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Self-regulated learning theory is central to computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) and depends on learner autonomy to create socially shared learning, and yet function within the restraints and goals of a specific class pedagogy. By integrating the rich theoretical CSCL literature with an inductively derived theory of role-playing game practice, we develop an insightful foundation for designing, implementing, and measuring the effectiveness of low-cost scripts. This takes the form of a prompt (mere exposure prompt) that nudges learners toward a pedagogical goal while maintaining freedom of learner creativity and minimizing instructor intrusion. We assert learner engagement can be viewed through the lens of role-playing's emphasis on aligning players' creative agendas with game design to create a shared imagined space. Through behavioral trace data and social network analysis, we measure behaviors that differ between test/control groups, receiving the prompt, and comparing a fully online versus blended course delivery over a semester of group-based simulated business negations following role-playing game design principles. Fully online test group members accurately recall the prompt's messages while exhibiting behaviors congruent with the pedagogical script. Learners in the blended mode recall the prompt, but their behavior is unchanged. This suggests socially shared regulation of learning in the classroom context conforms to established classroom norms, overlooking the script prompt. Learners in the fully online mode, in contrast, initiate fewer social interactions, but search out opportunities across many players, thereby demonstrating the effect of the script prompt message.

Myths of the digital native persist, leaving questions about how well millennial learners engage with online classes. While smart devices are ubiquitous, some students are anxious about online learning. Educators risk investments in online classes leaving less technologically ready learners behind. We examine how differences in technology readiness relate to learner self-efficacy, engagement, and achievement in an online class. We implement the established technology readiness index to examine if learners who are less comfortable with technology are disadvantaged. We sampled 102 learners in an online business negotiation class. Findings show learners are self-confident in completing technological tasks no matter their level of technology readiness or their lack of online class experience. Learners who are less comfortable with technology, however, report lower self-efficacy in general social interactions and in academic-specific social interactions with classmates, respectively. Online educators should reassure less technology-ready students to increase comfort in online social channels.

Virtual spaces allow abstract representations of reality that not only encourage student self-directed learning but also reinforce core content of the learning objective through visual metaphors not reproducible in the physical world. One of the advantages of such a space is the ability to escape the restrictions of the physical classroom, yet reproduction of reality may surpass what is needed to encourage feelings of presence. Simultaneously, too high an abstraction level may change participants' attitudes in relation to the core learning goals. This quantitative study examined the relationship between level of environment abstraction, within a virtual space, and feelings of presence for business negotiation role playing. Negotiation values were also measured, in relation to environment abstraction. Two levels of virtual space abstraction were implemented, through the open source software Open Wonderland, where class lectures and student driven negotiation role playing took place over a semester. Results indicated a high abstract environment reduced feelings of presence compared to a low abstract environment, even when the low abstract level was not realistic but rather employing a metaphor related to instructional goals. The values students used in negotiation across the two abstraction levels exhibited no difference, indicating the fundamental approach to negotiating was not related to the virtual environment design. (Contains 1 table and 4 figures.)

Whereas many researchers have examined differences in values and behavior between Westerners and Asians, fewer have investigated differences within Asian cultural groups. A recent government initiative in Taiwan to encourage international education has led to the development of an international MBA program at the National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan; both Chinese and Southeast Asian students participate in the program. They exhibit different behaviors in their classes, particularly in their postings in online discussion boards. For reasons that can be partly explained by the students' responses on a Chinese-Value Survey, Chinese students tend to post fewer messages than Southeast Asians, and both groups post fewer messages than Westerners in the classes under study. Instructors in multicultural classes have to consider such differences when they design assignments and set expectations for students in online discussions. (Contains 1 table.)

Introducing a culturally unfamiliar food to a new market requires understanding local meaning. Local psychological associations with nonendemic food often remain masked from common research methods such as surveys and home interviews. We apply a localized adaptation of the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique to explore consumer psychosensory perceptions of nonendemic foods—the contemporary phenomenon of coffee's acceptance in Taiwan's tea‐dominated market. A purposive sample of 10 trial and 20 full study participants, avid coffee drinkers, ranged in age from 19 to 52. Participants were supplied with single‐use film‐based cameras that they carried about in everyday life to snap photos later used in structured interviews. Over 120 concepts were generated from a total count of 95,472 transcribed words. This resulted in six top‐level categories: emotions/feelings, flavor/taste/color, cultural integration, nature, eat/drink, and coffee type organized in hierarchies of meaning. Participants consistently associated coffee with the desire for relaxation, enjoyment, and nature. Practical Applications: The revealed psychometric themes unearthed in this study suggest practical applications including informing market positioning segmentation strategies. In Taiwan's tea culture, findings show coffee plays a strong metaphorical role in consumers' psychology of escape and retreat from hectic daily life. Marketers of coffee should align with this theme rather than the standard Western messaging of energy and motivation boosting. This local metaphor provides coffee with a better opportunity for market adoption. Building on locally meaningful representations is key to market penetration and a strategy of glocalization that is fundamental to marketing of nonendemic food products. Successful diffusion of a nonendemic food product begins from a core group of dedicated loyal users, like the participants in the current study. By understanding the values these consumers associate with the nonendemic product, marketing managers can identify and select key features and meanings to emphasize in the product's design and marketing communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examined a possible link between computer-generated feedback and changes in writing strategies of English-as-a-foreign-language business-writing students in Taiwan. Numerous detailed analyses were carried out using computer software that measured students' writing, including time spent on a document, amount of editing of a document, specific errors made in a document, and the amount of text copied from resource material. (Author/JL)

Western retailers find alignment with consumers in Greater China challenging. Managers struggle to understand local retail values, especially where quantitative marketing research obfuscates meanings behind overly simplified constructs - lacking richness that is key to alignment. As researchers embedded in a distant indigenous culture, we use an interpretive research design, drawing on longitudinal data collected over a six-year period, to reveal multiple lenses of local realities, giving a perspective on international retailers' misalignment. The multimethod approach integrates ethnography, interviews, participant observations, videography and extended data in podcasts. We show how everyday products can be purely functional (global) at one time but embedded with symbolic meaning (local) at another, thereby confounding international retailers and researchers. Managers and researchers tend to reduce the legitimacy of meanings that differ from the values and beliefs of their existing (home/local) paradigm. We present a conceptual model that clarifies the marketing metaphor of 'alignment' for retailers targeting Far East Asian markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Asia, there is a growing assumption of that English capability is a requirement to enter the global economy. Students studying English in Asia now outnumbers students in America. This paper explores the potential synergy of these two trends by examining an increased favorable attitude toward products from English speaking nations on the part of consumers who have majored in English. A wide area Web-based survey, administered in Taiwan, resulted in 582 respondents in a conjoint-based design. Analysis of variance found that respondents who were language majors exhibited higher levels of consumer ethnocentricity than those who had not majored in language. This finding raises questions about assumptions surrounding the international nature of English. English students in this survey do not go on to be more accepting of imported products. Conjoint analysis found no favorable halo effect for products that were related to English speaking countries of origin. These findings raise a flag of caution when considering English in the global market and emphasize the importance of localization in product marketing, including marketing communication as well as English language instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]