3 Tips for Helping Online Students Form Strong and Successful Teams

When I started working in distance education, most people were adamant that students that took online courses would not feel connected to each other. My experiences proved that it was a challenge, but by no means impossible. Student-to-student interactions have been shown to increase deeper learning for students, and create better connections between content and application. (Swan, 2004) The key to successful student teams is to get people to connect to each other through common goals and interests, and develop strong lines of communication.


I used these 3 tips to guide students to successful teams:

1. FORMING TEAMS: In my classes, I didn’t let students choose their own teams. I told them that networking and learning how to work with different people were part of the learning objectives of the course, and group work would develop those skills. I had them blindly choose teams based on their interests in specific topics in the class.  Once those teams were determined, I gave teams time to go through the common team building stages from Tuckman of ‘forming, storming, norming, performing’. I started the first week of class with opportunities for the groups to take time to introduce themselves, and talk about teams that they had been on. What worked? What their preferences were for working in a team? I asked them to be honest with each other about their goals for the class, and what they were willing to do. Introductions are actually a required standard in the Quality Matters rubrics for creating strong online courses, and too often not taken seriously, so it was part of a participation grade. (Standard 1.9)
   
2. SETTING NORMS: The second week of class, I asked groups to form “Team Norms”, which were basically a list of ‘rules’ and communication guidelines that all members of the team agreed to. The document was specific, and included how often teams had group meetings, showed schedules, designated “roles” each member would play, etc. I encouraged teams to find modes of communication that were effective for them, whether it involved Twitter, email, SKYPE, Facebook, or regular online meetings, and include it in the norms. Because virtual teams organize and make decisions very differently than onsite teams, it is vital that team members have clearly defined roles and expectations. (Forbes Magazine, 2010)  This document was counted as an assignment, which I reviewed and gave feedback on. 
   
3. "LAST STRAW": Throughout the course, I preached about the value of diverse opinions, and the need for teams to take advantage of everyone's strengths. However, my “last straw” rule was that teams could fire a student for not following the "norms". A team needed to document communication, but after multiple attempts to get the team member involved, they could fire the member after the midterm with my approval. That individual would then have to do the assignment by themselves. This very rarely happened, and most teams were able to work through the issues with very little guidance from me because of their established norms in the beginning of the class. 

What challenges have you faced with online teams, and what suggestions do you have to help them be successful? Click on the "Comments" text below to share ideas.