Study Guide

Objective

After completing the course, the student is able to:
- understand how to build and lead effective virtual teams, share information and content efficiently utilizing modern online communication tools
- understand intercultural communication frameworks, behavioral norms and ethics within multilinguistic teams
- learn teamwork in self-directed teams representing multiple professional fields, solving real-life assignments with innovative solutions
- have an overall comprehension of the product development life cycle and process and their interaction with business development, project management, marketing, communications and stakeholder management
- understand general project management concepts, terminology, frameworks, including agile development, and standards and have a good overall view of project life-cycle and project phases in the product development context

Content

- Language and intercultural communication skills development
- Online communication and virtual teams
- Business and product development and problem-based learning
- Project management

Materials

Turner R.: Gower Handbook of Project Management, 5th Edition, 2014.
Additional literature, recent articles, reports and video lectures will be given in the course kick-off meeting.

Furmanek, Lukas & Daurer, Stephan, 2019. Application of Media Synchronicity Theory to Creative Tasks in Virtual Teams Using the Example of Design Thinking. 14. International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik (WI2019). Siegen: Germany .

Eisenberg, J., Glikson, E., & Lisak, A., 2021. Multicultural Virtual Team Performance: The Impact of Media Choice and Language Diversity. Small Group Research, 1046496420985614
Hacker, J. V., Johnson, M., Saunders, C., & Thayer, A. L. (2019). Trust in virtual teams: A multidisciplinary review and integration. Australasian Journal of Information Systems, 23.

Varhelahti, M. & Turnquist, T. , 2021. Diversity and Communication in Virtual Project Teams. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication. Vol. 64 , Issue 2 DOI: 10.1109/TPC.2021.3064404

Choose one of the following eBooks:
Hoefling, T. (2017). Working virtually: Leading your organization and team, and advancing your personal career, in a mobile world (Second edition.). Sterling, Virginia: Stylus Publishing, LLC. (eBook)

OR

Martinelli, R. J., Waddell, J. M. & Rahschulte, T. (2017). Projects without boundaries: Successfully leading teams and managing projects in a virtual world. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley. (eBook)

Teaching methods

Pedagogical approach & implementation
- student teams are given a real-life product/business development task by the partner company/institution,
- problem based, self-directed learning in teams, innovative working life oriented,
- coached by the teachers, company representatives as expert commentators,
- online meetings within student team, with expert teachers, coaches and company representatives,
- 2 check points: self reflections and project status review; comments and feedback from teaches, coaches, company reps.
- final review and presentations: learning reports, reflections. Project deliverables, project final report.

The aim of the learning/teaching activities is to give the students, teachers and company representatives an opportunity to meet, set and clarify the team work assignments. During the teaching/ learning activities students will be introduced to the project concept, they will be assigned into teams in which they will agree the roles between themselves and plan the development project. Students will also meet the company representatives who will introduce the task to them and gives them support.

Exam schedules

No exam

International connections

The course practices a multidisciplinary students’ team learning model where the representative graduate students from different cultural, linguistic and professional fields (study area) will be involved. Student teams will be given an assignment from an external company/institution and the teams will have to find and create final solution by working together online. The students’ project teams will consist of students from different fields, including project management and business development and marketing. The students will learn several fields such as intercultural awareness, language and social skills as well as project management in virtual teams. The team will use online communication and apply diverse innovative (e.g. agile) methods, which are currently used all over the world, in project management as well as in sharing and creating knowledge.

Student workload

The task given by the partner company or institution. Individual student and student team task outcomes include
- self reflections in the learning diary,
- project status reports at check points,
- peer reviews,
- final project deliverables and presentation.
The total work amount per student is 135 hours.

Content scheduling

This 100% online course is focusing on core skills the students should achieve in order to work efficiently in multidisciplinary, international project teams. Emphasis is to enhance students' effective communications skills in the working environment, including language skills; improve and gain intercultural competences that are very important for working in international teams; learn how to communicate online properly using formal language in synchronous as well as asynchronous learning and working environments; learn how to work in virtual project teams effectively. The course will also provide students with guidelines and methods on how they should work together from the project management point of view and give them guidelines and steps on business development.

This multimodal course will contain 4 modules:
· M1 Language and intercultural communication
· M2 Online communication and virtual teams
· M3 Business development & marketing
· M4 Project management

Students will be working in teams and individually, online with modern communications and teamwork tools. Teachers and company representatives will be coaching.

Time schedule:
- pre-tasks available 9.1.2023
- kickoff online meeting with company assignment presentation 23.1. at 13.00-16
- Check-Point 1 (CP1), 6.3. at 13.00-15
- CP2 17.4. at 13.00-15
- Final submissions 7.5.
- Final presentations with company representatives, 15.5. at 13.00-16


Changes are possible!

Further information

The course is for master-level students only.
Required knowledge and skills from students to enroll:
- English B2 level, ref. https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages/table-2-cefr-3.3-common-reference-levels-self-assessment-grid
- business development and project management knowledge

Evaluation scale

H-5

Assessment methods and criteria

- self-assessment of the language level in the beginning of the course https://rm.coe.int/CoERMPublicCommonSearchServices/DisplayDCTMContent?documentId=090000168045bb52
- self- assessment of the Communication competence (https://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/sites/default/files/dc-en.pdf)

- self-reflection in diaries (what went well? what can we improve? what did we learn? what can we put in action?) after each module
- peer evaluation
- evaluation by the coach

Formal assessment of the student team outcomes will be internal (coaches, experts, students) and external (companies)

Assessment criteria, fail (0)

The work is not completed, and/or the minimum content requirements are not met.

Assessment criteria, satisfactory (1-2)

Research, thinking and communication are acceptable. Appear to grasp theories and concepts and have made a start in showing its applicability.

