Collaborative Computing Technologies: Group Support Systems

LEARNING OBJECTIVES 

• Understand the basic concepts of groupwork, communication, and collaboration
• Describe how computers and computer systems enhance communication and collaboration in an enterprise
• Explain the underlying principles and capabilities of collaborative computing/group support systems (GSS) 
• Explain the concepts and importance of the time/place framework 
• Understand the concepts of process gain, process loss, task gain, and task loss, and explain exactly how GSS introduces, increases, or decreases each of them 
• Describe specifically how a GSS utilizes parallelism and anonymity, and how they lead to process/task gains/losses 
• Describe how to structure an electronic meeting 
• Understand the three technologies of GSS 
• Understand how the Web enables collaborative computing/group support systems/electronic meetings 
• Explain how GSS software enables distance learning 
• Define creativity and how GSS can enhance it.