Development and field testing of an electronic information exchange system : final report on the EIES development project

The Electronic Information Exchange System (EIES) is a particular design of a computerized conferencing system intended to allow both the facilitation of scientific and technical communications and experimentation and research into human information-communication processes. To meet the first objective EIES offers functional components of messaging, conferencing, notebooks and bulletins for its users. To meet the second objective EIES allows for the tailoring of interfaces by individuals and groups, and the incorporation of special processing and interconnect options to other computer and information systems. EIES is designed as a research tool or laboratory without walls in order to allow information scientists and those in related fields to observe, evaluate, experiment with and investigate the utilization of such systems by individuals and groups. During the test period EIES was utilized by about 200 individuals. Approximately 10,000 hours of usage occurred, 40,000 items of text were composed and over 123,000 items of text delivered. This comprised approximately 2 million lines of text communicated among the user population. The initial results demonstrate very different behavior patterns for individuals than exhibited by other types of interactive systems. By a process of induction from the various types of data collected during the pilot project, a number of conclusions were arrived at, stated in the form of a list of hypotheses for further testing. The results of this grant are: The development of an operational system Initial concepts on evaluation, utilization and experimentation with this type of system. Test usage and observation of usage over a one year period, comprising the single largest experiment with any computerized conferencing system to date. Numerous papers were published and professional presentations made

Between the NEET and the tidy : exploring 'middle' outcomes in Scottish school qualifications

Despite changes in the education system the qualifications that are gained at school remain important for young people’s pathways and trajectories. This paper is an element of a wider on-going programme of theoretically informed empirical analyses, which examine young people’s educational outcomes. The empirical work is situated within an overarching theoretical sociological framework which focuses on the outcomes of ‘ordinary’ young people who are neither educationally unengaged, nor part of an educational elite. In this phase of the work we focus on outcomes in Scottish school-level qualifications. This research is original in that it uses administrative data from the Scottish Qualifications Authority that is held as part of the Scottish Longitudinal Study. We begin by reconsidering challenging issues associated with measuring school-level qualifications. To address these challenges we undertake analyses of pupil’s subject-area outcomes using a latent variable modelling approach. A novel aspect of the work is that we undertake a sensitivity analysis to compare a standard technique for latent group assignment (modal assignment) with a recently proposed alternative (proportional assignment). The overall message is dispiriting because after half a century of comprehensive education in Scotland, school outcomes remain stratified both by gender and by a pupil’s social background. The analyses uncovered four main latent educational groups. One group had very positive outcomes and pupils in this group were generally more socially advantaged. By contrast another group had very poor outcomes and pupils in this group were generally more socially disadvantaged. There were two ‘middle’ groups, which both had moderate overall school Standard Grade outcomes. These two ‘middle’ groups were similar in their overall outcomes, but at the subject area-level their outcomes were notably different. One group were more likely to gain a Credit pass in English, but were relatively less likely to gain Credit passes in Mathematics and Sciences. The other group were unlikely to gain Credit passes in English and Mathematics, but were more likely to gain Credit passes in Sciences. These pupils with ‘middle’ or ‘moderate’ outcomes in school Standard Grades are a sociologically important group that should not be overlooked. The latent variable approach offers an informative set of typologies that are likely to be impactful because they can be used to better understand patterns of educational outcomes. These typologies are important because they can directly inform current debates on raising standards in Scottish schools

A Risk Scenario for Small Businesses in Hurricane Sandy Type Disasters

This research uses a series of surveys followed by mathematical modeling to help discover risk factors, mitigating actions, and the highest return scenarios as a basis for a low-cost business continuity/disaster recovery plan. The surveys use a Delphi study format in order to rank a base list of risks and mitigating actions and to supplement those lists with ones added by the participants. Survey results are analyzed and presented back to the group for a second round of ranking and supplementing the risk/action categories. This paper describes the top ten risks and high value scenario for small business interruptions as determined by a Delphi survey of small businesses affected by Hurricane Sandy. The highest ranked risk is loss of business reputation. The research then uses Cross Impact Analysis and Interpretive Structural Modeling to determine the risk interactions and the highest valued scenario for which to prepare

