EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVE MEDIA USED WITH A GROUPWARE EDITOR IN A SIMULATED TELECOMMUNICATIONS ENVIRONMENT

Writing efficiency using a groupware editor was evaluated in six confi gurations by factorially combining three communication media (audio on ly, audio plus video, and face-to-face) each with and without groupwar e editing in a within-subjects design. Twelve subjects familiar with j ournalistic writing were matched into dyads and wrote news articles ba sed on sets of questions about video clips shown to them. The quality of the writing task products was consistently high and showed no diffe rences among conditions. Results indicated that face-to-face condition s resulted in significantly less time to complete the task than did ot her communication conditions. When groupware editing was used, however , all communication media were equally efficient. The results were dis cussed in terms of the benefits of using the groupware editor to incre ase efficiency when face-to-face communication is not practical. Metho dological procedures were discussed as a means of reducing team variab ility in evaluating groupware using telecommunications.