One of the many new skills that my students are learning during this time of online learning contingency is how to work as part of virtual teams (being them in different countries). My students know that they will have to turn in a final paper so I today in class I gave them an opportunity to "rehearse" best practices in working in virtual teams by giving them an assignment that they had to complete in 30 minutes. Here is what I asked them to do (I will omit the description of the assignment here as this technique can be adapted to any assignment):
1.Agree on a communication plan according to what is accessible in the countries where they are (which tool they will use e.g. whatsapp, teams, wechat, sharepoint, etc.)
2. Identify the goal of the assignment. Ask questions during my explanation of the assignment to make sure that everyone had the same understanding of what was asked as a deliverable for this assignment (common goal).
3. Identify and assign roles to each member of the team.
4. State clear standards (operational definitions) of what each member of the team will deliver
5. Assign specific times to complete each deliverables
6. Have one "time keeper" that will remind members at specific intervals of time how much time they have left to complete their activity
7. Define how they will review that the whole assignment follows a seamless structure once it has been completed
8. Decide on how they will present their results considering the rubric they were given and the length of time they have to present (2 minutes)
9. Identify who and how they will present the completed assignment to the rest of the class. They had to consider that when they are presenting students need to know how to use the online presenting tools and choose someone who has reliable internet access.
10. I asked students to be their own time keepers so I did not ask to submit the assignment to me when they were finished after the 30 minutes were up. This way I want to promote self-accountability for meeting a deadline, which is key in working in virtual teams.
11. I asked students to present the results the next time we had a class. This way I will help reinforce the importance of self-managing time. I will ask next week if anyone used extra time or if they were able to finish in the time we had agreed upon.
I need to add that I started today's class with an activity in the break out rooms where students had to share one thing they were not missing during these times of quarantine. Activities that help team members find things in common help build trust when you are working at a distance. We call this "benevolence-based trust".
I have actually been quite impressed with the openness and willingness of my students to adjust to this new learning paradigm. I keep on reminding them to talk about these exercises in their next job interview. An example of adaptability and resilience.
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