The dynamic nature of group process is a long-standing challenge for research and practice, and particularly so in virtual teams, which are increasingly a regular part of organizational life today. Virtual teams act in fluid environments, as they strive to make sense of how best to incorporate appropriate technology choices during on-going interaction. Interventions in group process have potential to help teams make those choices. However, one set of critical factors that has received very little attention is the timing of interventions and their presentation style and content. These factors are particularly important in virtual teams, whose members rely on information and communication technologies and where technology interplay with group processes needs particular attention. Based on empirical findings, the authors present a new perspective on the longstanding topic of team process and the use of interventions, specifically in a virtual environment. The authors use the analyses of seven teams of students from three universities working together in a virtual workspace to complete a global offshore development project as case studies for building a process theory of adaptive intervention for virtual teams. The theory integrates team process with technology, to show how interventions can be used to proactively trigger and reactively respond to transitions. Ultimately, the theory shows how adaptive interventions can be used in a dynamic way to enhance virtual team process and thereby address key challenges that virtual teams face in their on-going work.

Metaverses are immersive three-dimensional virtual worlds (VWs) where people interact with each other and their environment, using the metaphor of the real world but without its physical limitations. Unique technology capabilities of metaverses have the potential to enhance the conduct of virtual projects, but little is known about virtual worlds in this context. Virtual project teams struggle in meeting stated project outcomes due to challenges related to communication, shared understanding, and coordination. One way to address these challenges is to consider the use of emerging technologies, such as metaverses, to minimize the impact on virtual project teams. Applying a theoretical foundation for virtual teams in metaverses that includes both technology capabilities and the social interaction that takes place in the metaverse environment, we conducted an empirical investigation of project teams in a virtual world setting. The study examined the interplay of communication, representation, interaction, and team process tools with behaviors that led to role clarity, shared understanding, and coordination. While each individual technology capability contributed to project execution and outcomes, much of the power of the environment emerged through the interplay of social behaviors and technology capabilities. The results have intriguing implications for how metaverse technology capabilities might provide new ways to address gaps in the current research and practice of virtual project management and virtual teams.

Virtual world learning environments have great potential to enhance education, yet the specific factors that attract students are relatively under-researched. Drawing on insights from a qualitative analysis of student reactions to the Second Life environment, we identified five main factors that influence student attitudes toward using a technology in education: ease of use, usefulness, likability, technology accessibility, and system quality. The results supplement traditional notions of enhanced capabilities as the key to use of technology, by discovering additional factors that influence adoption and sustained use of new technology in a learning environment.

Organizations have the potential to achieve advantage through communities of practice (COPs) initiatives. However, establishing and sustaining COPs is a challenging task. Facilitation is needed to help COPs overcome difficulties throughout their life stages. Facilitators take on leadership roles within these virtual communities, yet little is known about the challenges related to their roles. This paper contributes in helping to improve leadership in COP by highlighting challenges in facilitating COP and by providing potential solutions addressing those challenges. A recent survey of facilitators reveals challenges faced by facilitators in performing their tasks within COPs. The issue of participation was identified as the main concern in COP facilitation. Several design and technology initiatives are discussed for their potential to help facilitators in coping with the participation issue and providing essential leadership roles within communities of practice.

Virtual collaboration has become an essential part of how work gets done in organizations today and knowing how to collaborate virtually is an important skill for success. Courses with team projects may include a virtual component, but rarely is there any explicit education on how best to engage in virtual collaboration. The topic is a complex one that takes into account a wide variety of issues, including behavioral, social, and technological dimensions. Our research addresses this need by developing modules for teaching and learning of virtual collaboration. The modules are based on underlying theory in this field and have practical application in education and training. We describe an initial application of the modular approach to teaching and learning of virtual collaboration that took place during the Fall Semester 2008.

Communication is fundamental to team work and it occurs increasingly often in a technology-mediated environment. Understanding how communication evolves in such environments is essential to ensuring that the right technology is provided for whatever task a group needs to accomplish, even if it is not precisely known how the technology is going to be used. With the growing body of research on different tools for supporting computer-mediated groups, we still have much to learn about how communication evolves, where potential breakdowns occur, and how groups tailor technology during the communication process. This paper addresses these important issues by providing an in-depth analysis of two-person dyads that communicated over a web-based set of collaboration tools during a 6-week project. We analyze communication through the lens of communicative action theory, showing how social action unfolds during communication and how groups challenge and resolve validity claims in different task-technology environments. This study contributes by exploring group processes, developing and applying group communication analysis tools, and enhancing theorizing on technology tailoring.

Virtual worlds provide technology capabilities that could transform education, communication and collaboration, and project management.

onsider a world in which you can con -duct training sessions and bring to -gether experts from around the globe in a single, common environment; hold effective meetings in a shared space where dis -tant resources and people can come together to communicate, laugh, and create artifacts quickly and easily; and coordinate a project with ease and overcome cultural barriers to team effectiveness. Virtual-world technology can help realize these goals.A

Research in online education has demonstrated that social presence and student interaction are important factors in learning. This study extends current research to the new learning environment of virtual worlds and explores their role in student interaction and learning satisfaction. We examined learning satisfaction in an online course using virtual world technology to assess sense of presence, social presence and student interaction. Data on multiple independent variables (measures of presence, social presence, and interaction) and dependent variables (learning satisfaction) were collected and analyzed. Our findings indicate that students did not perceive a high level of presence in the virtual world environment. No significant relationship was found between perception of presence and students’ interaction while students’ perceived social presence was significantly related to their perceived interaction and learning satisfaction.

Metaverses are immersive three-dimensional virtual worlds in which people interact as avatars with each other and with software agents, using the metaphor of the real world but without its physical limitations. The ubiquitous availability of high speed Internet access has spurred enormous interest in virtual worlds like Second Life and World of Warcraft, both in terms of user gaming and as a new technological platform for global virtual collaboration. These environments have potential for richer, more engaging collaboration, but their capabilities have yet to be examined in depth. Of particular interest in this paper is the use of metaverses for virtual team collaboration. We develop a conceptual model for research in metaverses that is based on five key constructs: (1) the metaverse itself, (2) people/avatars, (3) metaverse technology capabilities, (4) behaviors, and (5) outcomes. We present an in-depth characterization of metaverse technology capabilities from a socio-technical view that recognizes the potential for variation in emergent interaction and in outcomes. Example propositions and a discussion of key issues and challenges show how the model can be used to further research and practice in virtual teams in the context of these new environments.