Understanding Challenges of Online Group Chat for Productive Discourse at Scale

Pasad, Viral Shrikant

Understanding Challenges of Online Group Chat for Productive Discourse at Scale

dc.contributor.author	Pasad, Viral Shrikant	en
dc.contributor.committeechair	Lee, Sang Won	en
dc.contributor.committeemember	Tatar, Deborah Gail	en
dc.contributor.committeemember	Mitra, Tanushree	en
dc.contributor.department	Computer Science	en
dc.date.accessioned	2022-03-09T07:00:12Z	en
dc.date.available	2022-03-09T07:00:12Z	en
dc.date.issued	2020-09-14	en
dc.description.abstract	Group chat facilitates remote collaboration and idea exchanges. With the widespread use of group chat for productive information exchanges, it becomes dicult for members of groups to keep up and stay grounded during the long stream of conversation that is generated. I conducted a need-finding study where I simulated group chat conversations in the context of collaboration to learn about issues and behaviors in a group chat when the size of the group chat is 5 or 10. The study participants also filled out a survey post the group chat, describing their challenges and issues with the group chat. A grounded theory approach analyses of the data collected, and the chat conversation gave us several themes. Our results show that participants generally felt that there were too many messages. A majority of the participants found it was hard to keep track of what was happening. Information overload is a significant challenge that creates several other challenges for the participants, such as missed messages, redundant messages, wasted e↵orts, and diculty in gathering consensus. I observed some behaviors such as broken utterances and other strategies employed by participants when overwhelmed with the high activity. I use this knowledge to motivate recommendations and suggestions for future redesigns and development of this indispensable tool of the workforce	en
dc.description.abstractgeneral	Group chat facilitates remote collaboration, idea exchanges. It becomes dicult for members of groups to keep up and remain on the same page during long conversations. I conducted experiments where I simulated collaborative group chat conversations to learn about issues and behaviors in a group chat with 5 or 10 members. The experiment participants also filled out a survey after the group chat, describing their challenges and issues with the group chat. Qualitative analyses of the survey data, and the chat conversation gave us several insights. Our results show that participants generally felt that there were too many messages. A ma- jority of the participants found it was hard to keep track of what was happening. Information overload is a significant challenge that creates several other problems for the participants, such as missed messages, repeated messages, wasted e↵orts, and diculty in obtaining agree- ment. I observed some behaviors and strategies used by the participants when overwhelmed with too many messages. I use this knowledge to motivate recommendations and suggestions for future redesigns and development of this indispensable tool of the workforce.	en
dc.description.degree	Master of Science	en
dc.format.medium	ETD	en
dc.identifier.other	vt_gsexam:27349	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10919/109272	en
dc.publisher	Virginia Tech	en
dc.rights	In Copyright	en
dc.rights.uri	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/	en
dc.subject	Group Chat	en
dc.subject	Instant Messaging	en
dc.subject	Productive Discourse	en
dc.title	Understanding Challenges of Online Group Chat for Productive Discourse at Scale	en
dc.type	Thesis	en
thesis.degree.discipline	Computer Science and Applications	en
thesis.degree.grantor	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University	en
thesis.degree.level	masters	en
thesis.degree.name	Master of Science	en