Virtual Teamwork E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 321

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

"This book, by Robert Ubell and his excellent team of collaborators, adds an important dimension to effective teaching and learning in online environments. It addresses how interaction and collaboration online can be effectively harnessed in virtual teams. It is an important contribution to the larger field of Internet-based education." --Frank Mayadas, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation How to create and manage highly successful teams online With the advent of the global economy and high-speed Internet, online collaboration is fast becoming the norm in education and industry. This book takes online collaboration to the next level, showing how you can bolster online learning and business performance with the innovative use of virtual teams. Written by a team of experts headed by online learning pioneer Robert Ubell, Virtual Teamwork covers best practices for online instruction and team learning, reveals proven techniques for managing enterprise and global virtual teams, and helps you choose the best communication tools for the job. Educators, project managers, and anyone involved in teaching online courses or creating online programs will find a wealth of tips and techniques for building and managing successful virtual teams, including guidance for: * Integrating team instruction in the virtual classroom * Using best techniques for team interaction across borders and time zones * Structuring cost-effective, competitive projects that work * Leveraging leadership, mentoring, and conflict management in virtual teams * Conducting testing, grading, and peer- and self-assessment online * Managing corporate, global, and engineering virtual teams * Choosing the right technologies for effective collaboration

Leseprobe

Copyright © 2010 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved

Published by John Wiley & Sons, lnc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Virtual teamwork : mastering the art and practice of online learning and corporate collaboration/edited by Robert Ubell.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-470-44994-3 (pbk.)

1. Virtual work teams. 2. Teams in the workplace. 3. Organizational learning. I. Ubell, Robert.

HD66.V558 2010

658.4'022–dc22

2009049264

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Contributors

Foreword

Preface

Dewey Goes Online

References

Part 1: Managing Virtual Teams

Chapter 1: Building Virtual Teams

Structuring Online Classes

Students and Marketing Myths

Student Response to Virtual Teams

Nothing Succeeds Like Failure

Chapter 2: Leadership

Virtual Distance

The Social Network

Ambassadorial Leadership

Team Member Behavior

Leadership Behaviors

Challenges and Opportunities

Tips for Virtual Team Members

References

Chapter 3: Peer and Self-Assessment

Collaborative Learning

Peer and Self-Assessment

Teamwork Assessment Scale

Online Assessment System

Student Perception

Learning Context

Individual Differences

Online Learning Community

Impact on Teams

Suggestions for Future Educational Practice

Summary

References

Chapter 4: Mitigating Conflict

Sources of Conflict

Student Reactions to Team Assignments

Mitigating Conflict in Student Teams

Setting the Stage

Forming Teams

Managing Teaming

Interventions

Aftermath

Worth the Trouble?

