Chapter Seventeen
Working with Peers
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Most online MBA programs emphasize teamwork and frequently put students
into revolving groups, usually of four to five people, to work together
on a variety of assignments, such as case-based projects, research
reports, and business plans. Cohort-based programs with residencies
often have these team projects culminate in their face-to-face sessions,
where students present their collaborative work that they have conducted
primarily online and via telephone calls and/or web conferences during a
semester or quarter. This is also where they get evaluated by their
peers and faculty. Programs without residencies conduct team projects
completely online. Either way, students are required to learn how to
work with their classmates, which, at times, can be a challenge for a
variety of reasons, especially in the online environment when team
members are located in different time zones and may often need to
connect in real time online.
In
Chapter 10, I introduced the notion of how team projects are good
examples of competency-based learning techniques that are based on
specific learning objectives and outcomes. In this chapter, I go into
the details of how some schools facilitate team projects and how you can
be an effective team player. I include real-life examples and advice
throughout.
“Students expect group projects at this level, and Blackboard has a
feature for group file exchanges, so groups have their own private place
in Blackboard where they can work on papers and pass around drafts
without having to e-mail them,” said Paula O’Callaghan, former director,
IMBA Program, Syracuse University. “They can also have their own chat
rooms and discussion boards, which is important when students are in
different time zones.”
Working in teams is what most businesspeople must deal with on a daily
basis, particularly those who work within large corporations. When it
comes to online learning, the goal for many business schools is to
parrot real-life business team endeavors as closely as possible with the
aim of teaching students how to become better team players.
One
of the themes that consistently comes up when talking about online MBA
team-based projects is that they can be both invigorating and
disgruntling to students. Overall, however, there is a growing trend in
the world of online MBA programs whereby business schools are becoming
more adept at facilitating active and highly organized team projects
that students can find to be quite beneficial to their overall business
education.
Team Innovation Example
(Penn State)
I
have talked extensively about team projects with more than a dozen
online MBA program administrators, almost all of whom double as
professors who facilitate team projects in their online courses. Some of
the most innovative team-based projects I came across were from the Penn
State World Campus lock-step cohort online MBA curriculum.
Penn State’s online MBA program consists of eight terms. At the end of
the third term, which is about nine months into the program, students
meet face to face for their first week-long residency. A second
week-long residency is held at the end of the final term. The entire
program takes 24 months to complete. Both residencies are team-based.
As
noted on the Penn State online MBA website, “In the first residency
experience, students work with a prominent U.S. firm and its executives,
integrating financial, organizational, cultural, and strategic themes as
they dissect the operations of the firm and provide a perspective on
future operations. In the second residency experience, the capstone
requirement of the program, students integrate knowledge and skills
attained from all previous courses to develop and implement strategic
plans in an international business environment. Guest speakers from
business and industry take part in each residency experience.”
A Team-Based Integrative
Experience
Penn State Program Director John Fizel explained how corporate America,
in general, looks toward MBA programs to develop managers “who can work
in all functional areas of business.” The iMBA program integrates that
philosophy across its curriculum, including its two residency
requirements. At one of its first week-long residencies, for example, a
group of approximately 60 students were given the opportunity to
interact with high-level executives at QVC, headquartered in
Philadelphia. Prior to the residency, student teams prepared by
conducting an analysis of the company using publicly available
information. At the residency, students toured the company’s operations
and questioned executives from different functional areas of QVC about
their roles in the business and within QVC’s overall mission and vision.
The students then combined this public information with the information
they gleaned at the live meetings and came up with an integrative
company analysis that examined the financial, organizational, cultural,
and strategic aspects of the company.
During the week, the teams made several presentations before iMBA
faculty and each other and participated in a poster session related to
the QVC project. The culminating assignment for each team was to use
their company analysis as the foundation for offering a document that
outlined strategic alternatives for the future operations of QVC. These
documents were 75 to 100 pages and shared with the company.
This kind of team project “integrates everything they have learned and
immediately puts theory into practice with a company outside of their
own,” said Fizel. “Students develop the skills to work in all functional
areas of business by completing this broad and in-depth analysis.”
For
the second and final week-long residency in Penn State’s iMBA program,
students come to the Penn State campus and participate as teams in an
international business electronic simulation exercise. Each team takes
on the role of a mock business competing in the international
marketplace. The electronic simulations allow the teams to integrate
production, marketing, finance, and people skills.
Working an average of 60 hours over the entire week, the teams tackle a
series of questions and challenges concerning such issues as overseas
and domestic operational plans, marketing strategies, distribution
channels, organizational strategies, internal costs, profitability, and
more. “Students again see the integration of business functions but now
extended to a global marketplace,” said Fizel.
Other variations of team projects include small groups of students
coming together completely online without ever meeting face to face.
Some completely online team projects might have students take sides in a
business debate inside a special group-based discussion board, for
instance, arguing back and forth about a company’s strategic
adaptability, or lack thereof, over the long term of a business cycle.
