Approximately half of the information systems (IS) projects implemented each year are considered failures. These failed projects cost billions of dollars annually. Failures can be due to projects being delivered late, over-budget, abandoned after significant time and resource investment, or failing to achieve desired results. More often than not, the failure of a project is not due to technical issues, but due to social and business-related problems. These issues can include a communication breakdown and lack of participation by project stakeholders; lack of a business case and success criteria for a project; failure to review project status, delays and revisions; and unrealistic schedules. While educators cannot address the issue of project failure in information systems directly, they can target the need to build collaboration skills and sensitivity to project business and social issues in students. The building of these skills and sensitivities can lead to more effective project team members and managers. Conversely, there is little evidence that higher education prepares students to be collaborators. One goal of this research was to determine to what extent students demonstrated group knowledge construction through online discussion of project issues presented in a real-world business scenarios. The Interaction Analysis Model for Examining Social Construction of Knowledge in Computer Conferencing (IAM) was chosen to measure group knowledge construction through discussions in a series of project problem scenarios. A second goal was to determine to what extent the knowledge construction through group discussion increases students' perceived level of awareness of information systems projects' social and business issues. Both goals of this research were realized to some extent. This study demonstrated that by the use of scenarios to expose students to typical social and business causes of failure in information systems projects, awareness of these issues could be enhanced between the pre-test and post-test groups. This study also demonstrated that through participation in discussion groups, individuals can demonstrate significant growth in collaboration skills. Further research should examine a population that has more balance with regard to gender of the participants, and should consider the influence of "guided reflection" provided by instructors.

Collaborative group learning is a popular method of instruction that is used in a variety of academic disciplines but little is known about how it is perceived as an instructional approach. The purpose of this study was to discover how college-level learners and instructors perceive collaborative group learning in regard to value and benefit, role of the instructor, and factors that contribute to positive and negative collaborative experiences. A non-experimental study provided information about participants in the form of descriptive data, correlational statistics, and qualitative analysis. Findings indicated that collaborative group learning was valued because it supported the achievement of learning goals, was an effective method of learning, and held professional benefit. However, value and benefit were reported to be affected by a variety of factors, such as work and reward inequities, the social context of collaboration, and the appropriateness of the activity to the learning situation and objectives. Findings related to the instructor's role showed that students acknowledged and accepted ownership of group processes; however, they also indicated that they would like the instructor to play an active role in the collaborative activity to support the learning process. This and other instructor role findings indicate the complexity of balancing instructor functions, as highlighted in results that showed some learners and instructors preferred a hands-off approach on the part of the instructor, while other learners and instructors felt that instructor involvement was a necessity. Suggestions provided by learners and instructors regarding instructor functions that supported effective collaboration included such activities as mentoring collaborative behavior, monitoring group and individual progress, and providing clear expectations and guidance. Findings from this study may be useful for informing the design, development, and implementation of collaborative group learning activities by providing insight into the factors that contribute to effective collaborative experiences, as well as perceptual differences and similarities between the learners and instructors. / Ph. D.