Student teamwork: developing virtual support for team projects

In the 21st century team working increasingly requires online cooperative skills as well as more traditional skills associated with face to face team working. Virtual team working differs from face to face team working in a number of respects, such as interpreting the alternatives to visual cues, adapting to synchronous communication, developing trust and cohesion and cultural interpretations. However, co-located student teams working within higher education can only simulate team working as it might be experienced in organisations today. For example, students can learn from their mistakes in a non-threatening environment, colleagues tend to be established friends and assessing teamwork encourages behaviour such as “free-riding”. Using a prototyping approach, which involves students and tutors, a system has been designed to support learners engaged in team working. This system helps students to achieve to their full potential and appreciate issues surrounding virtual teamwork. The Guardian Agent system enables teams to allocate project tasks and agree ground rules for the team according to individuals’ preferences. Results from four cycles of its use are presented, together with modifications arising from iterations of testing. The results show that students find the system useful in preparing for team working, and have encouraged further development of the system

Combining relevance information in a synchronous collaborative information retrieval environment

Traditionally information retrieval (IR) research has focussed on a single user interaction modality, where a user searches to satisfy an information need. Recent advances in both web technologies, such as the sociable web of Web 2.0, and computer hardware, such as tabletop interface devices, have enabled multiple users to collaborate on many computer-related tasks. Due to these advances there is an increasing need to support two or more users searching together at the same time, in order to satisfy a shared information need, which we refer to as Synchronous Collaborative Information Retrieval. Synchronous Collaborative Information Retrieval (SCIR) represents a significant paradigmatic shift from traditional IR systems. In order to support an effective SCIR search, new techniques are required to coordinate users' activities. In this chapter we explore the effectiveness of a sharing of knowledge policy on a collaborating group. Sharing of knowledge refers to the process of passing relevance information across users, if one user finds items of relevance to the search task then the group should benefit in the form of improved ranked lists returned to each searcher. In order to evaluate the proposed techniques we simulate two users searching together through an incremental feedback system. The simulation assumes that users decide on an initial query with which to begin the collaborative search and proceed through the search by providing relevance judgments to the system and receiving a new ranked list. In order to populate these simulations we extract data from the interaction logs of various experimental IR systems from previous Text REtrieval Conference (TREC) workshops

Supporting awareness in heterogeneous collaboration environments

Rapid technological advancements have made it possible for humans to collaborate as never before. However demands of group work necessitate distributed collaboration in very heterogeneous environments. Heterogeneity as in various applications, platforms, hardware and communication infrastructure. User mobility, lack of availability and cost often make imposing a common collaboration environment infeasible. Awareness is essential for successful collaboration. Awareness is a key design criterion in groupware but often collaboration occurs with applications not designed to support useful awareness. This dissertation deals with the issue of effective group awareness support in heterogeneous environments.;Awareness propagation is effective if the appropriate amount of information, relevant to the user\u27s sphere of activity is delivered in a timely, unobtrusive fashion. Thus issues such as information overload, and distraction have to be addressed. Furthermore ability to establish the appropriate balance between awareness and privacy is essential. Enhanced forms of awareness such as intersubjectivity and historical awareness are often invaluable. Heterogeneous environments significantly impact the above quality factors impeding effective awareness propagation. Users are unable to tailor the quality of awareness received.;Heterogeneity issues that affect awareness quality are identified. An awareness framework is proposed that binds various sources of awareness information. However for effective awareness support, physical integration must be augmented by information integration. As a solution, an awareness model is proposed. Specification of the awareness model and framework\u27s architecture and features is the key contribution. The proposed model has been validated through simulations of realistic collaboration involving human participation. Scenarios created, have tested the model\u27s usefulness in enhancing the quality of group work by propagating effective awareness among users. To accomplish the same, an Awareness Simulator application has been created. In the validation process, efforts made to create an experimental methodology revealed some techniques related to awareness evaluation in CSCW, which are proposed. Various issues required to successfully engineer such awareness frameworks are identified and their impact on requirements such as security and performance, discussed. With various standards and technologies that can be harnessed to create awareness frameworks, there is great promise that barriers in heterogeneous collaboration environments can be overcome

Collaborative method to maintain business process models updated

Business process models are often forgotten after their creation and its representation is not usually updated. This appears to be negative as processes evolve over time. This paper discusses the issue of business process models maintenance through the definition of a collaborative method that creates interaction contexts enabling business actors to discuss about business processes, sharing business knowledge. The collaboration method extends the discussion about existing process representations to all stakeholders promoting their update. This collaborative method contributes to improve business process models, allowing updates based in change proposals and discussions, using a groupware tool that was developed. Four case studies were developed in real organizational environment. We came to the conclusion that the defined method and the developed tool can help organizations to maintain a business process model updated based on the inputs and consequent discussions taken by the organizational actors who participate in the processes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Strategies for Quorum Satisfaction in Host-to-Host Meeting Scheduling Negotiation

This paper proposes two strategies for handling conflict schedule of two meetings which invite the same member of personnel at the same time through host-to-host negotiation scheme. The strategy is to let the member attend the other meeting under the condition that the group decision regarding the schedule is not changed and meeting quorum is fulfilled, namely release strategy. Other strategy is to substitute the absent personnel in order to keep the number of attendees above the quorum, namely substitute strategy. This paper adapts a mechanism design approach, namely Clarke Tax Mechanism, to satisfy incentive compatibility and individual rationality principal in meeting scheduling. By using a release strategy and substitute strategy, colliding meetings can still be held according to the schedule without the need for rescheduling. This paper shows the simulation result of using the strategies within some scenarios. It demonstrates that the number of meeting failures can be reduced with negotiation.       

