Tang, Chun Meng, and Bradshaw, Adrian (2016) The role of text messaging in team collaborative learning. In: Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on e-Learning. pp. 672-679. From: ECEL 2016: 15th European Conference on e-Learning, 27-28 October 2016, Prague, Czech Republic.

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Abstract

Teamwork is essential to the successful completion of group tasks, and is therefore usually highlighted by universities as a desirable graduate attribute. To encourage the development of good teamwork skills among students, many university courses incorporate team assignments. In a conventional learning environment, students meet face-to-face in the classroom or somewhere on campus to complete their team assignments. However, it is interesting to note that today’s students prefer instead to have discussions or to collaborate using digital media. Today’s students use such digital communication media as email, text messaging, video chat, etc. to collaborate with team members in the process of completing their team assignments. As the students are familiar with and use some of these digital communication media in their everyday activities, it is quite possible that they also find them convenient and easy to use for academic work purposes. According to Nowak, Watt, and Walther’s (2005, 2009) efficiency framework, people tend to select communication media that they consider more effective in achieving certain objectives and those that require less cognitive and behavioural effort, and less time. However, is it true that digital communication media indeed help users to achieve greater team effectiveness, or is it just a perception myth? This study attempted to examine, when university students used text messaging for team collaboration purposes, if text messaging affected their copresence (modelled as a second-order formative construct which consists of two subconstructs: self copresence and partner copresence), media satisfaction, and perceived team effectiveness. This study conducted a questionnaire survey to collect responses from students who had been involved in team projects, and performed a partial least squares analysis of the responses. The findings show that copresence had a significant relationship with media satisfaction; media satisfaction had a significant relationship with perceived team effectiveness; and media satisfaction had a partial mediating effect between copresence and team effectiveness. This study could help explain why students may choose text messaging to facilitate team collaborative learning.

Item ID:	46307
Item Type:	Conference Item (Research - E1)
ISBN:	978-1-911218-17-3
ISSN:	2048-8645
Keywords:	collaborative learning, copresence, digital communication media, efficiency framework, media satisfaction, team effectiveness
Related URLs:	Publisher
Date Deposited:	22 Jun 2017 07:57
FoR Codes:	39 EDUCATION > 3903 Education systems > 390303 Higher education @ 50% 47 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 4701 Communication and media studies > 470108 Organisational, interpersonal and intercultural communication @ 50%
SEO Codes:	93 EDUCATION AND TRAINING > 9301 Learner and Learning > 930102 Learner and Learning Processes @ 100%
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