Effectiveness of team-building and teamwork in virtual worlds

Effectiveness of Team-building and Teamwork in Virtual Worlds

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting ◽

10.1177/154193121005400508 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 54 (5) ◽

pp. 532-536

Author(s):

Rachana S. Ranade ◽

Joel S. Greenstein

Keyword(s):

Virtual Worlds ◽

Team Building

Download Full-text

Digital Transformation of Engineering Education - Empirical Insights from Virtual Worlds and Human-Robot-Collaboration

International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy (iJEP) ◽

10.3991/ijep.v6i4.6023 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 6 (4) ◽

pp. 23 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Anja Richert ◽

Mohammad Shehadeh ◽

Freya Willicks ◽

Sabina Jeschke

Keyword(s):

Engineering Education ◽

Virtual Worlds ◽

Industry 4.0 ◽

Engineering Students ◽

Team Building ◽

Physical Systems ◽

Work Spaces ◽

Team Working ◽

Hybrid Teams ◽

Human Robot Collaboration

Cyber-physical systems and “Industry 4.0” will require future engineers to handle big data and complex, multidisciplinary problems as well as to collaborate with machines in “hybrid teams”. As some work spaces will be virtualized or remotely controllable new communication skills and the knowledge of virtual worlds are necessary. Furthermore, working as a team with machines demands not only knowledge of mechanical engineering and machines but also an extended understanding of team working. To meet such challenges future engineers need to acquire new skills and qualification. This task does not only concern engineering students and trainees but also teachers for engineering. Questions about how to prepare for newly needed engineering competencies for the age of Industry 4.0, how to assess them and how to teach and train e.g. human-robot-teams have to be tackled in future engineering education. The paper presents theoretical aspects and empirical results of a series of studies, which were conducted to investigate engineering education in virtual worlds as well as different aspects about team building in hybrid teams.

Download Full-text

Second Life® Project Development as a Venue for Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Cases on Collaboration in Virtual Learning Environments ◽

10.4018/978-1-60566-878-9.ch015 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 239-248

Author(s):

Susan Toth-Cohen ◽

Pamela R. Mitchell

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Virtual Worlds ◽

Second Life ◽

Professional Education ◽

Information Exchange ◽

Interprofessional Education ◽

Team Building ◽

Interdisciplinary Team ◽

Project Based Learning ◽

Project Development

The increasing complexity of health service delivery, along with rapid growth of the older population, increased survival of premature births and serious accidents, and retirement of baby boomer healthcare workers have created a critical need for health care professionals who can function as team members and leaders who collaborate to deliver effective, individualized care. Yet, while collaboration between disciplines is considered an ideal, many barriers impede its implementation, including geographic isolation and limited information exchange opportunities (Kilgo & Bruder, 1997). As a result, students in health disciplines frequently are educated without exposure to the professionals with whom they will work when entering the workforce. The need for interprofessional education was highlighted by concerns noted by the Committee on the Health Professional Education Summit for the Board of Health Care Services of the Institute of Medicine in 2003, that reported a major disconnect between the isolated professional education approach in health care and increasing expectations for interdisciplinary team-based care. The Center for the Advancement of Interprofessional Education indicates that benefits of such an educational approach can cultivate closer collaboration between professions, organizations and service users, which can improve quality of care (Center for the Advancement of Interprofessional Education, 2002). The ability of health-related programs to implement interprofessional project-based learning is often hampered by distance, time and programmatic constraints. Virtual worlds such as Second Life can help address these constraints. Virtual worlds like Second Life® (SL) provide unique venues for fostering collaboration by closing the gaps created by distance and lack of information exchange. In this chapter, the authors describe the process of collaboration by occupational therapy (OT) and speech-language pathology (SLP) students and faculty in developing an educational event in the virtual environment of SL. The event planning and implementation provide an example of project-based learning (Donnelly & Fitzmaurice, 2005) and interdisciplinary community-building that provides insights and “lessons learned” with application to future project development in virtual worlds. The authors discuss the applications of project-based learning for interdisciplinary team building, describe student and faculty roles and specific steps in planning, management, and production of an event for current and prospective OT and SLP students, and analyze challenges and supports in project implementation

Download Full-text