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Instant Messaging in distance education

Wongsudalak, Wittawat ; Meng, Naishi and Zhang, Qi (2009)
Department of Informatics
Abstract
Instant messaging has become widely used in many instances. The concept of synchronous communication changed the terms of communication in distance education. This paper aims to achieve a deeper understanding of the current status of communication in distance education, additionally, to explore the usability of IM features in the e-learning process. Five interviews and a questionnaire investigation have been conducted with both experienced teachers and students. The presented data illustrate that IM has become an effective approach which improves communication efficiency of distance education, but its evolution is restricted by the inherent properties of distance education. We also extended the technology acceptance model by an integration... (More)
Instant messaging has become widely used in many instances. The concept of synchronous communication changed the terms of communication in distance education. This paper aims to achieve a deeper understanding of the current status of communication in distance education, additionally, to explore the usability of IM features in the e-learning process. Five interviews and a questionnaire investigation have been conducted with both experienced teachers and students. The presented data illustrate that IM has become an effective approach which improves communication efficiency of distance education, but its evolution is restricted by the inherent properties of distance education. We also extended the technology acceptance model by an integration of three theories which are media richness, flow and effective communication. And this extension is utilized for evaluating the relationship between communication efficiency and four unaided IM features: instant message, VOIP, video conference and file transfer. The results show that IM features can improve the efficiency of communication in distance education. Also the results indicate the limitation of our research model, which will implicate the direction of our future study. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Wongsudalak, Wittawat ; Meng, Naishi and Zhang, Qi
supervisor
organization
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
e-learning, communication, Instant Messaging, Distance education, online learning, Informatics, systems theory, Informatik, systemteori
language
English
id
1436865
date added to LUP
2009-06-10 00:00:00
date last changed
2010-08-03 10:52:24
@misc{1436865,
  abstract     = {{Instant messaging has become widely used in many instances. The concept of synchronous communication changed the terms of communication in distance education. This paper aims to achieve a deeper understanding of the current status of communication in distance education, additionally, to explore the usability of IM features in the e-learning process. Five interviews and a questionnaire investigation have been conducted with both experienced teachers and students. The presented data illustrate that IM has become an effective approach which improves communication efficiency of distance education, but its evolution is restricted by the inherent properties of distance education. We also extended the technology acceptance model by an integration of three theories which are media richness, flow and effective communication. And this extension is utilized for evaluating the relationship between communication efficiency and four unaided IM features: instant message, VOIP, video conference and file transfer. The results show that IM features can improve the efficiency of communication in distance education. Also the results indicate the limitation of our research model, which will implicate the direction of our future study.}},
  author       = {{Wongsudalak, Wittawat and Meng, Naishi and Zhang, Qi}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Instant Messaging in distance education}},
  year         = {{2009}},
}