Gowin's Vee (Novak and Gowin, 1984, see Section @Ref) was adopted as the model of educational research applied in this study. The key element of the Vee that guides judgements as to the validity of educational research is warrant. Warrants are the links between the theoretical bases and the research activities that reflect the methods, standards, and common practices of the community of academics involved in the field of study for which the research was undertaken.

The significance and importance of research is not a function of the degree of statistical significance reported in the findings (as in quantitative studies) nor the clarity and insightfulness of ethnography (as in qualitative studies). The significance and importance of educational research derives from a variety of factors related to both its context and its findings. These factors reflect timeliness, innovation, demand, and appropriateness, as well as more conventional parameters such as accuracy, reliability, and validity.

The education and computing context in which this research was carried out is one that reveals increased interest in cooperative learning as an instructional strategy@Cite(AjoseSA90a). In particular, cooperative learning environments may provide one of the most appropriate contexts for the application of computers in education@Cite(JohnsonDW86a). In conjunction with the recent proliferation of applications of telecommunications in the schools, it becomes apparent that student-student interaction via computer is an emerging area of importance for research and practice in education. Further, as the field of computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) grows, the implications and opportunities for computer supported cooperative learning (CSCL) become increasingly clear@Cite(DaviesD89a).

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is a primary component of both CSCW and CSCL. The importance of CMC is demonstrated by the fact that even in its most rudimentary form as asynchronous, text-based computer conferencing (CC), it has made a significant impact on theorists from sociology@Cite(HiltzSR78a), computer science@Cite(TuroffM89a), philosophy@Cite(FeenbergA87a), education@Cite(HarasimLM90a), and communication studies@Cite(LevinsonP86b). In this group, CC has been construed as a major socio-technological force leading to significant changes in human interaction. With somewhat less stature, synchronous text-based CMC has also become worthy of formal academic investigation. This is revealed through the work of researchers in social psychology@Cite(KieslerS84a), nursing education@Cite(SleightBJ89a), and written communication@Cite(MurrayDE91a).

To round out the contextual legitimacy of the present study, it is the needs of the nursing profession for the provision of innovative preservice and inservice education to a geographically dispersed target population that makes the developments in educational CMC particularly appropriate. As well, the very nature of CMC as a form of interpersonal verbal communication is coincidental with interpersonal communication skill requirements for the learning and practice of nursing.

The specific problem context for the present study is discussed in Section @Ref(secprob) and will be briefly restated here. Since it has been proposed that CMC be used for educational delivery and student interaction, our attention is drawn to those aspects of the medium, and the use of the medium, that may affect the learning process. In cooperative learning, verbal interaction among peers is the fundamental agent through which cognitive activity transpires. Interpersonal cognitive facilitation (ICF) may arise as an essential link between verbal behaviour in peer discussions and the social construction of knowledge. Peer discussions are normally face-to-face and synchronous, but CMC affords the possibility of asynchronous (store and forward) interaction. Proponents of asynchronous CMC claim that the asynchronous nature of these interactions is the characteristic most responsible for the intellectual benefits they report.

These theories and claims direct our focus to questions about the effects of synchronicity on peer interactions in educational CMC. Also, previous research concerning the verbal behaviour of members of cooperative learning groups leads us to methods of research involving the qualitative analysis of communication content and appropriate mechanisms for transformation of raw data to useful information. The primary educational events observed for this comparison of CMC modes were the verbal elements in the content of dyad communications that reflected cognitive or cooperative activities which may represent a process of interpersonal cognitive facilitation. Other sources of data were the assessments of the outcomes of the cooperative task and the responses to questionnaires and interviews revealing subjective impressions of the online educational experience.

Although interpretation of the communication content was essentially a qualitative assessment, it did involve counting and categorizing of items which then took the form of numeric values assigned to dependent variables. Similarly, the responses to the questionnaires and the categorized responses to interview questions were quantified. These values were then transformed to descriptive statistics to facilitate the comparison of the two modes of CMC interaction. In the context of educational CMC presented in the previous paragraphs, the graphical and numeric presentation of the findings at the descriptive level is sufficient for the purposes of this study. They strongly suggest that there are differences in the amount of cognitive and cooperative activity that occurs in the two modes. They also suggest that the mode of text-based CMC interaction affects the quality and correctness of the outcomes for tasks such as the nursing diagnosis and nursing care planning problem.

