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...

With the growing popularity of information and communication technologies (ICT), researchers from information systems (IS) field are increasingly interested in the factors influencing user satisfaction in computer-mediated environment. Drawing on media synchronicity theory (MST), this study explores how various media characteristics influence user satisfaction through social presence. The resul...

This document describes how the Sieve email filtering language, along with some extensions, can be used to create automatic replies to incoming electronic mail messages based on the address book and presence information of the recipient.

We studied how actual users find items of interest in today’s complex, recommender-rich information environments, what role recommenders play in it, and if recommenders increase perceived social presence. We used applied ethnography, on-location observation and interviewing, and Amazon as the environment to get an accurate picture of user activity. We found that users are increasingly relying o...

More and more companies allow users to bring their own IT devices to the workplace. As a result, an increased heterogeneity of hardand software makes it challenging to deliver central IT support. Therefore, employees might increasingly rely on the help of their colleagues. In such a user-to-user support scenario, traditional communication media such as text chat and telephone are used. In this ...

Companies seeking to achieve significant benefits through e-business need to create an effective and usable web presence to ensure successful interaction and communication with their employee, partners and customers. Despite the wealth of information available on web ease-of-use or usability, there is no standard, allencompassing framework defining web site effectiveness. Hence it is difficult ...

This paper contributes to the growing body of knowledge which identifies benefits for Blended Learning in the understanding of social processes role. It reports on an exploratory study into the role of social presence in blended learning environment. Employing a qualitative methodology, the study sought to understand social presence of learners in Blended Learning environment. The paper present...

Status of this Memo This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Abstract This document describes an exten...