Awareness support for asynchronous engineering collaboration

This study addresses collaboration awareness for asynchronous distributed engineering collaboration with computer‐aided design (CAD) browsers. An analysis of the characteristics of asynchronous collaboration identified the information that needs to be presented. Two features for a CAD browser system, team member information enhancement and task information enhancement, were designed to improve collaborator and task awareness. An experiment was conducted to test the effectiveness of the new proposed features. The results of the experiment indicated the following. First, the enhancement of team member information and task information improved collaboration efficiency by 8.1 and 20.2%, respectively. Second, for asynchronous collaboration, the availability and workload of team members need to be presented rather than capturing and presenting dynamic information about team members. Third, the information about the status of each task, such as the progress, time passed, and dependability, needs to be enhanced for efficient collaboration. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Hum Factors Man 13: 97–113, 2003.     

Effects of an online team project-based learning environment with group awareness and peer evaluation on socially shared regulation of learning and self-regulated learning

Recently, some studies proposed methods to promote socially shared regulation of learning (SSRL) level within a team because high SSRL levels enable an effective collaboration. Meanwhile, several studies also proposed methods in online collaboration to enhance individual self-regulated learning (SRL). Notably, most existing studies focused on proposing methods and tools either for enhancing SSRL level within a team or for enhancing individual SRL. A computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment with proper supports is promising for simultaneously enhancing the SSRL level within a team and individual SRL because SSRL and SRL have an inseparable relation and mutually influence during collaborative process. Based on the existing principles and theories, this work adopts the supports of group awareness and peer evaluation in CSCL with project-based learning. Group awareness (GA) can reveal collaborative behaviour of group members and regulate their participation while peer assessment (PE), which can appraise member’s contribution, can encourage individual responsibility and refine regulatory strategies. This study finds that the proposed group awareness and peer assessment (GAPE) (i.e. the experimental class) moderately reduces the free-rider effect and enhanced SSRL level and individual SRL, compared with NO-GAPE (i.e. the control group). Furthermore, this study also confirms that the perceived SSRL level can effectively predict individual SRL.     

Conceptualizing the Awareness of Collaboration: A Qualitative Study of a Global Virtual Team

Innovative organizations are increasing their use of distributed teamwork, but there are several difficulties in reaching shared understanding between the team members in these settings. A lack of awareness of other team members’ working processes is one of the drawbacks that a virtual team may face while attempting to collaborate on a shared task. In this study virtual teamwork was supported with a specific working model. The aim was to investigate virtual team members’ awareness of collaboration. One global team (N=19) within a single organization worked as a distributed team in a shared web-based workspace for three months. The data were gathered by means of questionnaires, log-files of the shared virtual workspace and collected company documents in order to find out how team members perceive their collaboration. Based on qualitative data analysis, three different aspects of collaboration awareness were identified: an awareness of the possibility for collaboration, an awareness of the aims of collaboration, and an awareness of the process of collaboration. The results presented in this paper give guidelines for discussing what the awareness of collaboration means in the context of distributed collaboration.     

Telerobot-enabled HUB-CI model for collaborative lifecycle management of design and prototyping

The HUB-CI model is investigated in a telerobotic system in a client/server network to manage the lifecycle of engineering design and prototyping. The purpose of this platform is to support collaborative engineering design and proof of concept to enhance distributed team collaboration and resource utilization. The suggested platform is exemplified in two collaboration support tools and a physical prototyping platform. Structured Co-Insight Management is developed to support innovative idea exchanges and the consensus decision-making during the design process. Conflict/error detection management helps preventing conflicts and errors during the lifecycle of design and development. Physical collaboration over the network occurs when a team controls the telerobot operation during prototyping and testing in design cycles. A pilot system is implemented with a group project for the design of an electronic circuit (including both hardware and software designs). The functional assessment method is used to compare this platform to other collaborative design tools. The system presented offers unique qualitative advantages as an integrated collaboration support system.     

Supporting collaborative sense-making in emergency management through geo-visualization

In emergency management, collaborative decision-making usually involves collaborative sense-making of diverse information by a group of experts from different knowledge domains, and needs better tools to analyze role-specific information, share and synthesize relevant information, and remain aware of the activities of others. This paper presents our research on the design of a collaborative sense-making system to support team work. We propose a multi-view, role-based design to help team members analyze geo-spatial information, share and integrate critical information, and monitor individual activities. Our design uses coordinated maps and activity visualization to aid decision-making as well as group activity awareness. The paper discusses design rationale, iterative design of visualization tools, prototype implementation, and system evaluation. Our work can potentially improve and extend collaborative tasks in emergency management.     

Group awareness tools: It’s what you do with it that matters

This study examined the effect of using a group awareness tool on online collaboration. Furthermore, we examined whether the effect of using a group awareness tool on online collaboration is mediated by group awareness (i.e., students’ awareness of their group members’ levels of participation). To answer these questions, we determined how often and how long 107 secondary education students used the Participation-tool (PT), a group awareness tool designed to visualize group members’ relative contribution to the online collaborative process. Our analyses show that duration of PT use (how long students displayed the tool on their screens) significantly predicted group members’ participation in the online dialogue, their participation when writing collaborative texts, equality of participation within the group, and coordination and regulation of activities in the relational space (i.e., discussing the collaboration process with group members). No effect of using the PT on group performance was found. Mediation analyses showed that the effect of using the PT is only partially mediated by group awareness: an indirect effect of using the PT, via enhanced awareness of participation, on student participation during chat discussions and the collaborative writing process was found.     