For studies in which testing of specific hypotheses is the objective, inferential statistical procedures are used to determine whether observed differences between groups are due to the factors being investigated, or whether variation due to chance or other factors is responsible. Since these procedures have strict requirements for experimental control, independence of variables, and assumptions of random sampling, they were neither appropriate nor necessary for the warranting of claims in this study. Nevertheless, questions invariably arise as to the relative strength or degree of difference found in such comparisons. Also, it seems to be accepted practice to apply and report inferential statistics even when threats to validity are quite obvious. Perhaps this is because the results of the statistical calculations provide us with an enhanced description of the potential relationships among factors even when inference is not strictly possible. For example, graphical representation of the correlations in Figure @Ref(fcorr1) on page @PageRef(fcorr1) provide one level of representation, but the calculated strength of the relationship, Pearson's r, increases the descriptive power of the findings.

Certainly, in a study such as this, with two groups for comparison and a small sample size, the familiar t-test can be applied to further our understanding of the differences between the two groups. The t-test is used to enhance the descriptive power of the data and findings, not to suggest statistical significance nor to provide validity warrants. Following Carver (1978), it is the full description of this research @CiteMark(CarverRP78a) process and its context that allows other researchers the opportunity for replication or modification of the study.

Since some of the findings do show statistical significance, the threats to validity must be addressed. @Tag(limits) First, the subjects for this study were not randomly sampled from the total population. Rather, they represent a convenience sample taken from one institution in one geographical area. They were self-selected volunteers who were randomly assigned to the comparison groups, not randomly sampled from representative populations. Also, the coding of the transcripts and the assessment of the nursing diagnosis and nursing care planning outcomes were undertaken by one individual, the researcher. Although two colleagues reviewed and verified the coding and assessments of all the transcripts, there was no attempt to measure inter-rater reliability. Further, the computer-based environments themselves, using the CSILE software for asynchronous interaction and the PHONE utility for synchronous interaction may not have provided the best CMC capabilities for either mode. Although these environments are comparable to those presently being used in the field, they may have led to the comparison of a "worst-case" asynchronous mode with a "best-case" synchronous mode, or vice versa.

Limitations concerning statistical significance can be found in much of the reported research for studies with similar features and contexts as this one. Even Powell (1986), from whom the content @CiteMark(PowellJP86a) categories for cognitive activity were drawn, cautioned readers about the risks of inter-rater reliability using his system (p. 28). The popular paper by Kiesler et al. (1984) describes experimental @CiteMark(KieslerS84a) designs and conditions, but does not report any values for statistical significance. Dobos and Grieve (1985) in their study of the effects @CiteMark(DobosJ85a) of turn-taking protocols on decision productivity describe their experience as follows: "A total of 16 groups (8 experimental, 8 control) were scheduled for the synchronous computer conferences. System failure, however, caused cancellation of seven groups. Five experimental (protocol) and four control (no protocol) groups completed ..."(p. 377). Then, with cautions about their small cell sizes (experimental N=18, control N=14), they report the results of t-tests on the responses to a 26 item questionnaire concerning the subjective impressions of the participants about their synchronous conferencing experience. Three of these items showed "significant" differences.

As noted at the beginning of this section, however, the significance and importance of the present study (and those mentioned in the previous paragraph) are not based on the statistical significance of the findings. Rather, they are a function of contextual and theoretical factors that guide the research and project its relevance. The contexts and theories which provided the focus for this study have been presented. It can be shown, as well, that within this general area of research there are studies that have similar characteristics. For example, in terms of data generation factors, the investigation of interactive written discourse (IWD) by Ferrara et al. (1991) shows similarities in the number of subjects (23), time online (2 hours), and number of words per subject (712).

These factors of context, theory, and the general representativeness of the current study, along with the specification and elaboration of its methods and outcomes, provide the necessary basis for validity and warranting of the claims.

With due consideration to the limitations stated on page @PageRef(limits), four knowledge claims arise from the findings of this study. The first is that task oriented discussions in the synchronous mode of text-based computer-mediated communication are more likely to include verbal elements reflecting important cognitive activities such as problem formulation, interactive arguing, and task management than similar discussions in asynchronous mode. Second, the more highly rated outcomes from dyads using the synchronous mode demonstrate greater adherence to solution protocols, involving guidelines and principles, which improved the focus and accuracy of their discussions relative to the task. As shown in Figure @Ref(fcorr1) the key cognitive activities and the adherence to principles and guidelines are well correlated with overall ratings of nursing diagnoses and nursing care plans.

The third knowledge claim is that greater mutual facilitation occurs in synchronous text-based CMC than in the asynchronous mode. This facilitation is reflected in verbal elements demonstrating attempts to establish interpersonal ease, support, understanding, and encouragement. Cooperative activity of this sort, however, was not well correlated with outcome ratings (see Figure @Ref). Finally, the fourth knowledge claim is that the novel and unique modes of interaction possible through computer-mediated communication (synchronous or asynchronous) can have a motivating effect for learning activities undertaken in dyad or group situations.