The effects of formal human leadership and computer-generated decision aids on problem solving via computer : a controlled experiment

Twenty-four groups of five professionals and managers within a variety of organizations were given the task of using a computer conference to reach agreement on the best solution to a ranking problem. The independent variable is the structure of the conferencing capability used. Two alternative means of structuring the conferences were employed, in a two-by-two factorial design. Groups with Human Leadership elected one of their members to lead the group in its decision making discussion. Groups with Computer Feedback were given periodic tables which displayed the current group decision in terms of the mean rankings of items, and the degree of consensus about each of these items. Dependent variables include: Quality of decision Degree of consensus Amount of discussion and reranking activity Equality of participation Subjective satisfaction Covariates include initial (pre-discussion) quality of decision, typing speed, knowledgability of the leader, age, and sex. For this experiment, with small groups, human leadership was more effective than computer feedback for improving consensus and quality of decision

Mode of communication and the risky shift : a controlled experiment with computerized conferencing and anonymity in a large corporation

Peer groups of five managers in a large company with a well developed corporate culture engaged in choice dilemma tasks using three modes of communication: face-to-face, synchronous computerized conferences with regular names, and synchronous computerized conferences with assigned pen names. This is the final technical report on the experiment, including documentation of all procedures, and reports of the tests of all hypotheses, including those which were not supported. Choice behavior varied by problem and mode of communication. On a problem related to a major decision on the future of the company, conservative choices and conservative shifts dominated. On two choice dilemma problems related to individual level decisions, risky shifts were prevalent. Groups were more conservative in the pen name condition. The results are reviewed as they relate to conflicting theories that have been put forth to explain choice dilemma behavior in groups, including diffusion of responsibility, social comparison, and polarization models. The social comparison model recieves the strongest support. Results are also presented for hypotheses related to the assumption that pen name conferences will exhibit more disinhibited and deindividuated behavior than conferences in which comments are signed with the real name of the contributor. Our results do support the hypothesis that pen name conferences will exhibit more deindividuation than the other modes of communication, defined as a greater likelihood of going along with the group and its norms. There was little disinhibited behavior in either mode of computerized conferencing. Pen name conferences showed consistent but statistically insignificant tendencies toward less disagreement about the final group choice, more participation, and greater equality of participation. Subjective satisfaction of participants tends to be highest in Face-to-Face mode and lowest in the pen name computer conferences, but the differences are statistically significant only for a factor which we have named Persuasion and which includes social-emotional components. Very few background characteristics of the participants are related to variations in satisfaction with computerized conferencing, among this fairly homogeneous set of with pen name communication than are males. In sum, within this particular organizational context, the pen name condition of computer conferences exhibited some significant differences in terms of process and outcome and did not produce any extremely negative results. As a result, we believe that groups of managers facing important decisions in which the welfare of the organization must be placed above the egotistical interests of the participating employees might fruitfully consider pen name conferences as a viable decision-making option

Face-to-face vs. computerized conferences : a controlled experiment. Volume I: Findings

This is a report on the first controlled experiment conducted as part of a four year effort to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of using the computer to structure the communication for various types of group tasks. It uses a language called INTERACT, developed as part of this grant effort, to administer all instructions and conduct a group problem solving discussion in a computer conference. The experiment compares the process and outcome of face to face vs. computer mediated group problem solving discussions. The objectives of this experiment are the following basic research questions: To gain quantified and detailed knowledge about the consequences and characteristics of computerized conferencing as a communications mode, as compared to the usual face-to-face discussion mode. To lay the foundation for a subsequent experiment which will seek to alter the process of group communication via computer, in order to improve group performance. To assess the feasibility of using a high level language to conduct automated experiments on group communication and problem solving