Managing the managers : collaborative virtual teams with large staff and student numbers

Virtual teaming involving online presentations and peer reviews support the notion of collaborative student learning, whilst preparing them for the virtual work environment. However, implementation and administration of such teams, particularly when constraints include large numbers of multi-cultural students, within a complex multi-campus structure, needs careful planning and management. This paper discusses the implementation features of an in-house dynamic web administrative package designed, in part to address the problem of management within a complex teaching environment, of assessment processes requiring virtual teams activities. An essential component of the teamwork is that students collaborate as small teams, and virtually interact with several other small teams. For some students, the study environment is totally virtual, for others face-to-face contact is usual. The web application also provide virtual management tool for the geographically disburse multi-campus staff. The paper discusses the achievements and the limitations of the current implementation, and finally future developments for the program design .