Davis, Gerald Smith and Aks Zaheer for their helpful reviews and comments on earlier versions of this paper. Trust is a key enabler of cooperative human actions. Three main deficiencies about our current knowledge of trust are addressed by this paper. First, due to widely divergent conceptual definitions of trust, the literature on trust is in a state of construct confusion. Second, too little is understood about how trust forms and on what trust is based. Third, little has been discussed about the role of emotion in trust formation. To address the first deficiency, this paper develops a typology of trust. The rest of the paper addresses the second and third deficiencies by proposing a model of how trust is initially formed, including the role of emotion. Dispositional, interpersonal, and impersonal (system) trust are integrated in the model. The paper also clarifies the cognitive and emotional bases on which interpersonal trust is formed in early relationships. The implications

Our trust conceptualizations have benefited from discussions with Ellen Berscheid and Larry Cummings of the University of Minnesota. The authors also thank three anonymous reviewers from the Organizational Behavior division of the 1996 meeting of the Academy of Management for their comments on an earlier version of this paper. THE MEANINGS OF TRUST What does the word ‘trust ’ mean? Scholars continue to express concern regarding their collective lack of consensus about trust’s meaning. Conceptual confusion on trust makes comparing one trust study to another problematic. To facilitate cumulative trust research, the authors propose two kinds of trust typologies: (a) a classification system for types of trust, and (b) definitions of six related trust types that form a model. Some of the model’s implications for management are also outlined. 2 THE MEANINGS OF TRUST “...trust is a term with many meanings. ” (Williamson, 1993: 453) “Trust is itself a term for a clustering of perceptions. ” (White, 1992: 174) Scholars and practitioners widely acknowledge trust's importance. Trust makes cooperative endeavors happen (e.g., Arrow, 1974; Deutsch, 1973; Gambetta, 1988). Trust is a key to positive interpersonal relationships in

To be successful, CSCL technology must be adopted by teachers and incorporated into the activities of the classroom. This paper describes a comprehensive approach to supporting teachers learning to implement computer-supported collaborative inquiry in their classrooms. The approach comprises (1) a networked software system, “Belvedere, ” that provides students with shared workspaces for coordinating and recording their collaboration in scientific inquiry; (2) activity plans worked out collaboratively with teachers; (3) “challenge problems ” and Web-based materials designed to match and enrich the curriculum, and (4) self- and peer-assessment instruments given to students to guide the process of scientific inquiry. A fundamental aim of this work is to restructure the classroom and shift the initiative for learning activity to the students.

We describe Livenotes, a shared whiteboard system and educational practice that uses wireless communication and tablet computing to support real-time conversations within small groups of students during lectures, independent of class size. We present an interface design that enables group members to interact with one another by taking lecture notes cooperatively, as well as to augment student note-taking by providing instructor slides in the background to annotate over. Livenotes was designed to facilitate more efficient, stimulating modes of learning that other collaborative approaches do not. We report how the system impacts cooperative learning in an undergraduate class and how students interacted with background slides in the workspace. We conclude with directions for improving the system and learning practice.

This study quantitatively synthesized the empirical research on the effects of social context (i.e., small group versus individual learning) when students learn using computer technology. In total, 486 independent findings were extracted from 122 studies involving 11,317 learners. The results indicate that, on average, small group learning had significantly more positive effects than individual learning on student individual achievement (mean ES =+0.15), group task performance (mean ES = +0.31), and several process and affective outcomes. However, findings on both individual achievement and group task performance were significantly heterogeneous. Through weighted least squares univariate and multiple regression analyses, we found that variability in each of the two cognitive outcomes could be accounted for by a few technology, task, grouping, and learner characteristics in the studies. Computer technology (CT) and the tremendous growth of information technologies are transforming the world and the way education is conducted. Electronic data processing, information systems, graphic designs, and computer-mediated communication are making the computer an increasingly indispensable tool in nearly every aspect of work and life. In schools, students are using CT to facilitate their learning in various subjects as well as to acquire CT knowledge and skills to meet the challenges in this rapidly changing technological and information age. For example, in mathematics and science, educators and scientists are beginning to worry that school learning cannot keep pace with the developments in science, and they suggest using CT to help fill the gap (Molnar, 1997). More efforts than ever before are being made by governments and institutions to introduce and integrate computers in schools. It is estimated that over 4.4 million computers are currently installed in America’s classrooms and the ratio of students to computers has dropped from 125 students per computer in 1984 to the current ratio of 10 students

