Collaboration effects on distributed student team performance

Face-to-face communication has long been considered the richest medium of communication and research has found that different mediums affect engineering design team interaction. However, the question left unanswered is how the reduction or elimination of face-to-face interaction impacts team performance. The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate distance collaboration elements that impact student project team performance. Using students in a distance learning engineering course (E*Course) at Wright State University, traditional face-to-face teams and distributed teams were formed. Teams were required to complete a project with three main deliverables. Team management metrics were evaluated along with team performance. The coordination of work was found to be highly correlated with team performance for distributed teams. High performing distributed teams also had to work harder at organizing their work and adapting to their team membsrs. None of the team management measures correlated with performance for traditional teams. These results have implications for the organization of work and team member agility as well as collaborative learning environments where distance students are integrated into the traditional classroom.