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Anxiety and Uncertainty Management Theory. This study successfully applied an inter-
group/intercultural theory about social interaction to CMC. This reinforces the proposition that
understanding CMC requires more than just examining the technology – it requires
understanding the social interactions that use the technology (O’Sullivan, 2000; Walther, 1994,
1995). This is further evidence that an effective means to understand communication
technologies is to foreground the communication, and to draw on relevant communication
theories for explanations, rather than looking to the hardware itself as the primary explanatory
focus. The findings on anxiety and uncertainty also validate the generalizability of AUMT. In
particular, the reliability scores of the scales used indicate that they are applicable not only to
explaining effective communication in inter-group situations but also within computer-mediated
channels. While the results of the study are interesting and confirming to existent research, there
are some limitations of the study. The next section will identify and discuss these limitations.
Limitations
One of the primary limitations with the present study is the limited time for respondents
to fully engage with the website as part of a college course. The study was geared to replicate a
realistic instance where respondents would gather information about a course through the course
website prior to enrolling in the course. Therefore, respondents took about 10 minutes to review
the website – the estimated time they would spend in a realistic setting. In essence, the short time
might have limited respondents’ ability to engage the website and might have influenced
responses on the cognitive learning scale. Studies that assess students’ perception of a website
for a course they are currently enrolled in would likely be more effective in assessing cognitive
learning. The brief exposure might also have contributed to the non-significant findings for the
Convention