NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #20/NN_1992_20.iso/spool/comp/groupwar/757

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From: [e-mail] (Kevin Crowston)
Subject: Syllabus of 6 session course on groupware at U of Michigan
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Date: Mon, 14 Sep 92 19:45:09 EDT
Organization: Cognitive Science Machine Intelligence Lab, University of Michigan
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            University of Michigan
          School of Business Administration

  CIS 521     Groupware: Computer support for groups     Winter 1992


        Course Syllabus as of Monday, August 31, 1992



Instructor:    Kevin Crowston        E-Mail:    [e-mail]
                    or    [e-mail]

Note: this is a half semester (1.5 credit) course. Students may
      enroll for an additional 1.5 credits of independent study (e.g.,
      to write a term paper) if they need 3 credits.


              Course motivation

The use of information technology to support an individual working
alone on a task--e.g., using a word processor to create a document
or a spreadsheet to analyze a decision--has dramatically changed the
way many people work. But in most companies, few documents or
decisions are the work of a single individual; instead, they are the
product of a team effort. Increasingly, information technology is
being harnessed to support such groups of people working together.

These groupware systems will profoundly affect the companies that use
them. For example, electronic mail reduces the time to send a message
from several days or even weeks to a few minutes, while eliminating
"phone tag." Such reductions in "information float" are key to
reducing product cycle times and reacting to the increased pace of
competition. Other systems better the effectiveness of meetings--the
major activity of many managers--helping groups reach better decisions
with less wasted time.

Many managers, even when they grasp the importance of such systems,
feel unqualified to play an active role in bringing them into a
company; they lack a technical vocabulary and the framework necessary
for both planning and decision making.  This course is intended to
meet their needs.


             Audience for course

This course is aimed primarily at future line and technical managers:
those who will select technologies to support their organizations and
oversee the introduction of these systems into the workplace. The
course focuses on questions such as: What's available? What works?
What kinds of tasks is it good for? What problems should be expected
and what can be done about them? Technology developers and researchers
may also find this course a good introduction to issues in developing
groupware systems and in evaluating their effects on group
performance.

Students are expected to have an understanding of basic computer
systems and the use of computers in business at the level covered in
CIS 501 or 551.  Students are also expected to have an appreciation
for the nature of programming and the ability to access the
University's computer system (MTS).


              Course description

This course will briefly survey different types of groupware systems,
such as electronic messaging, meeting support and distributed
collaboration systems. Students will have the opportunity to use and
assess real systems, both commercial and experimental.

The class will meet for three hours once a week. Typically the
beginning of each class period will be used to discuss students'
experiences with the system introduced in the previous class and used
during the week. After a break, a new class of systems will be
introduced and the capabilities of these systems and problems they
address discussed. Students will then have an opportunity to use an
example system, either during the remainder of the class or during the
week.  The class meeting place will vary depending on the requirements
of the software to be used.

In order to provide a focus for students' use of these systems, a
class project will be assigned. The project will be to develop, as a
group, a plan for introducing groupware systems to a company. The plan
will be written as a memo to senior management describing the kinds of
systems available and possible uses for such systems and presenting a
plan for implementing the systems. The instructor will provide the
initial framework for this memo, but it is expected that the class, as
a group, will use the various systems to reach agreement on the
content of the memo, divide the work as necessary and produce the
final product.

The course grade will be based in equal parts on contribution to and
participation in class and computer-mediated discussions and the group
project.


                Computer usage

An MTS computer account will be provided for use for the duration of
the course.  This account will allow students to communicate with the
course instructor, other students and people outside the university
via E-mail and computer conferencing. In addition, the class
assignment requires the use of various groupware systems on the
computers in the Business School Computer Lab. In some cases, copies
of these programs will be available for students to use on their own
computers.


              Preliminary class schedule

(Note:  All sections will follow the same syllabus, but the dates given
        are for section 1.)

