MEASURING THE QUALITY OF COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION

There is a growing literature of experiments whose purpose is to compa re different configurations for computer-mediated communication. If th e results of these experiments are to be useful they must: (i) use the right experimental tasks; and (ii) measure the fight dependent variab les. This paper is concerned with the latter problem which is illustra ted using data collected in experimental comparisons of three configur ations of a text-based conferencing system. No significant differences were found using a measure of task outcome. This accords with numerou s previous findings. However, a number of process-related dependent va riables were devised that did show significant effects. These included common ground, as measured by shared recall, and references to the to pic of one message in the next available turn. Another, the use of fir st and second person pronouns in conversation approached significance. Finally, an approach to the selection of measures for use in studies of computer-mediated communication is commended.