A survey was conducted on 210 Baby Boomers (Age mean = 51.4 Std. dev. 5.46) within the United States to determine their current use of online technology in social interactions, their preferences in these interactions, and the expectations they have of near-future online communication technologies. The findings highlight the importance of online communication in their lives and spotlight their w...

This paper explores four published articles that report on results from research conducted on online (Internet) and offline (non-Internet) relationships and their relationship to computer-mediated communication (CMC). The articles, however, vary in their definitions and uses of CMC. Butler, and Kraut (2002) suggest that face-to-face (FtF) interactions are more effective than CMC, defined and us...

Recent interest in online course design has prompted concern in issues relating to assessment of student contributions in computer-mediated communication (CMC) environments. A current focus of discussion in CMC research is to look into how instructors could move away from looking at the quantity (i.e., the number of postings) to assessing the quality (i.e., the usefulness and meaningfulness of ...

Salmon’s (2000) proposed model for the effective development of on-line communication and collaboration between student suggests that on-line socialisation forms an early and important component of establishing required levels of comfort and skill. In this paper we review research with Chinese learners that suggests that some adjustments to Salmon’s model may be advisable for these students. Sp...