Other team projects will assess various segments of a business
enterprise, through the examination of case studies.
For example, one team might do an evaluation of a human resources or
marketing case, and another team might collectively critique that
evaluation. Again, all these types of team-based projects usually culminate
in teams working together to write a paper or create a PowerPoint
presentation. Overall, the added value of such team assignments
typically comes from the rich discussions and give-and-take learning and
sharing that takes place between students. “You get a lot more input
from a lot more people when they do team projects,” noted Penn State’s
Fizel.
Still, not all team projects operate as smoothly as both students and
faculty would like, so business schools usually develop rules for teams
that ensure that everyone carries his or her own weight instead of
having the bulk of the burden of team projects fall on the more
enterprising students in any particular group. This is accomplished
through such things as team charters and team work plans.
At the University of Phoenix, for instance, students must fill out a
“Learning Team Charter.” The charter lists team members’ names and
contact information (phone, fax, and e-mail), each team member’s skill
inventory, learning team goals, ground rules, and a conflict-management
section that asks what potential conflicts might arise among or between
team members and how members will deal with such conflicts.
Similar to a University of Phoenix Learning Team Charter, the University
of Maryland University College (UMUC), requires students to develop an
official work plan for their team projects. The plan sets forth very
clearly who is suppose to do what and outlines responsibilities and
deadlines for turning in assignments. The work plan is submitted to the
course professor for approval, and all contributions to the team project
must be posted inside a special group section created in the course
management system. If a problem arises, the professor has the work plan
for evidence as well as the ability to see who met their
responsibilities inside the online group section.
In
general, team project agreements are known to be very successful with
regard to cutting down on team problems, as such agreements enforce
accountability.
Another form of enforcing accountability is often accomplished through
team project peer evaluations. At Arizona State University, for
instance, at the end of a team project students anonymously rate their
fellow teammates by completing a special online peer evaluation form in
an area of the course management system that is only viewable by the
professor of the course. Professors will use the evaluations,
particularly in relatively large team projects that occur over the time
period of an entire course, as a guide for tabulating a percentage that
is worked into students’ overall grades.
Comments and Advice from
Students
I
communicated with about 20 online MBA students and alumni and asked them
a number of questions related to team projects. What follows are some of
the questions I asked and their comments. These are provided to give you
a general feel for how online MBA students reacted to and adapted to
team projects. I think you’ll find an interesting mix of observations
and advice that could prove to be helpful when you are put into a
similar team situation as an online MBA student.
The
obvious primary and general question was what were your team projects
like? Overall, the responses were both emotional, in relation to working
with teammates who did not pull their weight, to fairly straight
forward, in relation to how teamwork was organized and accomplished.
From Linda Couch, online MBA graduate, University of Maryland University
College (UMUC), on learning about international business:
“We
had team papers, for the most part. During the finance module we also
had problems to solve. But most of the work involved writing papers that
had varying degrees of difficulty and complexity. The most complex one
was in our international business module. We were given a list of pairs
of countries. Then we had to identify a real company that was not doing
business in one of the pairs of countries. We first split into sub
teams, and each sub team studied one of the countries with respect to
political climate, economy, infrastructure, trade, labor market, legal
system, etc. We wrote interim papers for different sets of criteria for
each country. Then each sub team evaluated that country with respect to
bringing out our chosen company’s product to market into that country
and wrote a paper analyzing the opportunity. Then the sub teams compared
notes and decided as a team which one of the countries was better suited
for the product. We wrote our final paper to recommend one country and
supported our recommendation.”
From Christopher Hodges, online MBA student, Syracuse University, on
working on a team from across an ocean:
“I’ve sometimes had to reassure students from the U.S. that it will be
possible to function effectively with my being based in Spain provided
that they remember to build in the six-hour time difference, which, in
fact, works to their advantage because it effectively gives the team a
30-hour day. They can post something last thing at night U.S. time that
I can work on in the European morning and have ready by the time they
get up. “Organizing the work between team members seems to depend on the
number and complexity of assignments. For a larger number of shorter
assignments, a team member will usually take responsibility for
preparing a draft of an entire assignment on which the other team
members will give feedback before final submission. For more complex
assignments, them members prepare different sections and then an
‘editor’ will put them together to create one document. The assignments
range from Word documents to PowerPoint presentations, including one
that required a voiceover commentary. The content varies enormously
between modules and professors. Some use more case studies than others.”
From Katherine Porter, online MBA graduate, Regis University, on a
differing point of view:
“Thankfully, I had precious few team projects, maybe four total. My
experience has been that team projects in school generally turn into one
or two people doing all the work and everyone else benefiting from it.
