www.itcon.org - Journal of Information Technology in Construction - ISSN 1874-4753 ITcon Vol. 17 (2012), Gül, pg. 465 EVALUATING THE MODES OF COMMUNICATION: A STUDY OF COLLABORATIVE DESIGN IN VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS REVISED: 20 March 2012 PUBLISHED: September 2012 at http://www.itcon.org/2012/30 GUEST EDITOR(S): Xiangyu Wang and Robert Klinc Leman Figen Gül, Associate Professor Department of Architecture, TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Ankara, Turkey email: leman.gul@uni.sydney.edu.au Xiangyu Wang, Professor School of Built Environment, Curtin University, Perth, Australia International Scholar, Department of Housing and Interior Design, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea email: xiangyu.wang@curtin.edu.au Gülen Çağdaş, Professor Faculty of Architecture, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey email: cagdas@itu.edu.tr SUMMARY: With the recent developments in communication and information technologies using Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) in design activity has experienced a significant increase. In this paper, a collaborative learning activity between the University of Sydney (USYD), and the Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Global Teamwork, is presented. This paper explores the use of asynchronous and synchronous communication modes during design activity in a remote context. The paper continues with an evaluation study of the Global Teamwork based on the students’ comments and a protocol study, focusing on the communication modes provided by the CVEs used. The paper concludes with insights into the applications of virtual environments in collaborative design teaching. KEYWORDS: Collaborative design; collaborative virtual environments; collaborative design teaching and learning REFERENCE: Leman Figen Gül, Xiangyu Wang, Gülen Çagdaş (2012) Evaluationg the models of communication: a study of collaborative design in virtual environments, Journal of Information Technology in Construction (ITcon), Vol. 17, pg. 465-484, http://www.itcon.org/2012/30 COPYRIGHT: © 2012 The authors. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 unported (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 1. INTRODUCTION With the recent progress in information and communication technologies, using Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) in design activity has experienced a remarkable increase. Collaboration in geographically distant locations using information and communication technologies has become the new way in which architecture firms and other related parties practise and communicate (Maher 1999; Çağdaş, Kavakli et al. 2000; Kvan, Schmitt et al. 2000). As a result, design curricula have been changing to accommodate this new trend around the globe. In design education, web-based tools (Craig and Zimring 2000), virtual design studios (Maher 1999; Çağdaş, Kavaklı et al. 2000; Kvan, Schmitt et al. 2000) and 3D virtual worlds (Gu, Gül et al. 2007; Gül, Gu et al. 2007) have been widely used, especially in the form of online design studios. In this context, students