Old Dominion University CS410 Team Black Feasibility Presentation

Old Dominion University CS410 Team Black

Feasibility Presentation

Team Project Organizational Tool

Oct 23, 2013

TPOT

Team Black

ODU – Team Black CS410 Feasibility Presentation Oct 23, 2013

Aaron [email protected]

MentorDr. Pilar Pazos, [email protected]

Thomas TJ [email protected]

Jose [email protected]

Pernell [email protected]

Joe [email protected]

Josh [email protected]

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Problem Statement3

In an increasingly asynchronous educational environment,

the organization of geographically dispersed teams has

become a significant challenge.

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Outline

ODU – Team Black CS410 Feasibility Presentation

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Oct 23, 2013

Problem Statement 3

Case Study: Dr. Pazos’ ProposalInstructor Process Flow

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Virtual Teams’ Rise and Importance 10

Problem Characteristics 14

Solution Statement 15

Solution Goals 16

Improved Instructor Process Flow 17

Major Components Diagram 18

Potential Benefits of TPOT 19

Potential Drawbacks of TPOT 20

Competition Matrix 21

Summary and Conclusion 22

References 23

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Case Study: Dr. Pazos’ Proposal


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Oct 23, 2013

Dr. Pilar Pazos

Research interests:

• Knowledge management• Computer-mediated communication• Collaborative learning• Engineering education

Teams research:

• Key factors contributing to teams’ effectiveness• Conflict management in virtual teams (VT)• Global virtual team management• Impacts of technology on virtual teams’ effectiveness• Virtual team training• Development of tools to support team collaboration

Team Mentor

Ph.D. Industrial EngineeringEmphasis Engineering MgmtTexas Tech University, 2005

Assistant Professor – ODU,Department of EngineeringManagement and Systems Engineering

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Oct 23, 2013

Instructors of online, project-based courses are regularly managing 15 or more teams.

Additionally, students have difficulties collaboratingfrom dispersed locations.

Managing Multiple Team Projects

With such numbers, it becomes difficult to:• Determine/track team status• Offer support/feedback• Assess deliverables

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Oct 23, 2013

Currently:

• Organization left totally to instructors

• No tool to aggregate team data

• Mostly ad hoc solution: email, Blackboard,

Google sites, Smartsheet

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8Instructor Process Flow: Team Status Determination 8

ODU – Team Black

CS410 Feasibility Presentation

Oct 23, 2013

Case Study: Dr. Pazos’ Proposal9

Dr. Pazos’ proposed project:

• Team collaboration software

• Focus on the development of student teams

• Instructor Dashboardo Monitor teams’ statuso Receive deliverableso Provide Feedback

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What is a Virtual Team (VT)?10

According to an oft-cited 2009 literature review:

• Geographical dispersion

• Unification by a common purpose

• Electronic communication

• Cross-boundary collaboration

1,2. Ebrahim et al.

Necessary Characteristics1 Other common characteristics2

• Impermanence

• Small size

• Knowledge workers

• Inter-company

Distance learning (DL) project teams satisfy 7 of these 8

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Dispersed Student Teams Are VTs11

• Geographical dispersion – nature of DL

• Common purpose – course project

• Electronic communication – email, Blackboard

• Cross-boundary collaboration – students have

diverse backgrounds, electives, minors

They satisfy all necessary characteristics: And most common characteristics:

• Impermanent – single course

• Small size – typically under 7

• Knowledge workers – most degrees

in this domain

Additionally, they will become the professional VTs of the future.

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The Rise of VTs12

• 1980s: self-managing expert teams increasingly common3

• 1990s: self-managing team concept globalized4

• 2000s: cheap Internet facilitates connection of dispersed team

members—the virtual team proliferates5

Currently, according to surveys:

• 46% of companies employ virtual teams6

• 72% of employees’ work at least partially virtual7

• 61% of employees attribute 50% productivity to virtual teamwork8

• 6.7 million US college students (1/3) involved in virtual coursework9

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3,4,5. Ebrahim et al.

