Many western European housing policies have tried to increase the residential mix of advantaged and disadvantaged groups. Unfortunately, policymakers have given little consideration to how these groups will interact as neighbours. There are numerous theoretically grounded mechanisms by which the social mix of a neighbourhood may influence socio-economic outcomes of its residents. These mechanis...

Two studies examined the use of video in multimedia learning environments. In Study 1, participants (N = 26) viewed one of two versions of a computer-based multimedia presentation: video, which included a video of a lecture with synchronized slides, or no video, which included the slides but only an audio narration of the lecture. Learning, cognitive load and social presence were assessed, but ...

The role of VE content in the presence experience is controversial. Although a strong theoretical argument has been made that presence depends on the form of information presented and not the content, several relational studies have shown that content is strongly associated to presence. This paper presents an experiment which manipulated nondiegetic music played during exposure to a strongly th...

The concept of self-presence provides a framework for understanding how people connect to virtual self-representations on three distinct levels (body, emotions, and identity). The present study aims to build on previous support for the reliability and construct validity of this framework. Participants (N=81) who used avatars in a semester-long collaborative virtual group project were examined. ...

Research into the effectiveness of online learning has yielded a number of potential models of online learning effectiveness but no verified theoretical frameworks (Garrison & Arbaugh, 2007). Extensive literature exists related to the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model, first proposed by Garrison, Anderson and Archer (2000) to describe the components of an ideal educational experience. The model ...

So far, research in computer-mediated collaboration has investigated various factors influencing the amount of social presence experienced in online settings. This experimental study broadens the perspective and investigates social presence as a causing factor on participants’ perception on task, medium and collaboration. Therefore an experiment with between subject design was conducted, with m...

Research on virtual learning groups is still in its infancy, despite the related technology’s proliferation in education institutions. This paper reports on an experiment investigating the relationships among type of technology, gender, social presence, and learning outcomes. Using a 2x2 factorial design, each same-gender group collaborated on a learning task, using either videoconferencing, or...

Social Presence is the concept of ‘being there’, of emotional connectedness to another person. As relationships are increasingly formed by spatially disparate partners, supporting social presence has become more important. As many intimate acts involve touching, this paper investigates the impact that heat, one aspect of touch, has upon social presence. This is presented in the form of a therma...

Research on information sharing has viewed this activity as essential for informing groups on content relevant to a decision. We propose and examine an alternate function of information sharing, i.e., the social construction of meaning. To accomplish this goal, we turn to social construction, social presence, and task closure theories. Drawing from these theories, we hypothesize relationships a...