Virtual Teams as part of
Internationalization of Higher Education
Tarja Chydenius & Tanja Jadin
Laurea UAS
FHOÖ UAS
1
Background
Objective for most Universities of Applied
Sciences: Internationalization of education
Opportunity for internationalization-at-
home
Offering knowledge base for intercultural
virtual teams
2
Theoretical framework
Internationalization of
education
Virtual teams
Intercultural teams
3
Adapted from Lauridsen & Cozart, 2015
4Dimension
(actor)
Focus on
activity
(process)
Quality principles
(conditions)
INSTITUTION Educationalcontext and institutionalenviroment
- Providing inclusive learning space- Support for learning-conductive environment- Integrating students and staff
TEACHER Educationalprocessess
- Awarness of teaching & learning processes- Negotiating learning processes- Managing & leveraging diversity
STUDENT Educationaloutcomes
- Extending knowledge base, building one’s owncultural identity
- Cultural awareness, ability to work withlinguistic diversity
- Applying contextual and interculturalknowledge
Principles for quality teaching and learning in multicultural
learning space
Virtual teams
A life-cycle
model for
virtual teams
(Hertel, Geister
& Konradt 2005)
Preparations
Launch
Performancemanagement
Teamdevelopment
Disbanding
5
Virtual team Competencies
Performance
Professional
expertise
Cognitive
abilities
Taskwork-
related
competencies
Team work-
related
competencies
Telecooperation-
related skills
communication cooperativeness
Persistence
Intercultural skills
Interpersonal
trust…
Leading and
deciding
Analyzing and
interpreting
Hertel, Konradt & Voss (2006),
Krumm et al. (2016)
Lin, Standing & Liu, (2008)
6
Intercultural teams
Team work requiring innovativeness(E.g. Adler & Gunderson 2008)
7
Competences needed for intercultural
effectiveness
1)Analytic competence
2)Emotional competence
3)Creative competence
4)Behavioral competence
- Communication
- Functional adroitness
Koehn & Rosenau 2010
8
Students
Joint online course for Master students at
- Laurea UAS, Finland: 9 students
- FHOÖ UAS, Austria: 17 students
June 2016
One independent assignment including
Connecting & teaming
Submitting plan
Working online: cross-cultural models
Presenting outcome
Summarizing & evaluating
9
Research design
Qualitative questionnaire
Objective to understand the meanings students
ascribe to their experiences
Questions about:
Successes and challenges of the team work
Main learnings of the IC virtual team work
Experienced differences vs. their usual (virtual) team
work
10
Findings Team formation
Austrians more active
Working process
Surprised about how easy it was to co-operate with total
strangers
Technical platforms
Channels chosen by students
Communication
Lacking non-verbal comms posed come challenges
Satisfaction
Overall very good
Perceived challenges
Slightly different tasks / guidance
Time pressure
Intercultural experiences
No major cultural differences
11
Discussion
Is virtual approach alleviating cultural differences or just
making students non-perceptive of them?
Findings only indicative
- all female groups
- groups different, Finns working full-time
Teacher cooperation crucial for similar student
guidance
Students state: Practice is necessary to understand the
challenges in virtual intercultural communication
UAS partnerships pivotal for enabling systematic
development of online internationalization
12
Adapted from Lauridsen & Cozart, 2015
13
Dimension
(actor)
Focus on
activity
(process)
Quality principles
(conditions)+ Online Internationalization-
at-home
INSTITUTION Educationalcontext and institutionalenviroment
- Providing inclusive learning space- Support for learning-conductive
environment- Integrating students and staff
• E-learning policy• Partnerships: long-term
relationships• Resources: time, technology, IC
awareness training
TEACHER Educationalprocessess
- Awarness of teaching & learningprocesses
- Negotiating learning processes- Managing & leveraging diversity
• Intercultural & cross-culturalknowledge / competence
• Relationship orientation• Flexibility in time and with
technology• Assignment alignment, clear
communcation
STUDENT Educationaloutcomes
- Extending knowledge base, building one’s own culturalidentity
- Cultural awareness, ability to work with linguistic diversity
- Applying contextual and intercultural knowledge
• Recognizing value of ”soft skills”• Willingness to learn, tolerance for
ambiguity + technologicalchallenges
• Opportunity for repeatedexperiences