The purpose of the research undertaken for this thesis was to compare the effects of synchronous versus asynchronous modes of text-based computer-mediated communication on student dyads discussing a nursing case. As the primary focus of the investigation, the content of these dyad communications was analysed for evidence of cognitive activity and cooperation. Along with an evaluation of the nursing diagnoses and related care planning, the subjective impressions of dyad members concerning the communication activity and their interpersonal interaction were assessed.

A category system devised by Powell (1986) was adapted for use in the qualitative analysis of the transcripts. His system was intended to, "take account of the major forms of cognitive activity which might be thought to possess educational significance at the undergraduate level" (p. 28). These coding categories are described in Section @Ref(ssdaprepcode). Categories for cooperative activity (as suggested by Beckwith (1987)) were included in the overall system as well. The two sets of classification criteria helped clarify specific verbal elements that reflect a process of interpersonal cognitive facilitation. The categories have been integrated with an expanded version of the focus questions outlined in Gowin's Vee (Section @Ref).

Given the problem context as discussed in the previous section, the purpose of the study stated here, and the criteria by which interpersonal cognitive facilitation might be revealed in the content of communications, the following questions guided the identification and collection of data for this study:

1. Regarding cognitive activity evident in the content of the communications, will the relative number of statements classed as "giving an opinion", "giving information", "arguing", "asking for information", "clarifying", "formulating problems", and "managing the task" be greater in the synchronous mode compared with the asynchronous mode?

2. Regarding cooperative activity evident in the content of communications, will the relative number of statements classed as "facilitative" be greater in the synchronous mode? Will "debilitative" statements occur less frequently in the synchronous mode?

3. Regarding products of the cooperative effort, will the ratings of the nursing diagnoses and related care planning produced by those using synchronous mode be greater compared with those using the asynchronous mode?

4. Regarding participant perceptions, will those using the synchronous mode indicate greater satisfaction with the process, the product, the experience as a whole, their partner, and their self-presentation compared with those using the asynchronous mode?

There are several limitations to the generalizability of this study. It is important to note that the sample is a convenience sample of self-selected subjects taken from one university setting. They were randomly assigned to the comparison groups, but they were not randomly sampled from the total population.

Also, the arrangement of subjects into dyads was important in terms of the focus on cognitive and cooperative content of their communications. It is necessary to note, however, that dyads are a special form of group to which many components of group interaction cannot be generalized.

Finally, the data analysis of content in the transcripts of dyad discussions involved a complex coding scheme that limited the extent to which independent coders could be utilized. Taking a cue from Powell (1986, p. 28), only one coder (myself) was used to code all transcripts. The use of additional coders would have presented an immense training task that was not justified in terms of the volume of data to be coded.

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