What Makes Learning and Understanding in Virtual Teams So Difficult?

Abstract

The ideas presented in this article are especially challenged by critical questions raised by the other authors in this special issue. One of the core questions throughout the different studies is whether participants in distributed learning groups are able to successfully work on a common task and achieve a type of interaction that leads them to educationally relevant higher-level discussion and learning. This article discusses the central findings of these studies in light of the recent research on computer-supported collaborative learning. At the beginning of the article, typical problems and challenges related to learning in virtual teams are described. In the end of the discussion, some conclusions are made toward various mechanisms that different studies suggest for supporting and structuring learning in virtual teams. The conclusion is that research on distributed learning groups needs to consider a complex set of variables: cognitive, social, emotional, motivational, and contextual variables interacting with each other in a systematic manner.