An Evaluation Framework for Selecting Collaboration Systems for Student Teamwork

Collaboration technologies play an increasingly important role in student teamwork in universities. With the proliferation of collaboration systems on the market and the wide range of features they offer, choosing an appropriate system can be an overwhelming task for college students. In this paper, the authors present an empirical study that aimed to help college instructors and students assess and select appropriate collaboration systems for their teamwork needs. They first identified and ranked the important features of collaboration systems for students through a web-based survey. Based on the survey results, the authors built an evaluation framework, in the form of weighted scoring tables, to help students systematically choose technologies that met their collaborative needs. They further demonstrated how to use those scoring tables for an undergraduate capstone class that had a term-long team project. The implications and future directions of the authors' study are also discussed.