title: Sequential incoherence in a multi-party synchronous computer mediated communication for an introductory Health Informatics course.
abstract: Online courses will play a key role in the high-volume Informatics education required to train the personnel that will be necessary to fulfill the health IT needs of the country. Online courses can cause feelings of isolation in students. A common way to address these feelings is to hold synchronous online "chats" for students. Conventional chats, however, can be confusing and impose a high extrinsic cognitive load on their participants that hinders the learning process. In this paper we present a qualitative analysis that shows the causes of this high cognitive load and our solution through the use of a moderated chat system.
authors.affiliation: The University of Texas School of Health Information Sciences, Houston, TX.
authors.forename: Jorge R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Herskovic
authors.forename: J Caleb
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Goodwin
authors.forename: Pamela A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Bozzo Silva
authors.forename: Irmgard
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Willcockson
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Franklin
mesh_terms: D003142:Communication; D003201:Computers; D020375:Education, Distance; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007858:Learning; D008490:Medical Informatics / Q000193:education; D009862:Online Systems; D013334:Students