Regardless of the many virtues of group work within the online classroom setting, one of the most frequent complains I receive from students is about their collaborative learning community (CLC) assignments. Students often complain about the lack or type of communication occurring in the CLC forum, a main cause might be the lack of practice communicating in such a forum. The inconstancy of participation by teammates is another source of frustration, as students may have differing perceptions of the amount of effort required. There is also the lack of familiarity of participating in a virtual team, which exacerbates students' possible misgivings about attending school in an online milieu.

Although those of us who use phrases such as "peer-to-peer learning" and "pedagogical research" in our day-to-day parlance may understand the potential benefits of online group work, many of our students fail to see how these types of assignments can benefit them - both in the educational and professional realms. This is despite the increasing need of graduates to understand how to work in teams, which is rather relevant for students entering the workforce, seeking a promotion at their current organization, or attempting a career change.

To counteract these misgivings, instructors need to elucidate to students the possible benefits of becoming proficient practitioners of online teamwork by indicating the application of virtual team skills in real-world settings. As Berry (2011) noted, working and communicating with virtual teams have become essential skills in the modern work environments in which the complexity of tasks has necessitated that employees from disparate locales work together to solve nuanced problems. Part of the issue of students resistance to working in virtual teams may be related to learning how to communication within task-specific online forum. Often there is the perception that online communication will mimic face-to-face interaction (Hirschy, 2011). However, virtual channels of communication differ for many reasons, and we need to communicate these reasons (i.e. lack of body language), and posit the benefits (the asynchronous format allows more time for reflection and critical thinking). Teaching students how to function and thrive within this unique communicating-cum-work forum is crucial for success, again in both educational and professional settings.

Establishing guidelines, noting the benefits, indicating the needed skills, and the desired outcomes of virtual teams can help students receive the maximum benefit from engaging in their CLC assignments. Although resistance and complaints might fail to cease, if we can connect these type of assignments to real-world applications and specify to students how they can benefit from developing and enhancing their repertoire of skills relating to working in and leading virtual teams, we as instructors might be able to assuage the negative perceptions many students hold concerning CLC assignments. Thanks,

Eric

Reference:

Berry, G. R. (2011). Enhancing effectiveness on virtual teams: Understanding why traditional team skills are insufficient. Journal of Business Communication, 2. 186-206. doi:101177/0021943610397270

Hirschy, M. J. (2011). Virtual team leadership: A case study in Christian Higher Education. Christian Higher Education, 10. 97-111. doi:10.1080/15363751003676613