Using Online Contexts to Specify Boundary Conditions in Educational and Social Psychology Theories

• In Event: Poster Session 6
  In Poster Session: E-Learning Research

Abstract

In 2009, Walther made a call to computer-mediated communication (CMC) researchers to identify and refine boundary conditions – “contextual conditions in which different theoretical chains-of-events are expected to occur” (pg. 748) – of extant theory in the field. This paper dovetails this call. By default, many technologies provide the contextual conditions and structural boundaries that facilitate the reexamination (and possibly revision) of extant theories. For example, essentially all theories of social psychological processes (e.g., motivation, cooperation, and belongingness) have been developed with face-to-face interaction as an assumed contextual condition. Thus, this paper outlines a research agenda that leverages online CMC learning contexts to identify and refine boundary conditions of extant educational and social psychology theories.

Author

• Andy Saltarelli, Stanford University