Student case groups: electronic groups versus face‐to‐face groups

Abstract

Examines the effectiveness of teaching business cases using collaborative groups of students. A quasi-experiment was conducted in which a class of students was randomly placed in face-to-face groups and given a case with questions to answer collectively. Then for a different case, these same students were randomly assigned to electronic case groups. The electronic groups conducted all their group interactions with their fellow group members in universities in the USA, Canada and Mexico via e-mail over the Internet. The groups rated both their group experiences, face-to-face and electronic. Also each student completed the Myers Briggs personality typing instrument. The four dimensions of personality type were then correlated with the case ratings; and significance tests across the two subgroups, electronic and face-to-face, were assessed. While there were few significant differences across the electronic and face-to-face groups, the extroverts found the electronic groups to be a novel experience. This may be explained by the technical frustrations encountered by the students and the lack of richness of the electronic group exchange.

Student Preferences and Performance in Online and Face-to-Face Classes Using Myers-Briggs Indicator: A Longitudinal Quasi-Experimental Study_

“…Karn and Cowling (2006) looked at enforcing teamwork in online courses to encourage studentto-student interaction and reported that student's anxiety was elevated and that they did not care for teamwork. Similarly, Lind (1996) conducted a quasi-experiment on New Mexico and Califor-nia campuses using case studies where students communicated online and face-to-face. MBTI test was administered at the end of the semester.…”