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Conducting qualitative research online is becoming more prominent and popular as a way of collecting insights and information as companies discover the advantages, learn the methodologies, and understand the most appropriate uses. Examines various aspects of the two most utilized methodologies for conducting online qualitative research and discusses each phase of designing and implementing such a study. Specific recommendations for conducting virtual groups and avoiding technical obstacles are offered for those new to the online venue.

This study aims to explore the different effects of inter-community group networks and intra-community group networks on group innovation.

The authors used a pooled panel dataset of 12,111 self-organizing innovation groups in 463 game product creative workshop communities from Steam support to test the hypothesis. The pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) model is used for analyzing the data.

The results show that network constraint is negatively associated with the innovation performance of online groups. The average path length of the inter-community group network negatively moderates the relationship between network constraint and group innovation, while the average path length of the intra-community group network positively moderates the relationship between network constraint and group innovation. In addition, both the network density of inter-community group networks and intra-community group networks can negatively moderate the negative relationship between network constraint and group innovation.

The findings of this study suggest that network structural characteristics of inter-community networks and intra-community networks have different effects on online groups’ product innovation, and therefore, group members should consider their inter- and intra-community connections when choosing other groups to form a collaborative innovation relationship.

Online learning continues to grow year after year and majority of the growth is seen in public institutions of higher education. The purpose of this book chapter is to acquaint the readers to group-based learning in an online environment as an innovative practice for engaged learning. Diverse facets of group-based learning are discussed such as role of instructors, role of learners, challenges of group-based learning and finally role of social media in designing such group-based learning projects. A comprehensive prototype application of a group-based learning project walks the readers through applying group-based learning in their respective courses at the undergraduate and/or graduate level. Finally some instructor designed rubrics for assessing group-based learning are shared for effective assessment of a group-based learning project.

This chapter explores communication processes within online support groups. Online support group researchers have drawn upon a variety of theories in the decades of empirical research that has been conducted within this context. The chapter focuses on motivations for using online support groups, key theoretical frameworks that have been applied to the study of online support groups, supportive messages and communication processes within these groups, and the relationship between social support and health outcomes for online support group participants. The chapter concludes with several key limitations of previous work as well as a number of areas for theory development and future research studies.

Starting at home base — The Houston Online User Group sponsored an October meeting: The Federal Government: Information On‐line. Topics covered included NIH‐EPA, NLM, NTIS and ASI/CIS … The first issue of the 1980–1981 Oregon Online User Group (OOUG) Newsletter provided a summary of past events, goals and objectives, and future plans. Other items included business news, upcoming national meetings, points of interests from other information organizations, and continuing education courses …. MIDLNET (Midwest Region Library Network announced the appointment of Dr. James E. Skipper as Executive Director, effective October 1, 1980 …. Bay Area User Group reports their October meeting held at Stanford's Math‐Computer Science Library with a presentation of their computer services program …. A tour of INFO MART treated the Santa Barbara Group …. Southern California's September meeting was ‘Suggestions for Improvement of Online Systems and Databases’ — a synopsis of the results will be distributed via the National Online Circuit …. But the biggest news out of sunny California is that the members of CLASS are able to communicate with each other via On Tyme. Various user groups have had training sessions on this electronic mail service which promises savings in cost, manpower, and time …. CLASS has also offered workshops on INSPEC, RLIN, BRS, MARC, Systems Refreshers, and Laboratory Animal Data Bank …. The North Carolina Online Users Group held a User Education/User Evaluation program which included a slide show ‘Computerized Search Services’ as used at the Burroughs Wellcome Company. Their recent newsletter provided a summary of their major spring workshop on current affairs databases … NCOLUG also sent a copy of their member directory — it's divided into three sections: List of members, organizations represented in NCOLUG, and a Database Index … MIDBUG (Michigan Database Users Group) sponsored BIOSIS (beginning and advanced) and Disclosure Seminars and co‐sponsored a Non‐Bibliographic Data Base Conference with the Western Michigan Chapter S.L.A. and the Upjohn Company …. The Columbus Area Online Users Group presented an ISI Databases Workshop instruction for online retrieval of Science and Social Science Citation Indexes …. Western Michigan University also presented an ISI Workshop in October …. San Antonio Area Online Users Group hosted Data Courier, Inc. and their newly revised Online Training Session …. Kansas City Online User Group has been active with a hands‐on workshop with The Source; reports have it that all attending found it a rewarding workshop.

Mentoring is widely used in the health sector, particularly for early career professionals in the public health system. However, many allied health professionals are employed in private practice and rely on their professional association to provide mentoring support and training. This mentoring context is under-researched. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A purposeful sample of 15 allied health professionals were interviewed using semi-structured interviews that were then analyzed using template analysis.

The many-to-many group mentoring program delivered valuable knowledge, diagnostic skills and networking opportunities but did not provide inclusion, role modeling or psychosocial support to participants. Also identified were structural and operational issues including; the role of the coordinator in addressing contribution reluctance and participant confidence, confidentiality issues, lack of mentor training and overall organization of the program.

