Evaluating web conferencing tool effectiveness

Abstract

Web conferencing is a collaborative tool that allows for synchronous communication. This collaboration encompasses audio and visual interactions. The tool also allows for annotation on the presented material and the ability to use a chat facility amongst participants. Effective communication is essential within virtual teams and web conferencing systems create a platform for communication for geographically dispersed teams. The purpose of this study was to ascertain how to evaluate the effectiveness of web conferencing tools. The DeLone and McLean [8] Information Systems (IS) Success Model was used as the theoretical lens by which to examine effectiveness, which was taken to be synonymous with success, in line with much IS literature. A qualitative approach was used to uncover richness through the process of interviews with users of one web conferencing system. A total of 8 individuals were interviewed, seven of them from the user company and the eighth individual was a client of that company. The majority of respondents agreed that web conferencing improved productivity within the virtual team environment. The participants identified that the issue of sound quality might be a barrier to the use of web conferencing. All the interviewees saw web conferencing as a valuable tool, stating that the beneficial nature of the technology outweighed the few technical problems that were experienced. Copyright © 2011 ACM.

Keywords

Author Keywords

Effectiveness DeLone and McLean IS Success Web conferencing

Index Keywords

Engineers industry Effectiveness communication Effective communication Virtual team Qualitative approach Computer science Management Collaborative tools DeLone and McLean Geographically dispersed teams In-line IS success Sound Quality Success models Synchronous communications Technical problem Visual interaction Web conferencing Web conferencing systems

Author Affiliations

Department of Information Systems, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

Funding & Acknowledgements

No funding information

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Evaluating web conferencing tool effectiveness

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