Session    Date    Place    Hour    Topic

   1     9/14    K1320    1    Introduction
                  What is groupware? Frameworks for groupware

            2    Systems for spanning time
                  Electronic mail, computer conferencing,
                  Lotus Notes

            3    Introduction to class project

   2     9/21    CTS    1    Discussion of use of electronic mail and
                conferencing

            2    Systems for structuring face-to-face
                interactions
                  Meeting support systems

            3    Discuss project using a meeting support
                system

   3    9/28    CTS    1    Discussion of use of meeting support system

            2    Systems for spanning distance
                  Audio and video teleconferencing,
                  multi-media conferencing

            3    Work on project using teleconferencing

   4    10/5    CTS    1    Discussion of use of teleconferencing

            2    Systems for sharing environments
                  Aspects

   5    10/12    CTS    1    Discussion of use of Aspects

            2    Systems for structuring interactions
                over time and space
                   PREP, Coordinator, workflow automation

            3    Demonstrations of workflow automation

   6    10/19    K1320    1    Discussion of use of PREP

            2    Problems in implementing groupware

            3    Wrap up of course


CTS = Collaboration technology suite, a computer-supported meeting room

                 Reading list

The reading for each topic should be done prior to the in-class
discussion of the topic.

0.    Introduction                        Session 1

0.1.    Grudin, J.  (1991).  CSCW: Introduction. Communications of the
    ACM, 34(12), 31-34.

0.2.    Winograd, T.  (1989).  Groupware: The next wave or just
    another advertising slogan?  In Proceedings of the 34th IEEE
    Computer Society International Conference--CompCon Spring
    (pp. 198-200).  San Francisco, CA:  IEEE Press.

0.3.    Grudin, J.  (1991).  CSCW: The convergence of two disciplines.
    In ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    (pp. 91-98).  New Orleans: ACM Press.

0.4.    Ellis, C. A., Gibbs, S. J. and Rein, G. L.  (1991).
    Groupware: Some issues and experiences.  Communications of the
    ACM, 34(1), 38-58.  (first half)


1.    Spanning time                        Session 1

1.1.    Feldman, M. S.  (1986).  Constraints on communication and
    electronic messaging.  In Proceedings of the CSCW '86
    Conference on Computer-supported Cooperative Work (pp. 73-90).
    Austin, TX.

1.2.    Pitturo, M. C.  (1989).  Computer conferencing: Brainstorming
    across time and space.  Management Review, 78(August), 43-50.

1.3.    Finholt, T. and Sproull, L. S.  (1990).  Electronic groups at
    work. Organization Science, 1(1), 41-64.

1.4.    Malone, T. W., Grant, K. R., Lai, K.-Y., Rao, R. and
    Rosenblitt, D.  (1987).  Semi-structured messages are
    surprisingly useful for computer-supported coordination. ACM
    Transactions on Office Information Systems, 5(2), 115-131.

2.    Supporting face-to-face interactions             Session 2

2.1.    Bair, J. H.  (1989).  Supporting cooperative work with
    computers.  In Proceedings of the 34th IEEE Computer Society
    International Conference--CompCon Spring (pp. 208-217).  San
    Francisco, CA: IEEE Press.

2.2.    Nunamaker, J. F., Dennis, A., R., Valacich, J. S., Vogel, D.
    R. and George, J. F.  (1991).  Electronic meeting systems to
    support group work. Communications of the ACM, 34(7), 40-61.

2.3.    Cook, P., Ellis, C., Graf, M., Rein, G. and Smith, T.  (1987).
    Project NICK: Meetings augmentation and analysis. ACM
    Transactions on Office Information Systems, 5(2), 132-146.

2.4.    Grohowski, R. and McGoff, C.  (1990).  Implementing electronic
    meetings at IBM: Lessons learned and success factors. MIS
    Quarterly, 14(4), 369-383.

2.5.    Lee, J.  (1990).  SIBYL: A tool for sharing knowledge in group
    decision making.  In Proceedings of the Conference on Computer
    Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW '90).  Los Angeles,
    California: ACM Press.