Summary

References

Chapter 5: Virtual Teams in Very Small Classes

Group Dynamics and Team Size

Designing Virtual Team Projects

Challenges of Managing Teams in Small Classes

Creating Teams in Small Classes

Team Dynamics and Interaction

Benefits of Virtual Teaming in Very Small Classes

Seven Tips

References

Part 2: Virtual Team Technology

Chapter 6: Choosing Online Collaborative Tools

Needs Analysis

Communication Needs and Types

Creating a Business Case

Collaborative Software Suites

Chat and Meeting Tools

Information Broadcasting

Information Sharing

Information Gathering

Project Management and Scheduling

Wikis

RSS Feeds and Other “Push” Technologies

Learning Management Systems

Social Networking

Bibliographies

Using Technology

Assignments

Status and Team Notes

Many-to-Many Interactions

One-to-One Interactions

Gathering Team Input

References

Chapter 7: Communication Technologies

Theories of Choice

Technology Choice

Recommendations

References

Part 3: Enterprise and Global Teams

Chapter 8: Teaming across Borders

Trends beyond and in the Classroom

A Culture Primer

Case in Point

Multicultural Virtual Teams

MAB and MWB Teams

Overlapping Communication

Feedback

Additional Resources

Appendix

References

Chapter 9: Global Corporate Virtual Teams

From Face-to-face to Online

About the Course

Global Commerce

Tips for Developing Trust Online

The Power of Diversity

Language and Cultural Barrier Tips

Using Technology in Cross-cultural Teams

References

Chapter 10: Corporate Virtual Teaming

Help Desk Call Volume Reduction

Recruitment Process

Reducing Notices of Violation

Dewatering Challenges in Construction Projects

Gas Mapping Process Improvement

Tips for Success with Corporate Virtual Teaming

Chapter 11: Virtual Engineering Teams

Hong Kong Netherlands Project

Virtual Engineering Classroom

Communication

Assignments and Grades

Portfolio of Technologies

Cooperative Technologies

References

Index

For Rosalyn

Acknowledgments

This book is partly the result of more than a decade of engagement with online learning that began serendipitously on a visit to Stanford University, where I came upon a remarkable activity that very few had ever witnessed before. It was there, at the Stanford Center for Professional Development in the School of Engineering, where I met Andy DiPaolo and his pioneering colleagues who were launching something, I sensed, that was not merely an experiment suitable for elite students only. I was observing the start of what was then being tentatively practiced in only a handful of universities where online learning was being born. Today, it is part of university life, with some 4.6 million US students online.

I flew back to New York, excited by what I had seen, eager to tell my colleagues all about it. At the time, I was working for a small scientific and technical publisher as head of new media. Thinking the company would grasp the implications of what Andy and his colleagues were doing, I proposed that the president consider entering into a partnership with Stanford—we would publish ancillary print materials, while the university would deliver its courses online.

“Online learning has no future,” the company's president predicted.

It didn't take deep reflection to recognize that my enthusiasm was unlikely to be supported, and so I retreated. Luckily, soon afterward, I stumbled on an advertisement in The Times seeking someone to head a new venture in “web-based distance learning” at Stevens Institute of Technology, an engineering school just across the Hudson in New Jersey. With no experience—except for my few hours at Stanford—I applied. It turned out that it was all that was required. A dozen years ago, hardly anyone knew anything about online education, so my meager exposure and my enthusiasm were enough of a résumé.

It wasn't long before I attended a symposium in midtown Manhattan, sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, where I met Frank Mayadas, program director for what the foundation called “asynchronous learning networks,” an unlikely name for what was later called “e-learning.”

“Join me for lunch,” Mayadas encouraged. We set a date to meet at an Indian restaurant not far from Rockefeller Center, where the Sloan Foundation has its headquarters. Over curry and dal, I sketched what I was doing—hoping to create an online graduate program in science, engineering, and management. But it was early days and I was struggling with tepid faculty response at best, hostility at worst. Only the most adventurous had agreed to participate, with merely 3 courses and 23 students enrolled in the first semester.

While quite sympathetic, Frank nonetheless proposed that I move forward even more boldly. By the time we took our last bites of watermelon for dessert, Frank offered me a Sloan grant to launch an online master's degree in wireless communications, a graduate program that was being offered at Stevens on campus but had not yet migrated online.

With the promise of Sloan Foundation funding in my pocket, I took a PATH commuter train back to Stevens' campus in Hoboken. Elated, I nearly flew into the office of the head of the graduate school with the news. “You must have misunderstood,” he shook his head. “Nobody gets a grant over lunch.”

Frank's unexpected generous investment was among the early encouragements that eventually led WebCampus, Stevens' online graduate program, to attract nearly 25,000 enrollments over 10 years. This book would never have been possible without Frank Mayadas' foresight and personal and professional support and friendship. Without Frank's evangelism and the Sloan Foundation's seed money, online learning would not now be practiced by some 4.6 million college and university students who take at least one online class. Online learning students represent nearly 25% of all students in higher education.

I am grateful to my many colleagues whom I had encountered owing to my engagement with the Sloan Foundation. For their generosity in sharing their knowledge and insight, I owe my appreciation to Eric Fredericksen, University of Rochester; Jacquie Maloney, University of Massachusetts; Tony Picciano, City University of New York; Peter Shea, University of Albany; and Karen Swan, University of Illinois.

Members of the Board of Directors of WebCampus tirelessly offered their wisdom and experience, helping the program achieve national and international recognition. For their invaluable support as well as for their personal commitment, I thank Phil Long, University of Queensland; Luther Tai, Consolidated Edison; Peter Wiesner, IEEE; Kee Meng Yeo, Amway; and Ronald Schlosser and Martin Tuchman. I am also enormously grateful to Stevens' faculty and staff who served on the board as well as those who were especially supportive as WebCampus professors—Larry Bernstein, Stephen Bloom, Hong-Liang Cui, Celia Desmond, Peter Dominick, Sven Esche, Hosein Fallah, Thomas Herrington, John Horgan, Peter Jurkat, Dilhan Kalyon, Donald Lombardi, Manu Malek, Barbara Migliori, Ann Mooney, Barbara O'Connor, Richard Reilly, Kevin Ryan, Steven Savitz, Charles Suffel, B. J. Taylor, and Yu-Dong Yao.

