Virtual Teams in the Traditional Classroom

This chapter examines the technologies available to virtual teams and issues associated with training virtual teams. We first evaluate the benefits and limitations of technologies to aid communication and collaboration. We consider the merits and limitations of asynchronous and synchronous discussion tools, groupware and collaboration tools, and electronic meeting systems. We then offer three different levels of training possible for virtual teams and discuss some key issues associated with training. Each level of training varies in intensity and is dependent upon the nature of the assignment and team objectives. The chapter concludes with some predictions and recommendations about the future of new technologies and virtual teams in the educational setting. Throughout the chapter, special considerations are made for those virtual teams operating in the traditional classroom.

Computer Mediated Technology as Tools for Social Interaction and Educational Processes

Computer mediated technologies (or CMTs) enhance educational processes and are tools that have particular implications for learning and interacting in virtual teams. To better understand how educational tools may be implemented to enhance student learning in virtual teams, the author addresses Wartofsky’s (1979) explication of tools as cultural artifacts. Distinctions about primary, secondary, and tertiary tools provide a framework to analyze implementations of educational CMT research. Implications of these tools on virtual team’s cognitive skills and collaborative learning are explored. Tertiary tools are explored in particular, as they may provide virtual teams with shared interaction space and alternative representations of the social world. The author provides examples of CMT implementation and suggestions for technological and pedagogical advancements.

Students International Collaboration Projects (SICP)

“SICP” stands for Students International Collaboration Project. This chapter describes a project where students create learning with faculty mentors, offering insights into problem solving. Achieving the freedom to learn and broaden students’ individual interpersonal skills is the main goal for this new endeavor. This chapter will explain SICP’s mission and its procedures, analyze its main concepts, and describe the outcomes. Experiences of past projects in the learning curve will be used to give a practical framework for teachers who would be interested in initiating such a project, not only for their students but also for themselves. The prototype combined French and American teams who wrote a research paper together. The learned outcomes focused on improved communication skills and team management. In the process, the students also learned about a different culture. This mentoring process constitutes an opportunity for teachers to stimulate learning by involving students in a shared responsibility experience. This project expands traditional classroom learning into an experiential process to learn new concepts.

From WebQuests to Virtual Learning

WebQuest as an Internet-based instructional model has recently been widely adopted in K-16 education. However, its underlying principles and functionality are not well understood, which has resulted in an inconsistency in practice. This chapter investigates the factors that are critical to the design and development of WebQuests from the perspective of students. The four constructs of constructivist problem-solving, social interaction, motivation, and scaffolding were identified as factors critical to WebQuest learning. The identified factors were further studied in a larger context with a focus on virtual teams and virtual learning. Suggestions were made on how to improve the existing practice in virtual team design in light of the factors identified in WebQuest learning.

Learning Style Flexibility for Effective Virtual Teams

Changes currently taking place globally in education, training and all areas of human potential development where learning forms the crux, have implications for e-learning. Interactive participation in virtual teams has become an evident means of promoting the principles of deep and constructive learning, and the life-skill of working in teams. Team members working in virtual teams are interdependent of each other and learning to become independent learners as an end result. Value is added to learning in virtual teams when the principles of learning style flexibility (LSF) are integrated with the principles of effective collaborative e-learning. The idea of learning style flexibility proposed in this chapter underpins the notion of developing learners’ full potential and facilitating the process of becoming flexible in problem solving. The Ned Herrmann whole brain theory is used as the basis of the theoretical framework and adapted for learning style flexibility in virtual teams. In this chapter we discuss awareness of one’s own learning style preferences, flexibility in terms of learning with the aim of developing one’s full potential, formation of diverse e-learning groups according to learning style preferences for optimizing virtual group performance, and using collaborative action learning to promote constructive learning.

Seven Principles of Good Practice for Virtual International Collaboration

This chapter presents seven principles of good practice for conducting virtual international collaborations with students. The authors have conducted such collaborations with several different groups of American and Polish university students using different models. The collaborations were the basis for distilling these seven principles: develop cross-cultural awareness and mutual understanding of the culture of each group; create a multifaceted virtual environment; coordinate calendars; require intermediate level of English language proficiency; create relevant, engaging collaborative assignments with rubrics and shared understandings for evaluation of student work; establish methods forsuccessful group interactions, including information-sharing and relationship-building; evaluate project outcomes. These seven principles of good practice can assist instructors to develop successful virtual intercultural collaborations that prepare students for the workplace of the 21st century.

One School/Two Campuses

INSEAD, an international business school with campuses in France and Singapore, discovered first-hand the opportunities and challenges that distance and technology can bring for teams and collaboration among knowledge workers. Using off-the-shelf technologies, I used this situation to experiment with a distributed classroom experience in an MBA course. The course was project-based and students had to work on a consulting project in virtual teams distributed in Asia and Europe. This chapter documents the design and implementation of the course and provides lessons for teaching successful transnational classrooms. Observations conducted during this course suggest that the “class,” which is enacted with the feeling of belonging to the same group, is a socio-technical construction. Participants evolved their practices and adapted the technology during the course in order to facilitate communication and smooth out interactions across the sites.

A Blueprint for Assessing Learning in Virtual Teams

Beginning with an explanation of the concepts and strategies of outcomes assessment, this chapter shows how using assessment can assist in maximizing learning gains from virtual teams. Using as an example a course in Global Marketing, we show ways of concretizing the goal of teaching effective teamwork, designing a course to assist rather than to impede learning, and using assessment both to improve student performance while a class is running and to revise the next iteration of the course. Finally, we offer a series of prompts designed to assist faculty in using outcomes assessment techniques to shape their own courses.

Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning

In collaborative learning, interaction among learners is essential for effective knowledge acquisition and increased understanding. Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environments often inhibit or cause problems with learner-learner interactions. This chapter takes an applied perspective of what the instructor can do to identify and manage learner-learner relationships in a CSCL environment. Using a model of virtual team effectiveness, we identify potential motivational, cognitive, and affective problems between learners that are often exacerbated by computer-mediated technologies. Recommendations for instructor interventions designed to promote effective learner interactions are offered. This information will provide insight to both corporate trainers and K-12 educators on how instructors can promote appropriate and positive learner-learner interaction in CSCL environments.

Virtual Study Groups

Groups and teams are critical to modern organizations, and consequently management education has incorporated groups as a centerpiece of both content (the study of group process) and process (the use of study groups and group projects). Unfortunately, working-adult educational programs appear to have yet to take an important final step — acknowledging that study groups often interact virtually and then providing support for virtual study group interaction. We provide both theory and data concerning the use of study groups as virtual teams. We believe that there are important benefits to be gained when study groups make educated decisions about the design and process of their virtual interaction.