Exploring the Team Dynamics of Undergraduate Engineering Virtual Teams During the Rapid Transition Online Due to COVID-19

Alexis Rae Walsh; Sarah E. Norris; Nathaniel Blalock; Daniel Patrick Mountain; Courtney June Faber

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Conference: 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual Conference
Publication Date: July 26, 2021
Start Date: July 26, 2021
End Date: July 19, 2022
Conference Session: Student Division Technical Session 6
Tagged Division: Student
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 13
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--37163
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/37163
Download Count: 427

Paper Authors

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Alexis Rae Walsh University of Tennessee at Knoxville

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In May 2021, Alexis completed her fourth year at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, earning a B.S. in Honors Industrial Engineering with a minor in Reliability & Maintainability Engineering. Beginning in July, Alexis will be starting her career as a Technical Solutions Engineer for Epic Systems.

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Sarah E. Norris University of Tennessee, Knoxville

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I am majoring in Aerospace Engineering with course work in computer science and a minor in entrepreneurship at the Unversity of Tennessee. As a researcher, I am apart of ENLITE Research Group through the university and have an interest in engineering identity development in undergraduate students.

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Nathaniel Blalock Enlite Research Group Led by Dr. Faber: University of Tennessee - Knoxville

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Nathaniel Blalock is pursuing a Chemical Engineering degree with biomolecular and pre-medicine concentrations from the University of Tennessee. He performs engineering education research with Dr. Courtney Faber, metabolic engineering with Dr. Cong Trinh, biotechnology research with Dr. Eric Boder, and neuroscience research with Dr. Larry Millet.

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Daniel Patrick Mountain University of Tennessee - Knoxville

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Courtney June Faber University of Tennessee at Knoxville

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Courtney is a Research Assistant Professor and Lecturer in the Cook Grand Challenge Engineering Honors Program at the University of Tennessee. She completed her Ph.D. in Engineering & Science Education at Clemson University. Prior to her Ph.D. work, she received her B.S. in Bioengineering at Clemson University and her M.S. in Biomedical Engineering at Cornell University. Courtney’s research interests include epistemic cognition in the context of problem solving, and researcher identity.

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Abstract

Spring 2020 was an unprecedented time for universities and colleges around the world as courses had to rapidly transition online. Many students and instructors faced navigating online courses for the first time, having to quickly learn to teach and learn within an online context across a wide-variety of teaching modalities including courses with team projects. Multi-week team projects where students work in groups of three to five students to complete a specific task are common in all fields, but are especially prevalent in undergraduate engineering. Additionally, it is important that undergraduate engineering programs prepare students to work with others in an online setting since the prevalence of virtual teams within the workforce continues to grow. Despite the research that has been done, there are limited studies that specifically look at the experiences of undergraduate engineering students working on virtual teams and the transition that students experience when moving from in-person to online teams over a short period of time.

The rapid transition to online instruction provides a unique opportunity to explore the challenges and successes that students had moving from working in-person to on virtual teams. To address these overall goals, we will specifically answer the following research questions: -How did moving online impact the team dynamic (e.g. changes to communication, challenges for the team, benefits of being online)? -How did the structure of the teams (e.g. number of students, specific roles identified for team members, connections between team members) impact the team experience? -How did the type of meeting environment/structure the teams used impact their dynamics?

To address these research questions, we used open-ended surveys and semi-structured follow-up interviews to capture and explore students’ experiences. We recruited students across all undergraduate grade-levels and engineering majors who had a team project that moved to a virtual environment because of COVID-19. The open-ended survey was used to collect responses from 51 students regarding how their team completed their project after moving online and what challenges they faced. From those who participated in the survey, 8 students were recruited to participate in 30-40 minute interviews in order to gain a deeper understanding of how students navigated their team projects online. Within each interview, questions about team structure, communication methods and frequency, and overall team motivation were asked. Data will be analyzed using conventional qualitative content analysis, which provides a framework for researchers to construct categories and themes from the data, similar to aspects of grounded theory. We will also take a constant comparative approach in our analysis to analyze data across participants and understand factors that may have influenced students’ virtual team experiences. Based upon preliminary research, we expect that team relationship formation, communication, and motivation will be factors impacting team dynamics.