At the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, President Jerry Hultin has been enormously supportive, easing the way for me and my staff to build on the e-learning foundations established earlier at the school. To Jerry and his colleagues at the Polytechnic Institute, I owe an enormous debt for their welcome and encouragement. I offer my deep appreciation to Lilana Avery, Kurt Becker, John Bernhard, Ria Best, JeanCarlo Bonilla, Lea Bowie, George Bugliarello, Brian Casey, Crystal Chavis, Ji Mi Choi, Jonathan Chao, Joy Colelli, Mary Cowman, Dennis Dintino, Dawn Duncan, Alan Fisher, Robert Flynn, Andres Fortino, Barbara Kates Garnick, Steven Goss, Ardis Kadiu, Iraj Kalkhoran, Meera Kumar, Sunil Kumar, Erich Kunhardt, Joseph Lathan, Marlene Leekang, Kalle Levon, I-Tai Lu, Nasir Memon, Peter Morales, Felice Nudelman, Shivendra Panwar, Susan Puglia, Bharat Rao, Dianne Rekow, Jana Richman, Keith Ross, Carl Skelton, Kate Smith, Harvey Stein, Richard Thorsen, Jay VanDerwerken, Philip Venables, Yao Wang, Nina Weber, Allan Weisberg and T. C. Westcott.

For her skill and resourcefulness, I owe my warmest thanks to my steadfast colleague and friend, Elaine Cacciarelli, whose dependable, consistent, and careful attention to details made this book possible.

One of the most pleasant experiences during the making of this book has been my happy relationship with the skilled staff at John Wiley & Sons. I became warmly reacquainted with Anita Lekhwani who, with her expert staff, shepherded this book to publication. I owe her a great debt of gratitude for her enthusiastic agreement to go ahead with this project and for her eager encouragement throughout. I especially wish to thank Rebekah Amos, Kellsee Chu, Kim McDonnell, Sheik Safdar, and Sanchari Sil at Wiley who helped to bring this book to publication.

I am particularly indebted to the authors of chapters in this book who explored their rare experiences in virtual classrooms with sharply honed intelligence. Faculty and students who study their insights will come away with a deep appreciation for what it takes to participate in virtual teamwork. Their brief professional biographies appear elsewhere in the opening pages.

I am deeply indebted to my family for their love and affection—to Jennifer, Thornton, Ella, Ben, Elizabeth, Steve, Fordon, Marielle, Matt, Jack, Shane, and Bryn, Seymour, Marsha, Anne, Marvin, Alvin, Estelle, Evelyn, Stella, and Ernesto; and to my friends—Robert Benton, Hal Espo, Martha Gever, Andrea Marquez, Robert Millner, Yvonne Rainer, Florence Rowe, Neil Salzman, Sheila Slater, and Stephen Stanczyk. I owe so much to my brother Earl that it is impossible to express the loss I feel without him.

This book is dedicated with my deepest love to an extraordinary woman, who is not only a committed scholar, stepmother, grandmother, and friend but is also someone who turns ordinary days into an examined and purposeful life.

—Robert Ubell

New York, 2010

Contributors

Phylise Banner

Phylise Banner is an instructional design project leader at the American Public University System. Banner works with faculty, administrators, students, and IT managers to design, develop, and deliver technology-based solutions across departments and disciplines. Using emerging technologies to translate faculty pedagogical approaches into unique online learning environments outside of traditional course management systems, she currently focuses on the use of Web 2.0 applications to establish community and visual presence in online classrooms.

M. Katherine (Kit) Brown-Hoekstra

Kit Brown-Hoekstra is the principal of Comgenesis, LLC, providing consulting services and training to clients to produce internationalized documentation, as well as other consulting services. She is an award-winning writer with a background in life sciences and technical communication. Brown-Hoekstra contributes articles and speaks at conferences and workshops worldwide on a variety of technical communication topics. She is an Associate Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication, newsletter editor for the IEEE-PCS, and member of the American Medical Writers Association.

Richard Dool

Educator, consultant, and senior executive, Richard Dool has diverse senior management experience including as a CEO of both public and private companies. He has a range of management experiences including leading an $800 million division of a Fortune 20 company, rescuing a company from near bankruptcy, leading the acquisition or divestiture of 9 companies, and managing companies in the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Hong Kong, India, and Australia. He is on the faculty at Seton Hall University and teaches and directs the graduate communication program. His research and publication interests are in leadership communication, distance learning, and change management. His publications include (2007). He is also a Sloan-C Certified Online Instructor. He is the editor-in-chief of . Dool received his DMgt from the University of Maryland University College.