In checking with friends who had completed their MBAs - all in
traditional programs - those who were in team-based programs, and those
who just had to work on projects in teams on occasion, all agreed that
the team concept was a distraction, that it helped
unqualified/undeserving students graduate, and unfairly burdened the
real go-getters. So, I made a concerted effort to find a program where
team projects were not a focus. Though the schools with team-based
projects will argue that teamwork is a part of life and professional
work, I think during school it is important to focus on mastering the
concepts and subjects yourself. You can later contribute to a team
according to your strengths and weaknesses as discovered during school.”
From Jenifer Skipton, online MBA student, University of Colorado at
Colorado Springs, on improving communication skills:
“As
far as what the projects were like, they were somewhat challenging given
that everyone has different ideas. Only twice have I come up against
someone who didn’t bother to contribute and seemed to just ‘hide’ in the
background, but we were able to overcome that and managed to entice that
person to participate. Usually when doing projects, we meet once -
online or through e-mails - and plan what needs to be done and break up
into tasks for everyone, with timelines provided. Second, we all submit
our work to each other and then meet again to discuss our findings.
Finally, one last meeting is held to kind of summarize and write up our
paper.
“Everyone takes turns on who completes what portion of the assignments
to ensure all are involved. Basically, to do online courses you have to
plan ahead. One of the first things we all seem to do at the beginning
of the semester, when teams are first assigned, is to let everyone know
our contact methods, work schedules, and finally, any vacation plans
that will make it difficult for us to contribute. We all do this so that
we all get a good understanding of what challenges, personally, everyone
is up against, and this way we can work around things.”
Any Advice for More
Effective Teams?
Some of the other questions asked of these students centered around
providing advice in relation to collaborating effectively and actually
getting the work done. There was an immediacy factor emphasized, with
recommendations to move away from the online environment to live chat or
phone conversations for more personal, easier-to-comprehend interactions
and to quickly resolve any disagreements or workload questions and
strategies. There was also a strong emphasis on respecting cohorts under
what could be trying and challenging circumstances.
Following
are some observations and advice related to working sensibly as a team
member.
From Linda Couch:
• Our teachers forced
us to start by creating a team web page. This perhaps sounds like a
waste of time, but it accomplished several things. First, it forced you
to figure out how to work together before you had something very
difficult to do. Second, the web page included contact info, so you had
everything you needed if/when you needed to reach someone. Third, we
were asked to include codes of conduct e.g., when people will check
e-mail, how people will offer criticism, or how we would resolve
conflicts. It created a sense of being a team right away.
•
Especially at first, use
the most “intimate” form of communication possible in order to build a
relationship and establish working methods. The order of communication
preference should be face-to-face meeting, phone conversation, chat
room, e-mail.
•
Ask people to identify
their strengths and weaknesses, or likes and dislikes. This helps make
it easier to distribute workload and figure out how to function best as
a team.
•
Force different teammates
to take leadership roles. In an online environment, it is much easier to
“disappear” and hope someone else will do the work.
• Enable real-time
communication vehicles such as chat room and teleconference
capabilities.
From Christopher Hodges:
•
Establish the ground rules
for teams at the start of the term, covering communication, timing,
working arrangements, and a detailed agreement regarding how the first
assignment is going to be handled.
•
Remember that things take
longer when undertaken virtually, so plan accordingly.
• Take the initiative
to keep in touch, come up with ideas, and generally keep the momentum
going.
• Keep team members
informed of what you’re doing, especially if you can’t meet a deadline.
• Mix calls with
e-mails.
• Always give
feedback on other team members’ work, even if it’s to say “job well
done” and you don’t have anything to add.
• Address problems
quickly. Call team members if they are not maintaining communication to
find our what’s going on. Consider dropping a member, even if that
person’s name appears on the assignment, which makes organizing work
much easier for the remaining members.
• When the problems
start early, consider warning the team member that he or she will be
dropped from the team and the professor informed accordingly.
From Katherine Porter:
•
Always take the high road. You
might feel confident that you’re in the right, but it’s a big world and
you don’t own it, so don’t take any bait, and never lower yourself to
another’s level. In fact, give some thought to why someone might be
baiting you or slinging mud. (Did you inadvertently cause offense?)
• Keep an open mind,
especially with online communications it is easy to misunderstand
someone. Ask forgiveness when you’ve been a jerk. Better yet, don’t be a
jerk to begin with.
• Start every interaction respecting others, respecting them as humans, classmates, and professionals. Resolve to learn something from everyone. If you approach interactions with that intent, you’re more likely to succeed in every way.
Yes, indeed, team projects can be multifaceted, dynamic, and valuable learning experiences, but also somewhat controversial and troubling at times. Being open-minded, conscientious, unselfish, and a good worker bee, so to speak, should serve you well. Team projects have been known to create excellent networking opportunities for students, so don’t take them lightly. Under the right circumstances, you could be interacting with and learning from high-level, knowledgeable business people, which is an aspect of being an online MBA student that is truly valuable, beyond what you might learn from your professors and the overall curriculum itself.
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