MathGirls is computer-based algebra designed for high school girls learning algebra I. Given that girls are in general more interested in interactive computing and more positive about the social presence of pedagogical agents, the primary goal of MathGirls is to provide a girl-friendly learning environment that helps enhance girls’ self-efficacy beliefs in and motivation towards learning algebr...

In this article, we discuss and empirically examine the importance of embodiment, context, and spatial proximity as they pertain to collaborative interaction and task completion in virtual environments. Specifically, we introduce the embodied social presence (ESP) theory as a framework to account for a higher level of perceptual engagement that users experience as they engage in activity-based ...

In an experiment we research the effect of the Philips iCat, a human-like user-interface, on copresence and social presence in remote meetings. Two remote meeting situations were compared, one in which an iCat represented a remote participant, and one with a video connection. Participants’ perception of copresence and social presence was measured through questionnaires. We found a systematicall...

The purpose of this study was to explore the dynamics of an online educational experience through the lens of the Community of Inquiry framework. Transcript analysis of online discussion postings and the Community of Inquiry survey were applied to understand the progression and integration of each of the Community of Inquiry presences. The results indicated significant change in teaching and so...

It is well recognized that utilitarian and hedonic factors are both important in explaining customers’ consumption activities. Recent research has advocated the role of relational factors in affecting the adoption processes. However, no study has examined these three factors simultaneously in one study. We integrate the utilitarian and hedonic benefits of online shopping with the relational ben...

In a recent dissertation study, research was conducted to evaluate online instructors’ characteristics and preferences concerning the use of a telementor, or online instructor’s assistant, as a part on an online course. Those who participated in the anonymous survey came from a sample of two thousand online instructors from colleges and universities located across the United States. Of those co...

As the use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) by students in the university learning contexts increases, there is a need to better understand students’ motivations for using CMC and non-CMC media in their learning. By employing the uses and gratifications (U&G) perspective, this paper identified 7 motivation dimensions including information seeking, convenience, connectivity, problem solv...

In Cooltown, we believe that the integration of our physical world with the Web offers unique opportunities to enable ubiquitous computing applications. This p aper describes our latest results in building a model and a software arch itecture called the Web presence manager (WPM) to support this physical -virtual integration. This software layer implements and specifies the services and informa...