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Teaching and Learning Technology Resource
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DESCRIPTION OF INNOVATION:
Global Virtual Collaborations (http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol3/issue4/jarvenpaa.html)
is a project using email and the Web in order to :
- learn how to collaborate with
others in a virtual setting
- obtain international exposure by working with people from different countries
- learn about the Internet
Global Virtual Team Project - since 1994
- Invited to participate through network contacts.
- Trialled locally as a pilot prior to participating globally.
- Administered from the University of Texas.
- Teams of students (up to six students. Each from a different university and preferably a
different continent) are given an applied business project usually relating to electronic
commerce
- Students develop a business plan in 6-8 weeks for a global consulting firm to provide
advice on integrated software packages whose partners are located in the countries where
the students were located.
- Students communicate in whatever means they choose. A listserv is provided by University
of Texas for each team. Some teams use Lotus Notes Database through the Internet. Some
used Internet Relay Chat (IRC). Very occasionally they resort to fax and telephone.
REASONS FOR DEVELOPMENT/INTRODUCTION OF THE INNOVATION:
- Because MBA students travel a lot, some support should be provided for them to
participate, at least for one or two classes, from remote locations.
- To allow students to participate in the electronic portions of the unit regardless of
their physical location.
- The course is about developments in international technology and how it impacts on how
people work. Students read about the 'networked organisation' and how extended
organisations can communicate from different locations and then are able to put their
hands on the real technology and find out how it works. They develop a group experience;
reflect on it and develop guidelines for people who might be working in their industry.
- We believe that MBA students, as adult learners, can benefit from collaborative learning
principles and as business is international, what better way for them to learn than
through an international project.
TEACHING/LEARNING AIMS:
- Students to work on live internet projects.
- Students to gain an understanding of the current 'real-life' status of the technology.
- Learning how to evaluate the use of technology's impact on work.
- Learning about the subject matter itself ie. Virtual Teams, Electronic Commerce
DESIGN PRINCIPLES:
- Provide an opportunity for post-graduate business students, holding down real jobs, to
collaborate with similar people to learn about international business as part of a
collaborative process.
- Integrating the teaching method with the teaching content.
USE:
This approach works. It's fun. It's hard work. Students learn. Even those students who
say it's a waste of time have learnt. Students can choose not to go with the project but
so far none have.
EVALUATION:
- Students are asked permission for use of their reflections on final assignments
for research on self-reports of learning.
- Participation marks used to measure skills.
- ARC small grant is being used, in part, to evaluate student's self-reported
learning about global virtual teams, teamwork and global work in the future. Quantitative
research methods used to build models of student self-reports about learning,
participation and response to the project and the kinds of behaviours they thought were
required in global virtual team activities.
HINDRANCES TO DEVELOPING INNOVATION:
- Lack of technical expertise and lack of structural support necessary to support use of
technology in teaching and learning.
- Operating on a technological and time shoestring has created difficulties for
support personnel as well as the lecturer.
ENABLERS TO DEVELOPING INNOVATION:
- ECEL Computing and University provided the support and physical infrastructure
necessary. The alternative would have been to go to an Internet Service Provider (ISP).
- ECEL Computers willingness to make things easy was help.
- The international community of lecturers involved in the project.
- Joint funding from ECEL Teaching and Learning and the Law School for development of
electronic information resources for teaching. Some of that used on a literature review to
determine pedagogical underpinnings for use of technology in education.
COST/BENEFITS:
- No direct department or faculty investment required.
- University Computing Service (UCS) will have had to respond to us pushing the limits of
remote access with additional infrastructure resources.
- Far too much time and effort required.
- Funding structure is not an issue when the infrastructure is there. It is a time issue.
LESSONS LEARNT:
- It is not sensible to expect lecturers to be experts in the application of the
technology and in the technology itself as well as in teaching and learning and designing
courses that use the technology.
- This project is a collaborative learning experience for adult learners that actually
achieved the desired learning outcomes but is a high cost method for the lecturer.
- Lecturers need to be committed to this as a learning exercise rather than just an
exercise in using the technology.
- Estimate the time you think it will take and then double it and double it and double it ...
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