3.    Spanning distance                     Session 3

3.1.    Johansen, R. and Bullen, C.  (1984).  Thinking ahead: What to
    expect from teleconferencing. Harvard Business Review,
    March-April, 4-10.

3.2.    McQuillan, J.  (1991).  An introduction to multimedia
    networking. Business Communications Review, 21(November),
    74-79.

3.3.    Brittan, D.  (1991).  Being there: The promise of multimedia
    communications. Technology Review, 95(4), 42-50.

3.4.    Mantei, M., Baecker, R. M., Sellen, A. J., Buxton, W. A. S.
    and Milligan, T.  (1991).  Experiences in the use of a media
    space.  In ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing
    Systems (pp. 203-208).  New Orleans: ACM Press.

3.5.    Egido, C.  (1988).  Video conferencing as a technology to
    support group work: A review of its failures.  In Proceedings
    of the Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW
    '88) (pp. 13-24).  Portland, Oregon: ACM Press.

4.    Sharing environments                    Session 4

4.1.    (second half of 0.4)

4.2.    ShrEdit paper to be supplied.

4.3.    Bly, S. A. and Minneman, S. L.  (1990).  Commune: A shared
    drawing surface.  In Proceedings of the Conference on Office
    Information Systems (pp. 184-192).  Boston.

4.4.    Tang, J. C. and Minneman, S. L.  (1991).  VideoWhiteboard:
    Video shadows to support remote collaboration.  In ACM SIGCHI
    Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp.
    315-322).  New Orleans: ACM Press.

4.5.    Stefik, M., Bobrow, D. G., Foster, G., Lanning, S. and Tatar,
    D.  (1987).  WYSIWIS revisited: Early experiences with
    multiuser interfaces. ACM Transactions on Office Information
    Systems, 5(2), 147-167.

5.    Structuring interactions over time and space        Session 5

5.1.    Mantelman, L.  (1987).  Orchestrating people and computers in
    their networks. Data Communications, (September), 144-162.

5.2.    Winograd, T.  (1988, December).  Where the action is. Byte Magazine.

5.3.    Neuwirth, C. M., Kaufer, D. S., Chandhok, R. and Morris, J.
    (1990).  Issues in the design of computer support for
    co-authoring and commenting.  In Proceedings of the Conference
    on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW '90).  Los
    Angeles, California: ACM Press.

5.4.    Rupley, S.  (1989).  Meeting makers: Four workgroup schedulers
    that coordinate people and resources. Infoworld, (November
    20), 63-77.

5.5.    Holt, A. W.  (1989).  Organizing computer use in the context
    of networks.  In Proceedings of the 34th IEEE Computer Society
    International Conference--CompCon Spring (pp. 201-207).  San
    Francisco, CA: IEEE Press.

5.6.    Benson, B. H. and Cohen, H. S.  (1991).  The AT&T Rhapsody
    business orchestration system. AT&T Technology, 5(3), 2-9.

5.7.    Lockwood, R.  (1990).  The electronic office. Personal
    Computing, 74-82.

6.    Problems in implementing groupware             Session 6

6.1.    Grudin, J.  (1988).  Why CSCW applications fail: Problems in
    the design and evaluation of organizational interfaces.  In
    Proceedings of the Conference on Computer-Supported
    Cooperative Work (CSCW '88) (pp. 85-93).  Portland, Oregon:
    ACM Press.

6.2.    Kraemer, K. and King, J.  (1988).  Computer-based systems for
    group decision support: Status of use and problems in
    development. Computing Surveys, 20(2), 115-146.

6.3.    Bullen, C. V. and Bennett, J. L.  (1990).  Learning from user
    experience with groupware.  In CSCW 90 Proceedings (pp.
    291-302).  Portland, OR.

6.4.    Laplante, A.  (1992).  Group(ware) therapy. Computerworld,
    (July 27), 71-74.