The Use of Hypermedia in Group Problem Solving: An Evaluation of the DOLPHIN Electronic Meeting Room Environment

In this paper, we report on an empirical evaluation of selected aspects of DOLPHIN, a meeting room environment of computers networked with an electronic whiteboard Our results show that in a face-to-face meeting, the use of DOLPHIN'S hypermedia functionality changed the nature of the product and the way groups worked, compared to using only electronic whiteboard functionality Groups organized their ideas into network, rather than pure hierarchical, structures. These were more deeply elaborated, contained more ideas, and had more relationships between the ideas. The problem solutions were also |udged to be more original. Groups were more likely to use a top-down planning strategy, and to exhibit a different temporal work pattern. The results suggest that work groups can benefit from using hypermedia in problem solving