Virtual teams are comprised of members from various locations who use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for member interaction. Many organizations have accepted virtual teams as an alternative to face-to-face teams. With the acceptance comes many challenges, one of those challenges is supporting team sharing in the virtual…

After nearly 2 decades of advances in information and communications technologies (ICT) including social media, mobile, analytics, and cloud computing, disaster response agencies in the United States have not been able to improve alignment between ICT-based information and disaster response actions. This grounded theory study explored emergency…

Online learning has increased access to higher education for underrepresented ethnic groups. These groups include African American and Latino/a students. Affirmation of ethnicity and culture contribute to positive academic outcomes for African American and Latino/a students. Yet, African American and Latino/a perspectives regarding online social…

Online classroom discussion is ubiquitous in higher education today, with both online and hybrid courses. As a result, tools need to be created that enable an in-depth assessment of this medium, thereby facilitating the establishment and support of best practices in education. Such an assessment requires tools for consistent, efficient analysis of…

The goal of this study was to examine the professional development experiences of two contrastive participants while they were creating standards-based individualized education plan (IEP) goals using a virtual world called TeacherSim. Two specific focuses of the study were on how special educators engaged with the task of creating standards-based…

In recent years, statistics have displayed a consistent increase in the enrollment in college programs of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The research has explained that ASD college students currently face academic and social barriers as they transition to the college setting. There is reason to believe that the use of online…

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has steadily increased in prevalence in recent years, with a current estimate of 1 in every 68 children eligible for such a diagnosis. Prevalence within the general population is reflected in the growing number of college and university students with ASD, with more students registering for services than ever before;…

On January 12, 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, causing catastrophic damages that resulted in at least 300,000 dead, 300,000 serious injuries, and 1.8 million homeless. The destruction was so complete that roads were no longer visible. While buildings, roads, power, and other infrastructure have taken years to restore, mobile phone…

Discourse analysis of literature circles can lead educators to understand the different types of interactions taking place as students talk about text. Social and academic interactions exist in both face-to-face and online discussions of reading material. This study examines two different settings of literature circles and compares interactions of…

Protecting children online from sexual predators has been a focus of research in psychiatry, sociology, computer science, and information systems (IS) for many years. However, the anonymity afforded by social media has made finding a solution to the problem of child protection difficult. Pedophiles manipulate conversation (discourse) with children…

This narrative inquiry collective case study investigated the experiences of six sixth grade American Indian males of the Lumbee tribe who struggle with reading. Bounded within an asynchronous closed wiki site, students from three sixth grade classes participated in online threaded discussions and created, posted, and viewed multimedia projects…

In times of mass emergency, users of Twitter (a popular microblogging service) often communicate information about the event, some of which contributes to situational awareness. Situational awareness refers to a state of understanding the "big picture" in time- and safety-critical situations. The more situational awareness people have,…

Location-based services have been identified as a promising communication paradigm in highly mobile and dynamic vehicular networks. However, existing mobile ad hoc networking cannot be directly applied to vehicular networking due to differences in traffic conditions, mobility models and network topologies. On the other hand, hybrid architectures…

Current theoretical models of distance learning are driven by two impetuses: a technical CMC element, and a pedagogical foundation rooted strongly in the Western world, and driven by social constructivism. By and large these models have been exported throughout the world as-is. However, previous research has hinted at potential problems with these…

Digital communication between organizations and the public is strategically important in shaping mutual understanding and long term relationship. The primary focus of this project was to investigate the relationship between message interactivity and relational maintenance strategy in the email communication process on organization websites. At…