Developing Online Interaction and Shared Commitment in Virtual Project Teams

Abstract

The Covid pandemic has led to an increase in diverse forms of Virtual Exchange (VE) to nurture interuniversity and university-stakeholder networks and to encourage cross-border innovation in virtual project teams. The success of such virtual collaboration projects and initiatives depends on how well the participants manage to build an encouraging team atmosphere and a sense of shared commitment to goals and tasks. This, in turn, is affected by the quality of the online interaction between project facilitators, virtual team leaders and team members, and potential external stakeholders.This research was carried out in collaboration with two European applied research projects, Learn to Change and VALIANT, focused on developing digital interaction and co-learning in virtual teams and stakeholder networks. In this presentation, we explore the experiences of project facilitators, team leaders, and team members during a 7-week VE project and discuss how they, in their respective roles, can contribute to the quality of online team interaction in an international VE context. The data was gathered via critical friend observations and discussions between higher education teachers acting as project facilitators and researchers and via semi-structured interviews with in-service primary school and English teachers who participated in the VE project.The results underline the need to support VE facilitators, team leaders, and team members in actively contributing to the creation of a positive and trusting team atmosphere through both formal and informal interaction. In their role as team leaders, participants felt the need for encouragement and strategies for team building, role distribution, and participation. As team members, participants expressed the importance of sharing not only professional but also personal and cultural experiences. They also appreciated continuous leadership on the part of project facilitators and team leaders and valued the hands-on support they got from both VE colleagues and local colleagues, external to the VE project, when engaging with their co-learning goals and tasks. To foster shared commitment in virtual teams, we propose practical forms of online interaction that support VE project facilitators, team leaders and team members to share responsibilities of team building and co-learning, to foster commitment to team goals and tasks, and to collaborate with relevant stakeholders outside of the immediate VE context.