Assessment criteria, good (3-4)

Research, thinking and communication are satisfactory or good. General understanding of theory and application in real-life context.

Assessment criteria, excellent (5)

Mastery of theory and penetrating insights in real-life context, outstanding research, thinking and communication.

Objective

After completing the course, the student is able to:
- understand how to build and lead effective virtual teams, share information and content efficiently utilizing modern online communication tools
- understand intercultural communication frameworks, behavioral norms and ethics within multilinguistic teams
- learn teamwork in self-directed teams representing multiple professional fields, solving real-life assignments with innovative solutions
- have an overall comprehension of the product development life cycle and process and their interaction with business development, project management, marketing, communications and stakeholder management
- understand general project management concepts, terminology, frameworks, including agile development, and standards and have a good overall view of project life-cycle and project phases in the product development context

Content

- Language and intercultural communication skills development
- Online communication and virtual teams
- Business and product development and problem-based learning
- Project management

Materials

Turner R.: Gower Handbook of Project Management, 5th Edition, 2014.
Additional literature, recent articles, reports and video lectures will be given in the course kick-off meeting.

Furmanek, Lukas & Daurer, Stephan, 2019. Application of Media Synchronicity Theory to Creative Tasks in Virtual Teams Using the Example of Design Thinking. 14. International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik (WI2019). Siegen: Germany .

Eisenberg, J., Glikson, E., & Lisak, A., 2021. Multicultural Virtual Team Performance: The Impact of Media Choice and Language Diversity. Small Group Research, 1046496420985614
Hacker, J. V., Johnson, M., Saunders, C., & Thayer, A. L. (2019). Trust in virtual teams: A multidisciplinary review and integration. Australasian Journal of Information Systems, 23.

Varhelahti, M. & Turnquist, T. , 2021. Diversity and Communication in Virtual Project Teams. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication. Vol. 64 , Issue 2 DOI: 10.1109/TPC.2021.3064404

Choose one of the following eBooks:
Hoefling, T. (2017). Working virtually: Leading your organization and team, and advancing your personal career, in a mobile world (Second edition.). Sterling, Virginia: Stylus Publishing, LLC. (eBook)

OR

Martinelli, R. J., Waddell, J. M. & Rahschulte, T. (2017). Projects without boundaries: Successfully leading teams and managing projects in a virtual world. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley. (eBook)

Teaching methods

Pedagogical approach & implementation
- student teams are given a real-life product/business development task by the partner company/institution,
- problem based, self-directed learning in teams, innovative working life oriented,
- coached by the teachers, company representatives as expert commentators,
- online meetings within student team, with expert teachers, coaches and company representatives,
- 2 check points: self reflections and project status review; comments and feedback from teaches, coaches, company reps.
- final review and presentations: learning reports, reflections. Project deliverables, project final report.

The aim of the learning/teaching activities is to give the students, teachers and company representatives an opportunity to meet, set and clarify the team work assignments. During the teaching/ learning activity students will be introduced to the project concept, they will be assigned into teams in which they will divide the roles between themselves and plan the product development project. Students will also meet the company representatives who will introduce the task to them and gives them support.

Exam schedules

No exam

International connections

The course practices a multidisciplinary students’ team learning model where the representative graduate students from different cultural, linguistic and professional fields (study area) will be involved. Student teams will be given an assignment from an external company/institution and the teams will have to find and create final solution by working together online. The students’ project teams will consist of students from different fields, including project management and business development and marketing. The students will learn several fields such as intercultural awareness, language and social skills as well as project management in virtual teams. The team will use online communication and apply diverse innovative (e.g. agile) methods, which are currently used all over the world, in project management as well as in sharing and creating knowledge.

Student workload

The task given by the partner company or institution. Individual student and student team task outcomes include
- self reflections in the learning diary,
- project status reports at check points,
- final project deliverables and presentation.
The total work amount per student is 135 hours.

Content scheduling

This 100% online course is focusing on core skills the students should achieve in order to work efficiently in multidisciplinary, international project teams. Emphasis is to enhance students' effective communications skills in the working environment, including language skills; improve and gain intercultural competences that are very important for working in international teams; learn how to communicate online properly using formal language in synchronous as well as asynchronous learning and working environments; learn how to work in virtual project teams effectively. The course will also provide students with guidelines and methods on how they should work together from the project management point of view and give them guidelines and steps on business development.

This multimodal course will contain 4 modules:
· M1 Language and intercultural communication
· M2 Online communication and virtual teams
· M3 Business development & marketing
· M4 Project management

Students will be working in teams and individually, online with modern communications and teamwork tools. Teachers and company representatives will be coaching.

Time schedule:
- pre-tasks announced 11.1.2022
- kickoff online meeting with company assignment presentation 26.1. at 9:00-16
- check-point 1 (CP1), 3.3., 2h meeting
- CP2 14.4., 2h meeting
- Final submission 18.5.
- Final presentations with company representatives, 27.5., at 9:00-16

Changes are possible!

Further information

The course is for master-level students only.
Required knowledge and skills from students to enroll:
- English B2 level, ref. https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages/table-2-cefr-3.3-common-reference-levels-self-assessment-grid
- project management and business development knowledge

Evaluation scale

H-5

Assessment methods and criteria

- self-assessment of the language level in the beginning of the course https://rm.coe.int/CoERMPublicCommonSearchServices/DisplayDCTMContent?documentId=090000168045bb52
- self- assessment of the Communication competence (https://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/sites/default/files/dc-en.pdf)

- self-reflection in diaries (what went well? what can we improve? what did we learn? what can we put in action?) after each module
- peer evaluation
- evaluation by the coach

Formal assessment of the output will be internal (coaches, experts, students) and external (companies)