Online Versus In-person Teamwork: A Program-Wide Study

ABSTRACT

CONTEXT Teamwork is one of the important graduate competencies expected of Engineering graduates by Engineers Australia. Engineering courses tend to teach teamwork in less structured ways, although in-person teamwork is systematically studied and implemented across a few programs. The transition to online learning during COVID-19 has explored options for online teamwork. PURPOSE OR GOAL This study aims to investigate the development of teamwork skills in electrical engineering courses. The idea is to explore and compare the experiences of online versus in-person teamwork in courses at different levels. The questions that will be addressed in this study are (i) How do in-person and online team dynamics differ regarding challenges and strategies? (ii) How does students' experience of teamwork and leadership skills differ in different levels and types of courses? APPROACH Three courses that have teamwork activities are selected for this study. These courses are a large first year undergraduate (UG) course with about 500 students, a final year UG design course with about 100 students and a postgraduate course with about 200 students. The characteristics of these courses are widely different in terms of diversity, group collaboration, the teamwork task, and its assessment. The study then discusses the various models of the teamwork in these courses, both during the in-person and the online offerings. OUTCOMES The outcome of this study includes a reflection and comparison of the in-person and online offerings of the teamwork models in each of these courses based on student surveys and course performance. Recommendations for implementing teamwork based on the observations from the analysis are outlined. CONCLUSIONS The results indicated that there is no single dominant model for how teamwork skills are developed within an engineering program. However, a consistent model for implementing teamwork skills within the entire program may prove beneficial for students to develop these skills systematically and strategically. This study has demonstrated that teamwork skills awareness and development should be supported and evaluated within a degree program. Such a program-wide outlook for online versus in-person teamwork would benefit in informing future blended/hybrid options, post pandemic. Copyright © Jayashri Ravishankar, Swapneel Thite, Inmaculada Tomeo-Reyes, Arash Khatamianfar, 2021.