This study provides a glimpse into how undergraduate engineering students handled the rapid adjustment of team projects, communication with team members, and approaches to project management. Additionally, this work will identify how specific aspects of team projects may have supported students and/or added additional unintended hurdles. The outcomes of this work will give instructors insight into the methods (e.g. team communication, project management, project expectations, specific instruction) that were most successful and some of the common challenges students faced working on online team projects.

Citation
Format

Walsh, A. R., & Norris, S. E., & Blalock, N., & Mountain, D. P., & Faber, C. J. (2021, July), Exploring the Team Dynamics of Undergraduate Engineering Virtual Teams During the Rapid Transition Online Due to COVID-19 Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37163

TY - CPAPER
AB - Spring 2020 was an unprecedented time for universities and colleges around the world as courses had to rapidly transition online. Many students and instructors faced navigating online courses for the first time, having to quickly learn to teach and learn within an online context across a wide-variety of teaching modalities including courses with team projects. Multi-week team projects where students work in groups of three to five students to complete a specific task are common in all fields, but are especially prevalent in undergraduate engineering. Additionally, it is important that undergraduate engineering programs prepare students to work with others in an online setting since the prevalence of virtual teams within the workforce continues to grow. Despite the research that has been done, there are limited studies that specifically look at the experiences of undergraduate engineering students working on virtual teams and the transition that students experience when moving from in-person to online teams over a short period of time.

The rapid transition to online instruction provides a unique opportunity to explore the challenges and successes that students had moving from working in-person to on virtual teams. To address these overall goals, we will specifically answer the following research questions:
-How did moving online impact the team dynamic (e.g. changes to communication, challenges for the team, benefits of being online)?
-How did the structure of the teams (e.g. number of students, specific roles identified for team members, connections between team members) impact the team experience?
-How did the type of meeting environment/structure the teams used impact their dynamics?

To address these research questions, we used open-ended surveys and semi-structured follow-up interviews to capture and explore students’ experiences. We recruited students across all undergraduate grade-levels and engineering majors who had a team project that moved to a virtual environment because of COVID-19. The open-ended survey was used to collect responses from 51 students regarding how their team completed their project after moving online and what challenges they faced. From those who participated in the survey, 8 students were recruited to participate in 30-40 minute interviews in order to gain a deeper understanding of how students navigated their team projects online. Within each interview, questions about team structure, communication methods and frequency, and overall team motivation were asked. Data will be analyzed using conventional qualitative content analysis, which provides a framework for researchers to construct categories and themes from the data, similar to aspects of grounded theory. We will also take a constant comparative approach in our analysis to analyze data across participants and understand factors that may have influenced students’ virtual team experiences. Based upon preliminary research, we expect that team relationship formation, communication, and motivation will be factors impacting team dynamics.

This study provides a glimpse into how undergraduate engineering students handled the rapid adjustment of team projects, communication with team members, and approaches to project management. Additionally, this work will identify how specific aspects of team projects may have supported students and/or added additional unintended hurdles. The outcomes of this work will give instructors insight into the methods (e.g. team communication, project management, project expectations, specific instruction) that were most successful and some of the common challenges students faced working on online team projects.
AU - Alexis Rae Walsh
AU - Sarah E. Norris
AU - Nathaniel Blalock
AU - Daniel Patrick Mountain
AU - Courtney June Faber
CY - Virtual Conference
DA - 2021/07/26
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Exploring the Team Dynamics of Undergraduate Engineering Virtual Teams During the Rapid Transition Online Due to COVID-19
UR - https://peer.asee.org/37163
DO - 10.18260/1-2--37163
ER -