Professorial collaborations via CMC: Interactional dialectics

We conducted twenty semi-structured interviews with university professors from eight states in the US about their collaborations via computer mediated communication. Our thematic analysis of verbatim transcripts uncovered four dialectical tensions (an interplay of opposing and contradictory forces typically resolved through communication) in such interactions: relational connection and personal autonomy, creativity and the mundane, task and socio-emotional goals, as well as novelty and efficacy.