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Building Infrastructure to Develop Electronic Collaboration Skill Among Students Susan Miertschin, Cheryl Willis

University of Houston College of Technology Information Systems Technology

Abstract

Skill sets related to teamwork and collaboration are in demand in all sectors of employment. Accreditation agencies for college programs have responded to the demand by incorporating requirements related to teamwork into statements of program outcomes. This is true, for example, for both the 2004-2005 Criteria for Accrediting Engineering Technology Programs established by TAC of ABET and the draft accreditation criteria for Information Technology Programs being developed through the Computing Accreditation Commission (CAC) of ABET. While higher education faculty have recognized the need for individuals with skills related to teaming by incorporating content about teaming into courses and by requiring students to complete team projects, it is a challenge to create for students an electronic collaboration environment resembling what they may encounter in a modern workplace.

Modern workplaces incorporate technologies that enable high speed sharing of information and provide workers with mobile information devices and wireless access to communication networks. Because of these enabling technologies, virtual workplaces are more and more common. A virtual workplace is comprised of workers separated by either or both geography and time that collaborate electronically toward a common goal or purpose. It is often temporary, in existence only until the goal is achieved.1 In addition to teamwork competencies, virtual workplaces require graduates well-versed in the technology used to store, process, and deliver information electronically. The investigators embarked on a curriculum development project that attempts to develop the students’ skill in electronic collaboration. In the process, they learned that just providing electronic tools and content about working in teams did not automatically produce electronic collaborators. They learned that electronic collaboration is both similar to and different from face-to-face collaboration. This paper shares their experiences.

Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education

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Willis, C., & Miertschin, S. (2005, June), Building Infrastructure To Develop Electronic Collaboration Skill Among Students Paper presented at 2005 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--14881