Tutored Video Instruction (TVI) is a collaborative learning methodology in which a small group of students studies a videotape of a lecture. We constructed a fully virtual version of TVI called Distributed Tutored Video Instruction (DTVI), in which each student has a networked computer with audio microphone-headset and video camera to support communication within the group. In this report, we compare survey questionnaires, observations of student interactions, and grade outcomes for students in the face-to-face TVI condition with those of students in the DTVI condition. Our analysis also includes comparisons with students in the original lecture. This two and a half year study involved approximately 700 students at two universities. Despite finding a few statistically significant process differences between TVI and DTVI, the interactions were for the most part quite similar. Course grade outcomes for TVI and DTVI were indistinguishable, and these collaborative conditions proved better than lecture. We conclude that this kind of highly interactive virtual collaboration can be an effective way to learn.

Human children 18 – 24 months of age and 3 young chimpanzees interacted in 4 cooperative activities with a human adult partner. The human children successfully participated in cooperative problem-solving activities and social games, whereas the chimpanzees were uninterested in the social games. As an experimental manipulation, in each task the adult partner stopped participating at a specific point during the activity. All children produced at least one communicative attempt to reengage him, perhaps suggesting that they were trying to reinstate a shared goal. No chimpanzee ever made any communicative attempt to reengage the partner. These results are interpreted as evidence for a uniquely human form of cooperative activity involving shared intentionality that emerges in the second year of life. From soon after birth, human infants interact with other persons dyadically in coordinated, turn-taking sequences (Trevarthen, 1979). From about 6 to 9 months of age, infants ’ social interactions become more complex, as they often incorporate outside objects and so become triadic (Tomasello, 1995). Some of these triadic interactions are relatively extended and maintain a turn-taking structure, for example, rolling a ball back and forth or taking turns beating a drum (Gustafson, Green, & West, 1979; Ratner & Bruner, 1978). Most of these early triadic interactionsFsometimes called cooperative gamesFseem to rely on adult scaffolding in fairly ritualized situations, because the introduction of novel toys or a peer partner disrupts them almost totally until 18 months of age (Hay, 1979; Ross, 1982). In a series of longitudinal studies, Eckerman and colleagues have investigated the emergence of young children’s skills in cooperative games of a less ritualized

The benefits of online collaborative learning, sometimes referred to as CSCL (computer-supported collaborative learning) are compelling, but many instructors are loath to experiment with non-conventional methods of teaching and learning because of the perceived problems. This paper reviews the existing literature to present the seven most commonly reported such problems of online group learning, as identified by both researchers and practitioners, and offers practical solutions to each, in the hope that educators may be encouraged to “take the risk”.

development and group processes of virtual

Most organisations realise that "knowledge" is a strategic resource that gives them sustainable competitive advantage and helps them achieve long-term organisational goals. With the realization that knowledge is a core resource, organisations are now attempting to manage knowledge in a more systematic and more effective way. However, managing knowledge is not always an easy task. In particular contexts, such as online distance education, knowledge is distributed across both time and space and may be constrained by social, cultural and language differences. In such cases, the support of best practices in Knowledge Management (KM) could be problematic. This paper studies online distance education provision to identify the major problems that hinder KM practices. Focussing on online learning communities in which knowledge creation and knowledge sharing are essential elements, it tries to develop a set of guidelines to help overcome problems using tools and techniques from KM.