The most obvious theoretical implication arising from these claims is that the role and application of synchronous text-based computer-mediated communication in education is at least as important as its asynchronous counterpart. The asynchronous mode has been presented as one of the key characteristics of CMC for group support and online educational applications@Cite(RapaportM91a, HarasimLM90b, HiltzSR90a, TuroffM90a). Not only does it provide the convenience of time independence, but it is also reported to foster richer intellectual exchanges@Cite(LevinsonP88a ", p. 115") and to allow variation in the individual cognitive styles of participants@Cite(TuroffM89b ", p. 11"). Synchronous CMC, on the other hand, has been the subject of various studies@Cite(DobosJ85a, SiegelJ86a, WiltonJA88a, PeytonJK88a, WilkinsH91a), but synchronicity, per se, has not been the focal issue.

The importance of synchronous interaction is revealed in this study because the problem context (outlined previously in Sections @Ref and @Ref), emphasizes student-student interaction as the primary feature of educational CMC when viewed in terms of its potential to support cooperative learning. Interpersonal cognitive facilitation (ICF) is the term introduced in this thesis to characterize the process by which interpersonal communication can contribute to the learning process. As the results show, more cooperative and key cognitive activities occurred in the verbal exchanges of the synchronous dyads than in those of the asynchronous dyads. This suggests that the synchronous mode of text-based CMC is more conducive to ICF.

The importance of ICF in cooperative learning theory and related theories of the social construction of knowledge is also implicated in the findings of this study. ICF, as measured by cognitive verbal elements in the content of the peer discussions, was correlated with improved task performance and outcomes. As such, the measurement and understanding of learning in cooperative discussion groups may well benefit from further elaboration and testing of ICF processes. It should also be noted that cooperative verbal elements did not correlate with task performance and outcomes. This suggests that cognitive factors in the social construction of knowledge (ICF in the ZPD, for example) may deserve more attention than strictly socio-affective factors.

The implication of this research for the "linked learners" scenario presented in the introduction is that we now have further evidence to support the interdependent learning potential of the model. The pro-active view of ICF is that of a communication technique that can be actively promoted and taught to members of the online learning community. Interpersonal cognitive facilitation becomes more than a construct through which learning activities can be measured and understood in peer discussion groups. It becomes a cooperative technique through which learners can facilitate the learning of others using intentional communication.

The implications for theory in nursing education do not derive specifically from the synchronicity issues of this research. Neither is ICF implicated any further than has been discussed previously. Rather, the responses to the questionnaire and interview items by the nursing student participants concerning their subjective impressions of the experience reveal an important motivational effect from using the medium regardless of which mode is used. Many students reported that the experience was good because of the interaction with the views and approaches of another person. They remarked on how interesting and positive it was to see how other students worked out the problem: "just seeing their thoughts". This enthusiasm was reported in the study by Sleightholm Carins (1989) as well. It may not be too surprising if we consider @CiteMark(SleightBJ89a) how infrequently students get to see their classmates' work in progress including their ways of understanding and resolving various problems.

As data must be processed to make useful information and information must be organized and understood to form knowledge, knowledge must lead to action in order to be of value to human existence. The findings and implications of this study, qualified by reasonable validity constraints and formulated as an original contribution to knowledge, provide grounds for further study into the cognitive and cooperative verbal activities that occur in synchronous versus asynchronous peer interaction. Further, they provide sufficient basis for change in the practice of educational CMC.

The basic recommendations for change have been stated as value claims in the Gowin's Vee outline of this dissertation (see Section @Ref). First, when text-based CMC is used as an educational delivery system, appropriately designed synchronous capabilities should be incorporated in conferencing software packages. Second, when text-based CMC is used to support student-student interaction in cooperative learning, synchronous interaction should be included in the instructional design strategy. Third, when teaching nursing theory to nursing students, discussion via text-based CMC should be used to increase motivation and sharing.

More generally, however, the feature that should be designed into the software is the power and flexibility to access a whole host of advanced tools for intellectual work. Features built into the learning activities should be based on the nature of the learning task, the desired outcomes, and an appropriate instructional design philosophy. Technically, the facility for synchronous text-based interaction will have its role just as asynchronous text-based interaction does. In the age of linked learners, however, a broad spectrum of information utilities and knowledge tools must be introduced to enable optimal levels of interactivity among humans and machines. This interactivity will be a key element in advanced computer supported cooperative learning environments.

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