Teaching and Learning about Virtual Collaboration: What We Know and Need to Know

Virtual collaboration is an essential skill in today’s organizations, but where and how do people learn it? What do we know about teaching and learning with respect to virtual collaboration? We examined this question from multiple perspectives: (1) best practices in virtual teams, in order to provide the content of what might be taught about virtual collaboration; (2) best practices in teaching techniques and in technology use, which provides guidance for how the material might be taught; and (3) examples of current practice in this area, which gives an idea of what is being taught. The combination of literature review and informal survey of current practice provides a foundation for discussion and speculation on how we might accelerate efforts to help people become highly effective members of virtual teams.

[1]  Anthony R. Hendrickson,et al.  Virtual teams: Technology and the workplace of the future , 1998 .

[2]  Paul A. Kirschner,et al.  Learning and Understanding in Virtual Teams , 2004, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[3]  B. Davis.  Tools for Teaching , 1993 .

[4]  Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa,et al.  The Use of Information Technology to Enhance Management School Education: A Theoretical View , 1995, MIS Q..

[5]  Richard C. Cox,et al.  Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Cognitive Domain. An Annotated Bibliography. , 1970 .

[6]  Rebecca Carey,et al.  A Study of the Effectiveness of the Louisiana Algebra I Online Course , 2007 .

[7]  P. Evans,et al.  Collaboration rules , 2005, IEEE Engineering Management Review.

[8]  C. Gersick.  Time and Transition in Work Teams: Toward a New Model of Group Development , 1988 .

[9]  Ilze Zigurs,et al.  Integration of E-Collaboration Technologies: research Opportunities and Challenges , 2005, Int. J. e Collab..

[10]  J. Webster,et al.  Exploring Traditional and Virtual Team Members’ “Best Practices” , 2007 .

[11]  Halbana Matt Cherie Chi Lucas Gert-Jan Ilze Tarmizi,et al.  Collaboration Engineering in Distributed Environments , 2007 .

[12]  Blake Ives,et al.  Virtual teams: a review of current literature and directions for future research , 2004, DATB.

[13]  Mark A. Fuller,et al.  Improving student learning of conceptual information: GSS supported collaborative learning vs. individual constructive learning , 1997, Decis. Support Syst..

[14]  Karen Cheng,et al.  Evaluation of an Online Collaborative Examination Process , 2000 .

[15]  Scott D. Johnson,et al.  Team development and group processes of virtual learning teams , 2002, Comput. Educ..

[17]  Thomas M. Duffy,et al.  Using asynchronous conferencing to promote critical thinking: two implementations in higher education , 1999, Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences. 1999. HICSS-32. Abstracts and CD-ROM of Full Papers.

[18]  Merrill Warkentin,et al.  Training to improve virtual team communication , 1999, Inf. Syst. J..

[19]  Daniel Robey,et al.  Situated learning in cross-functional virtual teams , 2000 .

[20]  Benjamin S. Bloom,et al.  A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives , 2000 .

[21]  B. Tuckman.  DEVELOPMENTAL SEQUENCE IN SMALL GROUPS. , 1965, Psychological bulletin.

[22]  Deepak Khazanchi,et al.  From Profiles to Patterns: A New View of Task-Technology Fit , 2008, Inf. Syst. Manag..

[23]  Jessica Lipnack,et al.  Virtual Teams: Reaching Across Space, Time, and Organizations with Technology , 1997 .

[24]  M. Knowles.  Andragogy in action , 1984 .

[25]  Barbara Allan,et al.  The impact of membership of a virtual learning community on individual learning careers and professional identity , 2006, Br. J. Educ. Technol..

[26]  Maryam Alavi,et al.  Computer-Mediated Collaborative Learning: An Empirical Evaluation , 1994, MIS Q..

[27]  Michael Bieber,et al.  Collaborative Online Examinations: Impacts on Interaction, Learning, and Student Satisfaction , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics - Part A: Systems and Humans.

[28]  Thomas R. Kochtanek,et al.  Creating and nurturing distributed asynchronous learning environments , 2000, Online Inf. Rev..

[29]  Line Dubé,et al.  The Multi-Faceted Nature of Virtual Teams , 2004 .

[30]  Benjamin S. Bloom,et al.  Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals. , 1957 .

[31]  Peggy M. Beranek,et al.  The impacts of relational and trust development training on virtual teams: an exploratory investigation , 2000, Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.