This book explores the ins and outs of using information and communication technologies to create and facilitate collaborative learning. Its chapters include practical advice, theoretical implications and examples of actual virtual team experiences. While the benefits of collaborative or team learning are well known, we are just beginning to understand how technology can support or hinder the pedagogical and affective advantages it can produce. This book examines the conditions and characteristics of effective technology-supported learning experiences as well as the possibilities that can be created by virtual technologies.
– Hilary Wilder William Paterson University USA
Teaching and Learning with Virtual Teams is an excellent compilation of theoretical and practical information designed to assist anyone teaching online in higher education. This book provides a wide range of experiences, examples, and suggestions of how to effectively design an online or hybrid course that makes e-pedagogy front and center. It is very informative and practical. Highly recommended."
– Dr. Lori S. Mestre, University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign, USA, in Education Libraries Volume 29, Number 1 (Summer 2006)
It was striking to read several accounts of how teaching staff had successfully implemented virtual teams in the face of considerable cost and organisational resistance. These intrepid authors are to be congratulated on their insightful discussions of trust, virtual team configurations, the place of face-to-face meetings, and the critical matter of how best to prepare virtual teams. Research into the concept of member salience," based on different combinations of physical or virtual co-presence, is on of the highlights of the book."
– British Journal of Educational Technology, Vol. 40, No. 4