Collaborative problem solving (CPS) is a 21st-century skill essential for learning gains, workplace success, and tackling increasingly complicated global problems. Group diversity plays a vital role during collaborative activities, especially in a digital space. Although CPS involves dynamic communication behaviors, few studies have considered the…

With large student enrollment, MOOC instructors face the unique challenge in deciding when to intervene in forum discussions with their limited bandwidth. We study this problem of "instructor intervention." Using a large sample of forum data culled from 61 courses, we design a binary classifier to predict whether an instructor should…

Providing tools for dialogue exchange does not ensure that students will respond to teammate postings or that online groups will grow in cohesiveness (Murphy, 2004). Students decide whether or not to reply, and it is increasingly important to understand how students make these decisions due to the increase in distance education, Millennials, and…

Six papers from the 1990 CAUSE Conference Track VIII: Managing Distributed Computing are presented. Authors discuss the challenges and opportunities involved in providing user managers with direct access to institutional databases to support their decision making and planning activities. Papers and their authors are as follows: "Rendering an…

The document presents the text of two speeches and a group discussion of adult political education in the United States and Germany from a conference to compare recent social, economic, and political developments in the two countries. The first speech characterizes adult political education in Germany as comprising approximately 10% of the total…

A replication study tested functional theory utilizing untrained full-fledged groups. One hundred forty undergraduate students who were enrolled in a small group communication course at a large midwestern university participated in small group discussions analyzing a plagiarism case used in an original study by R. Y. Hirokawa. Results indicated…

A new method for the measurement of consensus in small groups is proposed. The method allows for the study of the dynamic formation of consensus and, with the aid of some mathematical manipulations, reveals the development of subgroup relations over time. In a pilot test, the method was used to study groups of students choosing a topic which they…

The purpose of the focus group design described in this paper was to identify the needs of students in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) programs for use by researchers, program designers, and teachers. The pilot focus group consisted of students from various programs who were preparing to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language. They were…

Habermas's theory of dialogue was used to evaluate the process of decision making that occurred in a labor-management committee's meeting to discuss flextime. The study attempted to determine why, at that meeting, the committee's consensus process of decision making failed. W.R. Bion's theory of unconscious group motives was also used to…

Two hypotheses guided these studies: (1) administrators with a greater risk propensity will develop more innovative job targets in a management-by-objectives program than will those with less risk propensity, and (2) educators' risk propensity will increase after group discussion. The Choice Dilemmas measure, content analysis of goal statements,…

Approaches to organizational change are examined, and the means for overcoming resistance to change are suggested. Seven models of change commonly used are identified as: (1) decree; (2) replacement of personnel; (3) structural reorganization; (4) group agreement; (5) data discussion; (6) group problem solving; and (7) T group. The sixth change…

Discussion and research show that when members of a problem-solving group engage in discussion and reach a consensus, the resultant group decision is either riskier or more cautious than the average of the individual judgments prior to the discussion. The purpose of this paper is to summarize and evaluate various theories concerning this group…

Describes a hands-on activity that explores how individuals learn, perceive, and make decisions about the environment. The activity allows participants to discover their teaching/learning styles, explore the design process as a decision-making tool, and experience the process of locating local resources for classroom use. (BC)

A study was conducted to examine the relationship between the amount of conflict in a group decision-making process and the achievement of a quality decision. A task problem given to 33 college students completing a group symposium assignment in a basic public speaking and discussion course called for subjects to choose three possible topics for a…

The classic film, "Twelve Angry Men," where a lone dissenting jury member (Henry Fonda) implores his fellow jurors not to make a quick decision in a murder trial, is often cited as a resource for analyzing decision-making processes in groups. The film, used in group-process courses to show how conformity pressures can hamper effective…