A4 Refereed article in a conference publication

Identifying Challenges in virtual Teams: a Case Study of Teamwork in a Game-Based Learning Environment




AuthorsSyynimaa Kirsi, Lainema Kirsi, Lainema Timo

EditorsSampson D.G., Sampson D.G., Ifenthaler D., Ifenthaler D., Isaias P., Rodrigues L.

Conference nameInternational Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age

PublisherIADIS Press

Publication year2022

Book title 19th International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age: CELDA 2022, Proceedings

Journal name in sourceProceedings of the 19th International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age, CELDA 2022

Series titleConference Proceedings

First page 97

Last page104

ISBN978-989-8704-43-6

Web address https://www.iadisportal.org/digital-library/identifying-challenges-in-virtual-teams-a-case-study-of-teamwork-in-a-game-based-learning-environment


Abstract

Game-based learning (GBL) environments are shown to support open-ended inquiry, collaborative learning, shared knowledge creation and decision-making processes. The study at hand focuses on examining students' descriptions of problematic situations and collaborative learning in a virtual simulation game. We were interested in what kinds of challenges the students encounter in virtual teamwork in GBL. Data of the study stems from gaming sessions in which teams of 5-7 students worked in a virtual learning environment and steered their simulation companies' supply chain in real-time. Students' reflection assignments were analyzed with qualitative content analysis. Our results show that during the sessions students encountered communication challenges, collaboration challenges, organizing challenges and skills and competence issues. As all these are typical for modern dispersed collaborative work, we can state that the game-based course of this study provided the students with opportunities to rehearse and solve these challenges in a virtual working context. Our results emphasize the importance of providing students an opportunity to exercise collaboration and problem-solving skills in authentic, safe and inspiring settings, and that simulation games represent a feasible context for this.



Last updated on 2024-26-11 at 20:52