Distributed and collaborative visualization

Visualization typically involves large computational tasks, often performed on supercomputers. The results of these tasks are usually analyzed by a design team consisting of several members. Our goal is to depart from traditional single-user systems and build a low-cost scientific visualization environment that enables computer-supported cooperative work in the distributed setting. A synchronously conferenced collaborative visualization environment would let multiple users on a network of workstations and supercomputers share large data sets, simultaneously view visualizations of the data, and interact with multiple views while varying parameters. Such an environment would support collaboration in both the problem-solving phase and the review phase of design tasks. In this article we describe two distributed visualization algorithms and the facilities that enable collaborative visualization. These are all implemented on top of the distribution and collaboration mechanisms of an environment called Shastra, executing on a set of low-cost networked workstations     

Enhancing group awareness on the web: Prototype and experiments of sharing web page visitation information among teammates

Group awareness is critical to improving the collaboration efficiency of a group, especially when teammates are geographically separated while working on the web. Previous studies have focused mainly on enhancing the awareness of the current working status of teammates, such as web pages being viewed, or other web activities, and they seldom take into account past working/browsing information, such as web pages visited or past web activities. However, the awareness of this kind of historical information can be useful for group collaboration. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to sharing web page visitation information among teammates. We present the design and implementation of our prototype, named Shared Browsing History. We then describe two user studies in which three groups with eight participants each used the prototype. The results of these studies show that our approach was effective in enhancing participants’ group awareness and improved group collaborative efficiency in programming and software development tasks.     

Preventing undesirable effects of mutual trust and the development of skepticism in virtual groups by applying the knowledge and information awareness approach

Empirical studies have proven the effectiveness of the knowledge and information awareness approach of Engelmann and colleagues for improving collaboration and collaborative problem-solving performance of spatially distributed group members. This approach informs group members about both their collaborators’ knowledge structures and their collaborators’ information. In the current study, we investigated whether this implicit approach reduces undesirable effects of mutual trust and mutual skepticism. Trust is an important influencing factor with regard to behavior and performance of groups. High mutual trust can have a negative impact on group effectiveness because it reduces mutual control and, as a result, the detection of the others’ mistakes. In an empirical study, 20 triads collaborating with the knowledge and information awareness approach were compared with 20 triads collaborating without this approach. The members of a triad were spatially distributed and participated in a computer-supported collaboration. The results demonstrated that the availability of the knowledge and information awareness approach overrides the negative impact of too much mutual trust and counteracts the development of mutual skepticism. This study contributes to further clarifying the impact of trust on effectiveness and efficiency of virtual groups depending upon different situational contexts.     

群组协作社交网络关系的分析及可视化

社交网络的研究应用领域广泛,大多数的研究主要关注于社交网络结构中节点和链接的变化,研究角度较为单一.而群组协作关系在社交网络中较为普遍,为更好地探索群组协作过程中群组级别网络结构的演变,首先将组级任务添加到用于图可视化的任务分类中,针对协作关系网络的特性,设置一个适用于群组协作关系分析的任务分类法,根据此任务分类法设置...     

Collaborative conceptual design: A large software project case study

During software development, the activities of requirements analysis, functional specification, and architectural design all require a team of developers to converge on a common vision of what they are developing. There have been remarkably few studies of conceptual design during real projects. In this paper, we describe a detailed field study of a large industrial software project. We observed the development team's conceptual design activities for three months with follow-up observations and discussions over the following eight months. In this paper, we emphasize the organization of the project and how patterns of collaboration affected the team's convergence on a common vision. Three observations stand out: First, convergence on a common vision was not only painfully slow but was punctuated by several reorientations of direction; second, the design process seemed to be inherently forgetful, involving repeated resurfacing of previously discussed issues; finally, a conflict of values persisted between team members responsible for system development and those responsible for overseeing the development process. These findings have clear implications for collaborative support tools and process interventions.     

Structural model of team-based learning using Web 2.0 collaborative software

This study examines the phenomena occurring among team members during their participation in team-based learning using Web 2.0 collaborative software. Based on the Grounded Theory approach, this study analyzes students' feedback related to team collaborative learning using Web 2.0 collaborative tool. Data analysis yields a structural model of team-based learning facilitated by Web 2.0 collaborative software. This study draws inferences to suggest that Web 2.0 collaborative learning environment uncovers diverse communication media in support of synchronicity and group awareness. Subsequently, synchronicity and group awareness promote team-based learning. This study also reveals that four factors, namely, synchronicity, group awareness, learner autonomy and collective intelligence, support team-based learning facilitated by Web 2.0 technology.     

