Communication methods to support ‘virtual teams’ as communities of practice in teaching and research

This paper looks at communication methods in an academic environment. It discusses how a virtual team may operate within a ‘normal’ academic team working on academic and research activities. Virtual teams in such an environment, the paper argues, develop siginificant aspects of Communities of Practice (CoPs) as the communication methods utilised such as email, enable the sharing of experience and knowledge. However, virtual educational teams may develop dysfunctions in their working practices and our case study demonstrated a number of these. In particular, the academic team had difficulty in meeting deadlines; experienced ‘free-riders’ (members who contributed little to the team activities); and a lack of social exchange within the preferred communication method of email, meant that creative work was done through physical meetings rather than virtual. ICT we conclude has a role to play in supporting virtual team work and the work of CoPs, and assists on goal accomplishment but care is needed to understand its limitations and to ensure that those do not outweigh its value in the task situation.