Guidelines for Working Collaboratively in Virtual Teams

As virtual teams continue to become more prevalent, educational administrators, faculty, and other members of online communities must discover and employ guidelines for effectively collaborating in online contexts. Applying the same traditional team strategies to those working in dispersed groups of people may hinder communication and prevent optimal results. In today's world, teams need to execute and learn at the same time. It is time to re-define what constitutes a (virtual) team and consider new avenues for cooperating in an increasingly diverse, global, and continuously “plugged-in” society. A set of practical steps for why and how virtual teams can collaborate in digital environments is presented. Tips for implementing the steps are provided. An analysis of technological tools available for facilitating online team collaboration is also shared.

The Importance of Tone and Attitude in Email and the Online Classroom

In the online classroom, email has emerged as a predominant communication method between students and faculty. Despite many benefits of email, including ease of use, familiarity of the technology, and rapid response times, there are numerous challenges faculty face when sending and receiving email correspondence with students. Mainly, due to the medium and format of email, with its lack of cues such as body language, inflection, and other sensory stimuli, it presents a paramount challenge to faculty. However, appropriate tone and attitude in emails can help mitigate the challenges the medium presents. When written and read effectively and purposefully, email is an effective outreach and communication tool for students and faculty.

Learning Together

In this chapter, the writer unfolds and develops a fundamental praxis of collaboration. Drawing on the wisdom of Freire and Confucius, the author of this chapter on collaboration delineates it from three different perspectives: liberative, practical, and philosophical. Through these three perspectives, she discusses collaboration as a necessary component of online education and offers key principles to shape effective and successful collaborative efforts. Confucian humanism lays the foundation and context for Freire's liberative pedagogy in education; the writer brings these two theoretical practitioners into conversation to offer practical principles for collaboration between educators and students in online spaces.

Utilizing Social Networking Sites for Communication in Higher Education

This chapter first analyzes the need for communication and collaboration tools to connect units of higher education. It then examines a popular social networking site, Facebook, as a possible platform of communication. This chapter also discusses findings from a phenomenological study that explored rhetorical roles employed by participants on Facebook and then connects findings to current research concerning communication and collaboration in higher education. Data indicated that messages on Facebook were used for cooperation and coordination, but not necessarily collaboration. It also indicated that while participants were audience-minded, they were not necessarily audience-aware, and participants used audience shaping as a coping mechanism. Finally, composers' inclinations to exercise authority over their personal, representational space (Facebook wall) led the researchers to conclude that use of Facebook in higher education may best be achieved by creating a Facebook page or group for specific communicative purposes.

Transforming From the Classroom to an Online Nursing Educator

This chapter explores through phenomenological methodology the experiences of nursing faculty who transitioned from live to online teaching. These experiences are further examined through the theory of transformative learning to determine whether participants were able to transform their teaching identity from traditional classroom teacher (sage on the stage) to facilitators of learning. One-on-one interviews were conducted with 16 full-time nursing faculty at four state universities. Findings revealed that most faculty were originally hesitant to teach online and had multiple misconceptions regarding teaching methods and online student communication. With one exception, professional development for online teaching was limited. Most participants described transforming their teaching methods and philosophies as they gained more experience. Results implicate that faculty development should focus not only on educational principles and technology, but also on ways to connect with students and develop course content that helps maintain faculty identities.

Assessment and Civility

Civility in computer-mediated communication, especially in the computer-mediated classroom, has been a topic of numerous inquiries. For this reason, teaching of the means and reasons for civil computer-mediated communication has become increasingly necessary. To accomplish this, the chapter will explore past research which indicates major sources of incivility that have emerged in computer-mediated culture. The chapter will then argue that civil discourse is also the most effective and useful form of discourse and show that needs to be communicated to students. This chapter then offers concrete means of teaching civility in computer-mediated communication by teaching civility as tied to the rhetorical concept of ethos already taught in the Public Speaking class.

If You Build It, They Will Come

Students attending traditional or online universities will benefit from membership in student-run virtual clubs. This chapter provides specific information about tools used to create, administer, and motivate participation in virtual university clubs. To enhance the club experience, suggestions are offered for creating interactive clubrooms, utilizing specific social media tools, and providing unique club events all as a virtual experience. A case study is included to demonstrate how students of a major online university participate in virtual club events. Results of this case study indicate a correlation between students who can easily access club tools and events with participation. Further, students who participate in clubs report greater satisfaction with their overall university experience and increased confidence in professional skills.

Technology and Culturally Competent Strategies for the Online Classroom

The last decade has brought an increase in online courses in the educational setting. One-quarter of American college students are in an online degree program, and 32% have taken at least one online course. While students, higher universities, and faculty are enjoying the convenience and flexibility of online learning environments, there is an increasing concern over the support in distance education, teaching methods, and a social disconnectedness of students from the course. This chapter explores how technology can support a successful online learning experience and impede the dissatisfaction and higher dropout rates among students in distance learning programs. Higher institution's online faculty are now faced with the task of creating a virtual community of learners, meeting both the academic and social needs of students.

Overcoming Implicit Bias in Collaborative Online Learning Communities

This chapter will lay the groundwork for exploring implicit bias and the effects in the online higher education environment. The authors will analyze privilege, power, oppression, and institutionalized bias and explore examples in higher education, through both student and faculty perspectives. The chapter will focus on collaborative solutions to a diverse variety of case studies on implicit bias across race, culture, gender, ability, and other dimensions. An emphasis will be placed on reflective analysis and creating collaborative experiences for online students and educators.

Effectively Utilizing a Socially Mediated Network

Cooperative learning has evolved over the years to include web-mediated elements within traditional and virtual classrooms. In this chapter, authors discuss a collaboration that used computer-supported collaborative learning through an online socially-mediated network. This collaboration served as a bridge between two universities from different countries. Not only did this collaboration link the students from each university together, but it provided language learners and pre-service student-teachers with the ability to benefit from the unique connection between them (i.e. students needing to learn language and teachers needing to practice teaching a language). Authors discuss the collaboration, the framework, and the format of this cooperative learning project. Much of this discussion is rooted in the experiences of some of the students who participated in its evolution with the intent to provide a direction for implementing such a type of collaboration in other institutions.