9. Allen and Seaman7,8. “Challenges of Working in Virtual Teams”

6. “SHRM Survey Findings”

The Benefits of VTs13

• Great flexibility

• Reduced costs

• Recruiting not limited by time/space (get best people)

• Effective decision making (more time to stew)

• Reduced time-to-market

• Increased productivity

• Reduced pollution

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Once again, according to Ebrahim and his colleague’s literature review:

Problem Characteristics14

For virtual team members10:• Team member status difficult to determine• Trust takes longer to develop than in co-located team• Expectations often differ (roles, responsibilities)• Conflicts more difficult to resolve• Deliverable versions confusing

For instructors11:• Information gathering very time-consuming• Support less effective• Accountability assessment prone to error

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10. Ebrahim et al. 11. Dr. Pazos Interview

Solution Statement15

Provide educationally-focused collaboration software which

facilitates transparent, efficient virtual teamwork through the

careful monitoring and presentation of data.

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Solution Goals16

• Reduce instructor tedium

• Reduce time required to trust team members

• Provide concise team and team member status

• Delineate roles and responsibilities (tasks)

• Organize deliverables

• Maximize ease of collaboration (accessibility)

• When project “boils,” TPOT “whistles”

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17Improved Instructor Process Flow: Team Status Determination17


Original:

18Major Components Diagram18


Oct 23, 2013

Potential Benefits of TPOT19

• Decreased time needed to trust team members

• Decreased time needed to determine status

• Decreased time needed to gather deliverables

• Increased accountability

• Increased clarity of team status

• Increased clarity of team member roles and

responsibilities

• Maximized ease of collaboration

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Potential Drawbacks of TPOT20

• Accountability by activity tracking imperfect

o Vulnerable to deception

• Dashboard only works with our base page

o Must abandon Google sites

o May lack features of commercial competitors

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Instructor

DashOpen Source Web-based Tasks Track Activity Status

TPOT

Basecamp

Collabtive

Project.net

ProjectLibre

Microsoft Project

Teambox

dotProject

Smartsheet

Central Desktop

Project Kaiser

Project Insight

Clarizen

21Competition Matrix21

Y N

?


Summary and Conclusion22

TPOT will:

• Be web-based collaboration software

• Be designed for mature college students and their instructors

• Implement an aggregative Instructor Dashboard

• Address the lack of information available to VTs

• Hopefully be used by future CS410 students

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References23

Allen, I. Elaine and Jeff Seaman. Changing Course: Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in the United States. Babson Survey Research Group, 2013. <http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/changingcourse.pdf>.

Bullock, Charles and Jennifer Klein. "Virtual Work Environments in the Post-Recession Era." Brandman University, 2011. <http://www.brandman.edu/files/attachments/virtual_teams_brandman_forrester_white_paper.pdf>.

Ebrahim, Nader Ale, Shamsuddin Ahmed and Zahari Taha. “Virtual Teams: a Literature Review.” Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, no. 3 (March 2009): 2653-2669.

Pazos, Pilar. Interview by Team Black. Personal interview. ODU, October 2013.

"SHRM Survey Findings: Virtual Teams." Society for Human Resources Management, 2012. <http://www.shrm.org/Research/SurveyFindings/Articles/Documents/Virtual%20Teams_FINAL.pptx>.

“The Challenges of Working in Virtual Teams.” RW3 LLC, 2012. <http://rw-3.com/VTSReportv7.pdf>.

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http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/changingcourse.pdf



http://www.brandman.edu/files/attachments/virtual_teams_brandman_forrester_white_paper.pdf

http://www.shrm.org/Research/SurveyFindings/Articles/Documents/Virtual%20Teams_FINAL.pptx

http://rw-3.com/VTSReportv7.pdf

http://rw-3.com/VTSReportv7.pdf