Real Problems with Virtual Teams: An Analysis of the Factors Leading to Dysfunctional Online Collaboration

Abstract

In online education, virtual teams play an important role in collaborative and peer learning. Unlike traditional face-to-face teams, the students in a virtual team may be geographically distributed, work in different time zones, and may never physically meet face-to-face. Universitas 21 Global, one of the new breed of online universities, has incorporated the use of virtual teams in its pedagogy since the inception of its MBA programme in August 2003. In their capacity as lead instructors, whose role it is to oversee the smooth running of individual class sections, the researchers report on some of the problems that have been observed with virtual teams.

Keywords: Online education, MBA, Virtual teams, Collaborative learning