Title

Subscribing To Wii-Fm: When Will We Begin To Function As A Team?

Abstract

Teams are utilized in a variety of ways, covering a wide range of organizational functions. Most working professionals have been asked to serve on a team at one time or another. If not, the likelihood that they will be asked to do so in at some time during their career is extremely high. Why is this true? First - And foremost - Teams have been shown to flesh out more relevant issues more quickly and more thoroughly than any one individual can typically generate on his or her own. This fundamental assumption leads to the development of teams to address almost every conceivable topic and in every recognizable domain. However, some fundamental questions have plagued managers for years (if not for centuries). What if the team does not want to work together? - or - What if they merely do not know how to work together? This is where an understanding of group dynamics, team organizational, and communication skills come into play. Students and faculty face a particularly difficult task when working in academic team environments. Most students realize that several artificial constraints are in play for these studentcentered projects. These artificial elements include - but are not limited to: 1) the short- Term nature of the team assignments, 2) the final objective of the project assignment [usually a report or an artificial product] which is generally never developed into a sustainable design or functional product that will ultimately be manufactured, distributed, and maintained throughout a typical lifecycle, 3) the low probability that their individual long- Term success is dependent on other members of the student team, 4) the student's ability to remain in the background and let other team members do the bulk of the work knowing that they will likely receive the same benefit (or project grade) in the end, and 5) the low probability that any long- Term, adverse effects will result if they do the minimum amount of work in their respective team . . . i.e. doing just enough work to get through the course. This situation may result in a WII-FM or What's In It For Me philosophy by team members. This paper will address several team-related components that affect student success in both faceto- face (F2F) courses and in Distance Education (DE) courses and provide a template for faculty to use to address these issues. Similarities and differences in team effectiveness using F2F and DE delivery methodologies will also be addressed. Both synchronous and asynchronous DE course models will be discussed. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2014.

Publication Date

1-1-2014

Publication Title

ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings

Number of Pages

-

Document Type

Article; Proceedings Paper

Personal Identifier

scopus

Socpus ID

84905187234 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84905187234

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