Factors affecting academic collaboration via communication technologies.

Recent years have seen dramatic increases in the use of technology in higher education, particularly the use of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Another common feature of the higher education landscape has been a strengthened focus on the role of collaboration in knowledge production. Because of their ability to facilitate communication in a variety of unique ways, the new technologies are increasingly being used to support such collaborative efforts. Given the unique capacity of communication technologies to transcend geographical borders, it seems logical to conclude that the growing emphasis on collaboration may also increasingly involve researchers in other countries. This study examined the convergence of technology and collaboration, with a major focus on international perspectives. A web-based survey was administered to randomly selected members of listservs representing different disciplinary foci. A total of 702 usable responses were received from individuals in 23 different disciplines at institutions in 50 countries, representing a response rate of 44 percent of those receiving the survey. Statistical analyses conducted included correlations, ANOVA, and regressions, with the dependent variable focusing on collaboration. Major independent variables examined the impact of access, disciplinary focus, age, sex, language, income level, skill and training, and institutional characteristics. The results indicated that access was the most significant predictor of collaboration, followed by the individual's language (with those speaking English as a native language less likely to collaborate), the discipline (with those in the hard disciplines more likely to collaborate than others), experience using e-mail (those with more experience collaborate more), the number of years in the discipline (the higher the number, the greater the collaboration), and self-rating on skill level (the higher the rating, the greater the collaboration). Several factors were significantly correlated with access, including discipline, language, skill, problems with the technology, and experience. A strong relationship was also found between access and per capital income levels in the country of the participant. The results suggested that the new technologies, particularly the Internet, are providing access to collaborative efforts for academics in countries around the world, but that such access is directly tied to income levels representing overall national development and also affected by several other variables. The study also proved the viability of conducting a web-based survey utilizing random sampling.PhDCommunication and the ArtsEducationEducational technologyHigher educationMass communicationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/131752/2/9929920.pd