Group mentoring is a valuable method of delivery for professional associations. The many-to-many group mentoring model is beneficial in a situation where the availability of mentors is limited. Further, the importance of having a dedicated program coordinator and a skilled facilitator is emphasized.

This research contributes to the limited literature on many-to-many group mentoring by reviewing the effectiveness of an existing many-to-many group mentoring program for allied health professionals delivered by a professional association.

This paper aims to test the idea generation capabilities of online text-based focus groups as compared to the traditional in-person focus groups using sustainability in the hospitality industry as the idea generation topic. Idea generation quantity and quality are analyzed and the theoretical and practical implications for the hospitality industry are discussed.

An experimental study tested the quality of ideas generated by online versus in-person focus groups. Participants were purposively sampled from the hospitality program at a large southeastern United States university and randomly assigned into one of two treatment groups: online text-based or traditional in-person focus groups. During both treatment groups participants generated ideas focused on sustainability in the hospitality industry.

The online focus group generated a comparable quantity of ideas, in addition to a similar average quality of ideas and number of good ideas.

The generation of ideas and the selection of opportunities drive the innovation process through which firms can strengthen their competitive advantage and maintain and grow market share and profitability. The results of this study may assist hospitality firms in determining which form of qualitative research delivers the highest return on investment by generating the best ideas at the lowest cost.

This paper breaks new ground by assessing the effectiveness of idea generation in online versus traditional focus groups, comparing both the quantity and quality of ideas generated from an experimental study that uses random assignment.

This paper has two purposes. First, to provide insight into the formation of completely online small groups, paying special attention to how their work practices develop, and how they form identity. Second, to pursue conceptual development of a more multi‐level view of completely online group experience, which can be made visible through analysis of the unique interaction logging system used in this study.

The authors conduct a mixed methods study that integrates interviews, grounded theory analysis, case study methods and social network analysis to build a multi‐layered view of completely online group and community development.

Completely online group formation is explicated as a socio‐technical system. The paper identifies themes of tool uptake and use, and patterns of interaction that accompany group formation and development of completely online group practices. These patterns show little respect for the boundaries of space and time. It then shows how groups who are paired together for two non‐sequential activities develop a common internal structural arrangement in the second activity, and are viewable as groups in the larger course context in four of six cases.

The time bounded nature of the group and community, combined with the educational context limit the generalizability of these findings.

The study shows how completely online group development can be made visible. Managers of work teams and teachers who work with classrooms in completely online contexts need to recognize the dynamic structure and interaction practices of completely online teams.

First, little research has been conducted on completely online group formation. Second, a conceptual understanding of how group members relate to one another and how groups interact with other groups in the same socio‐technical context is not explored in prior work. Third, the paper performs this analysis including data from rich, contextualized usage logs, which enables greater insight into online group interactivity than prior research.

Challenges of teamwork in online classes may adversely affect students’ future attitudes toward teamwork. Further, there is a concern about whether online programs foster students’ teamwork skills. To answer these questions, the purpose of this paper is to compare online and face-to-face students’ attitudes toward teamwork, interest in learning teamwork skills and teamwork self-efficacy.

The authors developed a conceptual model explaining how students’ background, engagement in learning teamwork, teamwork self-efficacy and interest in learning teamwork affect attitudes toward teamwork and rigorously tested the model for a meaningful comparison between online and face-to-face students. Attitudes toward teamwork, teamwork interest and teamwork self-efficacy of 582 online and face-to-face students who attend the same academic program were compared.

The results suggest that online students have less positive attitudes towards teamwork compared to face-to-face students although online students have a higher level of teamwork self-efficacy. Therefore, online students’ relative less positive attitudes toward teamwork cannot be explained by the lack of engagement, teamwork skills or interest.

The homogeneity of the sample population is one of the limitations of the paper although it provides the opportunity for a comparative study of online and face-to-face students by controlling the majors.

Instructors should evaluate the appropriateness of team assignments while incorporating teamwork in online classes.

Concerns about online teamwork are discussed but have not been rigorously investigated in the literature. The authors conducted a comprehensive study involving 582 undergraduate students. The findings of this paper suggest that new approaches are needed to incorporate teamwork in online classes. The results also show that importance of building teamwork self-efficacy.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate impact of playing motivation on team member selection (TMS) in online games specifically related to Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game environment.

A self-administered questionnaire was developed and administered to an online sample of 9,335 CR3 players.

The findings of this research indicated that social and immersion motivations have a significant effect on TMS. Additionally, it was discovered that achievement motivation has a positive relationship with dispositional TMS, a negative relationship to bond-based TMS. The moderation effect of frequency and gender is also demonstrated.

The study verified the relationships of the theoretical model of the game motivation and TMS.

This study provides advice to operators of online games when motivating players to work in groups.