not least, Fred Weingarten, formerly of the National Science Foundation, has the author\u27s gratitude for his support of research in the interdisciplinary (and therefore controversial) area of computers and society

Communications and Group Decision-Making : Experimental Evidence on the Potential Impact of Computer Conferenging

This paper is a selective review of small group experiments in the area of the relationship between communication (modes, structures, processes) and group decision-making or problem solving. There are literally hundreds of these experiments; the purpose of this effort has been to isolate and summarize the results of those experimental traditions which may have the most bearing upon: our understanding of the probable social effects of computer conferencing as a communication mode; the identification of possible experiments utilizing computer conferencing which appear to be potentially most fruitful in terms of evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of computer conferencing in facilitating or inhibiting group decision-making processes; determining the potential for gaining further insight into the nature of human communications processes by employing computerized conferencing as a communications tool; understanding the characteristics and capabilities of conferencing software which would be necessary in order for a non-programmer social scientist to carry out such experimentation. For those who are not familiar with computerized conferencing as a communications medium, the paper begins with a brief overview of its nature and social characteristics. It then proceeds to review several classes of experiments on communications and group problem solving, and to deduce the implications of their findings for group decision making using communication via computerized conferencing. A section on the desirable characteristics of software and monitoring systems in order to facilitate similar controlled experiments utilizing computer conferencing follows. Finally, the conclusions which flow from the literature review are presented in the form of a summary of potentially fruitful experiments and an inventory of hypotheses. I am indebted to the other members of the NJIT research team for many excellent suggestions, and particularly to Murry Turoff, the Principal Investigator for the project, who made extensive, constructive criticisms of earlier drafts. Peter Anderson coauthored the chapter on software requirements. I would also like to thank Alphonse Chapanis of Johns Hopkins and Andrew Van deVen of Kent State for their cooperation. Finally, I would like to thank Daisy Lane of N.J.I.T. for a job well done in deciphering my handwriting and typing the manuscript