Treffer: Impact of communication modalities on social presence and regulation processes in a collaborative game

In the digital era, leveraging communication technologies to foster collaborative learning is of utmost importance. This study explores the impact of different communication modalities, such as text, audio and video, on social presence and regulation processes within a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. Using learning analytics, we examine the influences of these modalities on collaboration and derive recommendations for their optimized use in the design of future CSCL environments. Our findings reveal a significant impact of communication modalities on the sense of social presence and regulation of collaborative activities. Audio communication results in enhanced co-presence, psychobehavioral accessibility, and better regulation processes compared to video and text modalities, indicating that audio is the most suitable modality in collaborative virtual environments for decision-making tasks. Conversely, video communication still facilitated strategic planning and enhanced self-regulation. Chat communication showed the lowest sense of social presence, yet improvements over time suggest that participants adapt to this modality, enhancing their collaborative efficiency.