UNDERSTANDING DISTRIBUTED COGNITION IN MODERATED CHAT ROOMS: A PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS zyxwv Edward J. Glantz and Michael D. McNeese The Pennsylvania State University University Park, PA This study evaluates higher order perception, cognition, and individual-cultural differences under which moderated chat rooms may provide an effective alternative for students reviewing business information system course material in preparation for examination. Chat rooms comprise a form of groupware that can facilitate distributed cognition among higher education participants in the form of information-sharing. This study continues previous research (McNeese, et. al., 2002) that indicated problem solving and constructivist learning are socially constructed, situated in practice and context specific. The premise of this paper is that with proper design a cognitive task, such as students reviewing for exams, can be effectively supported even within the possible constraints of simple chat rooms. A potential benefit to students, based on previous research, is that groupware such as chat rooms can provide a constructivist learning environment and an equality of participation in group discussions (Benbasat and Lim 1993). Initial results indicate the possibility to create social constructs whereby students with limited individual problem solving capabilities can be trained in a naturalistic setting to successfully acquire and transfer knowledge. INTRODUCTION This paper seeks to discover whether distributed cognition, as facilitated by chat rooms in groupware, has the potential to create intimacy and relevancy supplementingthe social construction of knowledge (Salomon, 1993) in large section classes typical of introductory courses in colleges and universities. Currently chat rooms are underutilized and perhaps not understood from perspectives that emphasize cognitive processes such as knowledge acquisition and transfer (McNeese, 2000). By aligning a cognitive task, such as reviewing course material in preparation for an exam, with chat rooms, this paper hopes to envision other creative implementations of chat rooms in complex systems. To do this we need to understand the use of groupware in situated learning (McNeese et al. 2002), as well as decompose the process of exam preparation. research, meet the needs of groups by integrating the information-sharing functionality found in email, listservs, newsgroups, shared network servers, and web pages (Greenlaw, 1999). Greenlaw notes that the theoretical basis for the use of groupware in situated learning comes from an active learning paradigm known as “constructivism.” This is in contrast with traditional lecture pedagogy, for example. Constructivist proponents argue that students learn more when required to construct their own understanding of source materials. By its very nature, groupware may provide a virtual arena for constructivist learning by providing students a forum to interact, construct, take issues and reevaluate positions (Greenlaw, 1999, Klem, 1995 and Jonassen et.al., 1995). Groupware, such as the chat rooms used in this The benefits of groupware, according to Manning and Riordan zyxwv (2000), include increased user participation, automaticallyrecorded comments and votes, more structure imposed and faster progress. All of these features are seen as desirable for computer-supported cooperative learning groups. As might be expected, an empirical study reported “higher levels of self- reported skill development, learning and evaluation of classroom experience than in comparison groups not using groupware” (Alavi 1994). This supports personal use of this type of system. In two large sections (200-400 students each) of an introductory business course to business information systems, Penn State’s ANGEL system has been used for threaded discussion, file sharing, announcements and other course materials. system called ANGEL (“A New Global Environment for Learning”) as a course business system in the spring semester, 2002. ANGEL is the groupware product from Cyberlearning Labs, Inc. ( httd/www.cvberlearninglabs.com/). Though adoption by faculty was optional, its use was hastened by the elimination, in some cases, of other web space areas traditionally used by instructors to post course material. The chat features in ANGEL are fairly modest, including the ability to create chat logs, filtering, private rooms and private messages, as well as course control of member access. State’s information technology group had conducted a post- implementation survey (Stout and Obieta, 2002). This survey polled faculty and students on the effectiveness of ANGEL’S various groupware features, including message boards, chatrooms, lesson folders, calendar, email, dropboxes, Penn State deployed its current groupware software One year prior to beginning this research, Penn PROCEEDINGS of the HUMAN FACTORS AND ERGONOMICS SOCIETY 47th ANNUAL MEETING—2003 630