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Looks at new communications technologies, such as videoconferencing systems, which have enabled the creation of “virtual organizations” and “virtual teams”. Investigates the hypotheses that both “social presence” and “media richness” associated with a communication medium used to support geographically‐dispersed software development teams, will have a significant impact on team productivity, perceived interaction quality, and group process satisfaction. Results supported the predicted superiority of the face‐to‐face setting over the videoconferencing setting with regard to team productivity. They also indicated that a communication medium characterized as high in both “media richness” and “social presence” can engender a greater sense of interaction quality. There were no significant differences between the face‐to‐face and videoconferencing settings for group process satisfaction.

This study takes a direct observation research approach to examine how the impact of collaboration mode on team productivity and process satisfaction is mediated by shared mental model. Team cognition and social impact theories are integrated to provide a framework for explaining how technology-mediated collaboration constrains or enhances team shared mental model development and its subsequent impact on task outcomes. Partial least squares analysis revealed that technology-mediated collaboration impacts shared mental model development. The results also demonstrate that timely and accurate development of shared mental model facilitates increases in both productivity and team process satisfaction. Direct observation of team process behaviors suggests that collaboration modes differ not only in their impact on communication facilitation but efficacy-based, motivational, and social influence factors (e.g., self-efficacy and team-efficacy, perceived salience and credibility of contributions, social influence on action, etc.) as well. Shared mental model development requires quality communication among team members that are motivated to participate by a positive team climate that promotes idea convergence.

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Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate a theoretical framework that examines and extends understanding of the role of cognitive/information processing, learning motivation and learning task behaviors in facilitating student engagement, course persistence and academic performance. Design/methodology/approach Student subjects were used to collect survey data. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the impact of active teaching, academic self-efficacy and task avoidance on the dependent variables – course grade, course persistence and expectancy for success. Findings Active teaching and academic self-efficacy were positive predictors of course grade while task avoidance was a negative predictor of course grade. Course persistence was positively impacted by academic self-efficacy and diminished by task-avoidance behaviors. Academic self-efficacy was shown to positively impact expectancy for success. Practical implications The results confirm the importance of adopting active teaching techniques, the need for periodic opportunities for experienced academic success and the need for coaching on self-regulation of study habits and class attendance behaviors. Originality/value This study builds on prior calls for more investigations on the role of teaching style on student psychological responses, engagement, learning task behaviors and academic performance. The teaching and learning processes were examined on four levels – attention/engagement, encoding, processing/synthesizing and learning task behaviors. In addition, prior work was extended by incorporating behavioral indicators (e.g. task avoidance) of learning motivation as opposed to reliance on self-reported levels of motivation that may have not been consistent with actual behaviors.