Towards host-to-host meeting scheduling negotiation

This paper presents a different scheme of meeting scheduling negotiation among a large number of personnel in a heterogeneous community. This scheme, named Host-to-Host Negotiation, attempts to produce a stable schedule under uncertain personnel preferences. By collecting information from hosts’ inter organizational meeting, this study intends to guarantee personnel availability. As a consequence, personnel’s and meeting’s profile in this scheme are stored in a centralized manner. This study considers personnel preferences by adapting the Clarke Tax Mechanism, which is categorized as a non manipulated mechanism design. Finally, this paper introduces negotiation strategies based on the conflict handling mode. A host-to-host scheme can give notification if any conflict exist and lead to negotiation process with acceptable disclosed information. Nevertheless, a complete negotiation process will be more elaborated in the future works

A COLLABORATIVE VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT FOR TRAINING OF SECURITY AGENTS IN NUCLEAR EMERGENCIES

In face the recently observed security menaces related to terrorist actions and natural disasters, there is a need for a major qualification and training of the agents responsible for avoid any problems regarding to abnormal conditions. In the conventional training procedures, however, field simulations are associated to logistical and operational constraints regarded to the execution of the tests which can expose the user to risk. On the other hand, the use of virtual simulations provides an alternative to such limitations besides of promote the qualifying of professionals with a great reliability. For this reason, this paper proposes the development of a collaborative virtual environment that will be used to prepare the security agents on identifying individuals suspected of carrying radioactive materials. The development of the virtual environment consisted on modeling using Autodesk 3ds Max, where the scene itself and the scene objects were modeled besides the terrain creation and basic features programming using the Game Engine Unity 3D. In the Engine Game were included radiation detectors and avatars. The security agents were able to communicate to each other by means of auxiliary external tools like a headset software that makes possible the communication, coordination and cooperation required for an effective collaboration. Experimental tests of the virtual simulations were performed with the participation of CNEN radiological protection agents and collaborators. The tests have shown that the proposed method can contribute to improve the training results of the basic collaborative skills required for a CNEN agent in an emergency situation without the need to espose him to any kind of risk. In face of that, we hope that it can contribute to minimize the demand for qualified security professionals

Evaluating Plans and Human Response Using a Normative Multi-Agent System

International audienceWe describe a socio-technical system designed to train different organisations in emergency management during the preparedness phase. In this system, both humans and the system work together in building organisational context awareness. The system uses a normative multi-agent system and a tangible table for user interaction. Real time virtual feedbacks are used to draw users' attention to the validity of their actions with respect to the emergency plan. Feedback allows the actors to be aware of the other factors that impact the validity of their action (actions of other actors, environment etc.) and to identify the behaviour that is expected of them by the other organisations. The system is still in its prototype phase. Its behaviour is illustrated by example scenarios, showing that it is possible to support collaboration amongst distant actors, in a way that only relevant information is shown

A comparison of the information technology knowledge of United States and German auditors

The International Federation of Accountants has stated that competence in information technology is imperative for the professional accountant due to its pervasive use in the business world. Auditors would normally be expected to have higher knowledge than the average accountant since they must audit the work of many different clients with diverse information systems. We surveyed 2,500 United States and German auditing professionals to determine their self-reported knowledge levels (IT self-efficacy) of 36 information technologies, some of which include various emerging technologies. Responses totaled 587 for a 23.5% overall response rate. A factor analysis of the 36 individual technologies revealed five underlying general constructs. Response statistics indicated both countries lacked significant knowledge for three of these five constructs. Scores were then culturally standardized to appropriately compare United States and German responses. German auditors had significantly higher knowledge for the construct of networking and data transfer. U.S. auditors had significantly higher knowledge for three constructs: ecommerce technologies, general office automation, and audit automation technologies. No differences were found for the construct of accounting firm office automation technologies. This study provides a foundation and methodology by which future researchers can measure whether, as an “emerging technology” matures, greater convergence will occur over time across cultures in factor analysis, as in the case of the more mature construct, general office automations.La Federación Internacional de Contables ha declarado que la competencia en la tecnología de la información es obligatoria para los contables profesionales, debido a su uso penetrante en el mundo de los negocios. Los auditores habrían esperado normalmente tener un conocimiento más elevado que un contable medio, ya que ellos deben auditar el trabajo de un gran número de diferentes clientes con sistemas de información diferentes a su vez. Encuestamos a 2.500 profesionales de auditoría de EEUU y Alemania, con el objetivo de determinar sus niveles de conocimiento auto-declarados (autoeficacia informática) en cuanto a las 36 tecnologías de la información, algunas de ellas incluyendo varias tecnologías emergentes. Las respuestas obtenidas fueron 587 por un tasa general de respuesta de 23.5%. Un análisis factorial de esas 36 tecnologías individuales reveló cinco constructos generales subyacentes. Las estadísticas de respuesta indicaron que ambos países no tenían un conocimiento relevante de tres de estos cinco constructos. Las calificaciones estaban entonces estandarizadas culturalmente para comparar de forma apropiada las respuestas de ambos países. Los auditores alemanes tenían un conocimiento mucho más elevado de las constructos de redes y transferencia de datos. Los auditores de EEUU tenían un mayor conocimiento sobre los tres constructos: tecnologías del comercio electrónico, la automatización de oficinas, y las tecnologías de automatización de auditorías. No se encontraron diferencias en cuanto al constructo de tecnologías ofimáticas para empresas de contabilidad. Este estudio proporciona una base y metodología con la que los futuros investigadores puedan medir si, a medida que una “tecnología emergente” madura, se producirá una mayor convergencia con el tiempo entre las culturas en el análisis factorial, como en el caso de un constructo más maduro, las automatizaciones de oficina