Training Students in Distributed Collaboration: Experiences from Two Pilot Projects
Bjorn Erik Munkvold, Lars Line
Distributed collaboratiou supported by differeut forms of information and conununication technologies is becoming increasingly widespread. Still, few institutions today offer courses that focus explicitly on providing students with practical training in distributed collaboration. This article presents the results and experiences from two pilot projects conducted at Agder University College in Norway, where groups of students from two different campuses engaged in distributed collaboration supported by different collaboration technologies. The students perceived this form of distributed work to be interesting and stimulating, but also challenging and time consuming. Task definitions and balancing ofmotivational factors were found to have a great impact on the groups' efforts, sharing of workload and final outcome. Further, ''technical noise" and lack of experience with the technologies represented barriers to effective collaboration, implying a need for training the students in integrated use of different conununication services. The experiences from the two pilot projects establish a basis for developing and conducting future, similar projects.
Bjorn Erik Munkvold is an associate professor in the Department of Information Systems, Agder University College, Norway. He is currently head of a master programme in information systems. Dr. Munkvold has worked as a systems consultant and researcher in different industries including banking, pulp and paper, and telecommunications. His main research and teaching areas are computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW), organizational implementation of IT, and IS research methodology.
Lars Line is an associate professor in the Department of Information and Communication Technology, Agder University College, Norway. He is currently head of a master programme in ICT. Dr. Line has worked as project manager, senior engineer, and system developer in the offshore industry, civil engineering, and geographical information systems. His main research and teaching areas are computersupported cooperative work (CSCW) and web technologies.
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