LEARNING IN VIRTUAL TEAMS – DISCOVERING BEST PRACTICE

In online environments, learning occurs as students undertake a range of activities and engage with a variety of module resources and with their peers and tutors. In addition, learning teams are employed to foster collaboration and the co-creation of knowledge. However, the body of literature associated with learning teams indicates that they are not always effective in achieving learning outcomes. Maznevsk et al. (2006 reminds us that without “…careful structuring, support and attention to processes, virtual teams do not achieve their potential and may not even get off the ground” (2015, Para 2). The focus of this paper is to report the provisional findings from a study designed to gather data on students’ experiences of working in learning teams, the affordances (and limitations) of current module design principles as well as pedagogical strategies that could enhance effective learning team participation. The principles for working effectively in learning teams and guidance material for students and tutors emerging from the study will also be include in the paper. The two-year project is being carried out with postgraduate students undertaking online programmes offered through a partnership between Laureate and several European Universities. The students are drawn from different parts of the world and professional and cultural arenas. The nature of their studies requires them to ‘meet’ and interact within a virtual learning environment. Whilst learning teams are an essential component of their learning toolkit anecdotal evidence suggests that the students are not fully conversant with their own role and responsibilities in engaging effectively within them. Although this study has emerged from the immediate need to improve on what Olariu and Aldea (2014) suggest (in their own study) that generally 25% of virtual teams are not fully effective, it has a potential wider impact beyond the Laureate/Universities partnership

References:
[1] Maznevsk, M., Canney Davison, S., & Jonsen, K. (2006). Creating effective virtual teams - IMD Business School ... Retrieved February 08, 2016, from http://www.imd.org/research/challenges/upload/creating_effective_virtual_teams.pdf
[2] Olariu, C., & Aldea, C. C. (2014). Managing Processes for Virtual Teams – A BPM Approach. Procedia - Social and Behavioural Sciences, 109(0), 380–384