Applying multiple frameworks to establish effective virtual collaborative teams in academia: a review and recommendations

A step-by-step guide for mentors to facilitate team building and communication in virtual teams

As collaborative work in medical education has increasingly moved online, team mentors have had to adapt their practices into the virtual environment. Fostering connection, communication and productivity on virtual teams requires specific skills and deliberate practice that differ from in-person teamwork. Drawing from best practices in business, education and medicine and also from our own experience as a virtual team, we present a guide for mentors to create and sustain successful virtual teams. Grounded in Tuckman's Five Stage Model of Team Development, we offer specific strategies for virtual team mentors to promote team cohesion, mitigate conflict, maintain productivity and leverage the benefits of the virtual environment.

Refining virtual cross-national research collaboration: drivers, affordances and constraints

Purpose

The study aims to explore and explain the affordances and constraints of two-mode virtual collaboration as experienced by a newly forming international research team.

Design/methodology/approach

This is self-reflective and action-oriented research on the affordances and constraints of two-mode virtual collaboration. In the spirit of professional development, the authors (nine researchers at different career stages and from various counties) engaged in a joint endeavour to evaluate the affordances and constraints of virtual collaborations in light of the recent literature while also researching the authors' own virtual collaboration during this evaluative task (mid-January–April 2021). The authors used two modes: synchronous (Zoom) and asynchronous (emails) to communicate on the literature exploration and recorded reactions and emotional responses towards existing affordances and constraints through a collective journal.

Findings

The results suggest both affordances in terms of communication being negotiable and evolving and constraints, particularly in forming new relations given tools that may not be equally accessible to all. Journaling during collaborations could be a valuable tool, especially for virtual collective work, because it can be used to structure the team supported negotiation and discussion processes, especially often hidden processes. It is evident that the role of a leader can contribute to an alignment in the assumptions and experiences of trust and consequently foster greater mutual understanding of the circumstances for productive team collaborations.

Originality/value

The findings of this study can inform academics and practitioners on how to create and facilitate better opportunities for collaboration in virtual teams as a rapidly emerging form of technology-supported working.

Reimagining Learning Spaces of the Future: An Interprofessional, Virtual Workshop Utilizing Rapid Idea Generation and Lean Startup Methodologies

INTRODUCTION

The needs and expectations of health professional educators and learners are evolving. Therefore, physical and virtual learning environments will look and function differently in the future. Understanding desirable, feasible options for educators and learners, including online, in-person, hybrid, and extended realities, is critical. We designed and facilitated a faculty development workshop that adapted Lean Startup methodologies and role-modeled effective virtual teaching skills to engage stakeholders in generating ideas to inform future development of learning spaces within one national academic medical center.

METHODS

We facilitated the 3-hour workshop with an interprofessional group of health professional educators, learners, and administrative staff. The workshop included asynchronous prework and synchronous microlectures, small-group activities, and large-group report-outs. We employed Lean Startup methodologies to promote divergent thinking. Each small group had a dedicated convener and scribe. A designated chat moderator, social media facilitator, and several audiovisual staff provided support during the workshop.

RESULTS

More than 4,000 ideas were generated by the 350 participants. Participants reported that prework, microlectures, and small-group activities were successful in preparing them to engage in rapid idea generation and propose potential solutions for future learning spaces within health professions education.

DISCUSSION

The workshop, which utilized a rapid idea generation and Lean Startup methodologies format, was successful in producing an abundance of original ideas and potential solutions for future learning spaces within health professions education. As reported through postsession evaluation, participants valued the opportunity to contribute ideas and co-create potential solutions to guide future planning and feasibility studies.

Interpersonal Competences and Attitude to Online Collaborative Learning (OCL) among Future Pedagogues and Educators—A Polish and Portuguese Perspective

Interpersonal competences in relationship building, collaboration and teamwork are essential both in F2F education and in distance or hybrid styles of education. In the face of the COVID-19 crisis, as well as previous trends, some or all of the higher education didactics were transferred to the online environment. In this context, the Online Collaborative Learning (OCL) model, now known as collaborativism, is gaining importance. This research aims to diagnose and compare the level of interpersonal competences and attitude in the OCL model among students preparing for the profession of an educator, pedagogue or teacher in the autonomous region of Madeira and in Poland. Quantitative studies were conducted using the Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire by D. Buhrmester, W. Furman, M.T. Wittenberg and H.T. Reis—as adapted by Poland and Portugal. In addition, the respondents expressed their views on OCL in the self-written questionnaire. According to the research findings, the highest level of competence in the Portuguese group was achieved by the respondents in terms of: Emotional Support (EW), Conflict Management and Resolution (RK) and Negative Assertion—Asserting Influence (AO). In the Polish group, EW was the lowest. The highest level of interpersonal competences was observed for Conflict Management and Resolution (RK), Disclosure (US) and Initiation (IR). The largest group of the surveyed students in both countries expressed a positive attitude towards implementing OCL in their courses of study and declared their willingness to be a member of a group that learns online together.