A collaborative design appraisal system for water treatment engineering projects

Water treatment projects usually involve large capital investment. Design appraisal is crucial to ensure project quality and cost effectiveness. The aim of design appraisal is to give the design team an opportunity to evaluate a proposed solution at the design stage when the benefits for change are high and cost is low. Design appraisal is a collaborative decision-making process that requires good communication and knowledge sharing between all the team members. Unfortunately, at present in practice there are many communication bottlenecks that result in decisions being made without proper evaluation and appraisal. The paper describes the development of a collaborative design appraisal system, which facilitates a remotely located design team to work in collaboration, carry out what-if analysis and optimise the design of water treatment projects.     

Supporting collaborative engineering design

The complexity of current engineering design demands the collaboration of specialists. Collaboration involves both communication between and coordination among members of a design team. Currently, design collaboration is carried out through the use of schedules, specifications and drawings which only capture the end results of the design process. They fail to record important design information such as the reasoning behind design decisions. In this paper, we describe a tool CADS, that supports collaboration in engineering design. CADS is based on an extension to the Axiomatic Design methodology which not only captures the design elements but also the rationale used to conceive them. CADS serves as a shared database of design information with facilities that support communication and coordination in engineering design.Currently at the Media Laboratory, MIT.     

Interactive tree comparison for co-located collaborative information visualization

In many domains increased collaboration has lead to more innovation by fostering the sharing of knowledge, skills, and ideas. Shared analysis of information visualizations does not only lead to increased information processing power, but team members can also share, negotiate, and discuss their views and interpretations on a dataset and contribute unique perspectives on a given problem. Designing technologies to support collaboration around information visualizations poses special challenges and relatively few systems have been designed. We focus on supporting small groups collaborating around information visualizations in a co-located setting, using a shared interactive tabletop display. We introduce an analysis of challenges and requirements for the design of co-located collaborative information visualization systems. We then present a new system that facilitates hierarchical data comparison tasks for this type of collaborative work. Our system supports multi-user input, shared and individual views on the hierarchical data visualization, flexible use of representations, and flexible workspace organization to facilitate group work around visualizations.     

Mining knowledge demands from information flow

Among a collaborative team, members usually come from diverse disciplines, and their demands for knowledge are also different from each other. Information flow is a type of collaborative process, which exists behind every collaborative team. This paper is concerned with how to obtain team members’ knowledge demands from the information flow. Firstly, the knowledge demands model is defined. Based on the model of knowledge demands and information filtering technologies, some approaches for mining demands from information flow are proposed. This study on the knowledge demand mining can pave the way for developing knowledge recommender systems, which can recommend proper knowledge to proper team members with a collaborative team.     

桥梁协同设计系统数据动态管理模式

针对桥梁协同设计中群体间的信息共享需求,从协同设计的数据动态管理模式角度对信息共享的理论与方法进行了研究,分析了结构设计群体与抗震设计群体之间的协同工作过程,完成了含原子数据、组合数据、构件、有限元模型、子结构、结构等设计信息的数据表达模型.研究了含数据变换和动态激励的数据管理方法,满足了协同工作群体间信息共享的需求.以某连续梁桥为例,模拟分析结构设计群体与抗震设计群体间的协同工作过程,对动态管理模式的可实施性进行了验证.     

面向协作的组织结构设计的集成模拟研究

基于计算组织理论,采用了多Agent模拟和离散事件模拟的集成方法,以组织成员间的协作关系为出发点,分析了不同的协作模式对组织效率的影响,讨论了在这些协作模式下沟通机制和激励机制的作用,得到了一些对组织结构设计有意义的结论。     

Awareness of group performance in a CSCL-environment: Effects of peer feedback and reflection

This study investigated the effects of a peer feedback tool and a reflection tool on social and cognitive performance during computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL). A CSCL-environment was augmented with a peer feedback tool (Radar) and a reflection tool (Reflector) in order to make group members aware of both their individual and their group behavior. Radar visualizes how group members perceive their own social and cognitive performance and that of their peers during collaboration along five dimensions. Reflector stimulates group members to reflect upon their own performance and the performance of the group. A 2 × 2 factorial between-subjects design was used to examine whether Radar and Reflector would lead to better team development, more group satisfaction, lower levels of group conflict, more positive attitudes toward problem-based collaboration, and a better group product. Results show that groups with Radar perceived their team as being better developed, experienced lower conflict levels, and had a more positive attitude towards collaborative problem solving than groups without Radar. The quality of group products, however, did not differ. The results demonstrate that peer feedback on the social performance of individual group members can enhance the performance and attitudes of a CSCL-group.     

基于本体的多主体网络协作学习模型研究

协作学习是一种组学习方式,强调的是组成员之间的交流与合作,因此成员间的信息理解对协作的效率影响很大,本体论是概念化的明确表示和描述,因此本体可对学习资源进行语义标注.采用本体提供交流资源的统一语义描述,使学习者在语义基础上进行交流和查询,本体的引入保证了网络协作学习中知识理解和运用的一致性、精确性、不变性、可重用性和共享性.设计了基于本体的多主体网络协作学习模型,该模型不仅具有语义互操作性而且能有效支持知识的重用和共享,从而提高协作学习效率.