Module Code - Title:
CS4458
-
COMPUTER SUPPORTED COOPERATIVE WORK
Year Last Offered:
2025/6
Hours Per Week:
Grading Type:
N
Prerequisite Modules:
Rationale and Purpose of the Module:
This module will introduce students to the CSCW and groupware field. It will cover basic concepts in the field and include an examination of software systems designed to support cooperative work - their design, use and evaluation. Issues such as peripheral awareness, ownership of information, common information spaces, media spaces, group support systems, coordination mechanisms and contextual factors in the workplace will be studied. Students will use some groupware technologies and undertake a project.
Syllabus:
The limitations of traditional HCI;
Understanding the work context;
Cooperative work;
Methods for observing work - field studies and ethnography;
Coordination mechanisms;
Examination of variety of commercial and research collaborative systems;
Constructing common information spaces;
Examining collaborative learning in the workplace;
Evaluation methods for CSCW;
Open issues in the field.
Learning Outcomes:
Cognitive (Knowledge, Understanding, Application, Analysis, Evaluation, Synthesis)
On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:
1. Distinguish different forms of Cooperative Work arrangements.
2. Illustrate the role of the social sciences in CSCW.
3. Critique the role of ethnographic studies of work for system design.
4. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of Audio and Video enhanced systems.
5. Recognize the problems of evaluation of groupware systems.
Affective (Attitudes and Values)
On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:
1. Participate in group interaction sessions.
2. Value the importance of implicit and explicit forms of communication.
Psychomotor (Physical Skills)
N/A
How the Module will be Taught and what will be the Learning Experiences of the Students:
Research Findings Incorporated in to the Syllabus (If Relevant):
Prime Texts:
Ronald M. Baecker (1992)
Readings in Groupware and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work: Assisting Human-Human Collaboration
, Morgan Kaufmann
I. Grief (editor) (1988)
CSCW: A Book of Readings
, Morgan Kaufmann
Other Relevant Texts:
Programme(s) in which this Module is Offered:
Semester(s) Module is Offered:
Module Leader:
lilian.mottiader@ul.ie