Virtual R&D Teams: A potential growth of education-industry collaboration

In this paper, we present our more than two years research experiences on virtual R&D teams in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and draws conclusions, giving special attention to the structure of virtual teams required to support education-industry collaboration. We report the relevant results of an online survey study. The online questionnaire was emailed by using a simple random sampling method to 947 manufacturing SMEs. The findings of this study show that SMEs in Malaysia and Iran are willing to use virtual teams for collaboration and the platform for industry-education collaboration is ready and distance between team members or differences in time zones, are not barriers to industry-education collaborations.Collaboration, virtual teams, SMEs, Education

THE COLLABORATION EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY IN A VIRTUAL ENTERPRISE

An important number of factors are creating different types of barriers among the members of a virtual enterprise affecting the collaboration between them. In our attempt to study the evolution of importance of these factors we have chose a set of three studies published in the last decade and a half, which we consider as relevant. This study aims to identify new research directions for mitigating the effects of collaboration barriers by highlighting the most important factors and how they affect the effectiveness or efficiency of collaboration.virtual enterprise, collaboration, effectiveness, efficiency.

Virtual collaboration: A Phenomenological Study of Remote Online Adjuncts Virtual Collaboration Lived Experiences

Online education is rapidly growing in higher education. To stay competitive, many colleges and universities have begun to offer online classes. Some institutions even offer complete degree programs online. This has left colleges needing to hire more part-time remote adjuncts to fill the fluctuating number of available courses. Because remote online adjuncts are susceptible to isolation, the need has arisen to study the benefits and barriers of virtual collaboration. The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to examine the virtual collaboration lived experiences of remote online adjuncts. The study helped unveil the motives and lived experiences of virtual collaboration among online adjuncts. The current research is sparse when narrowed down to the population of remote online adjuncts. Because remote online adjuncts are a specific population of professors, the barriers and benefits to virtual collaboration may be different from faculty who work full-time in a brick and mortar building. Because virtual collaboration among remote online adjuncts is not pervasive in the current literature, the phenomenological approach allowed the searching of patterns across participants. The central question asked: What effective virtual collaboration lived experiences are remote online adjuncts using to influence their teaching strategies to develop as professionals? The interview replies from 10 remote online adjuncts created the significant statements about virtual collaboration. The composite description revealed nine themes about how participants experience virtual collaboration. The study suggests that higher education leaders would be well served to focus their efforts on leadership that will promote virtual collaboration practices. It is advisable that higher education leaders look for ways to provide leadership to connect collaborators, create opportunities for collaboration, and define clear roles for virtual collaboration. Remote online adjuncts may find camaraderie, social connections, an opportunity to participate in scholarship, a chance for self-reflection, and develop a sense of pride through virtual collaboration. Barriers that must be overcome for virtual collaboration included trust, a lack of time, and a feeling of pressure to participate

An Investigation of the Utility of Microblogging in a Virtual Organisation

Virtualisation is one possible business strategy of an organisation. The nature of virtual organisations is that individuals or teams are distributed over different work sites. This leads to barriers in communication,coordination and collaboration between these entities due to dispersed expertise, time zones, languages, cultures, etc. To address these issues, virtual organisations have invested in ICT for supporting collaboration between cross-site colleagues. One very new collaborative technology is microblogging. Microblogging supports asynchronous communication between multiple persons. Microblogging is based upon transmission of short messages that can be sent from Web-based microblogging systems, instant messaging tools, email or mobile phones. Microblogging has some relevant features like simplicity, immediacy, accessibility and presence. This paper describes our investigation of the utility of microblogging, particularly the Twitter tool, for collaboration support in a virtual organisation. Since microblogging is very new and was introduced only recently, no work has been done on this exact topic. The investigation involved conducting an online survey to collect participants’ opinions about the utility of Twitter in the workplace after using Twitter over a three-week period. The study yielded quantitative and qualitative results regarding participants’ experience of Twitter. It was found that microblogging could be adapted to virtual organisations quickly due to ease of use in terms of taking less time and effort for creating microblogs. Twitter could be used in virtual organisations for collaboration support because it is believed that the use of Twitter could somewhat improve communication between cross-site co-workers. However, to be well accepted by virtual organisations, Twitter needs improvement and addition to its existing functionality

The development and evaluation of virtual peer-to-peer workgroups as a platform for long-term inter-organizational collaboration in healthcare

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of virtual peer-to-peer (P2P) workgroups as a platform for long-term collaboration in healthcare. Virtual peer-to-peer workgroups were developed and piloted by the Michigan Value Collaborative to increase knowledge and collaboration between providers across Michigan. The workgroups were designed to address barriers to change and long-term collaboration by allowing participants to share their improvement journey and provide feedback and ideas for improvement in a highly accessible platform. The pilot workgroups focused on heart failure readmission reduction initiatives as it is a much scrutinized metric and is penalized by public and private payers. Data on the workgroups were collected using pre and post-workgroup surveys filled out by participants. The results reveal that virtual peer-to- peer workgroups are effective in increasing knowledge and collaboration in the short term, but more study is required to judge their long term effectiveness in improving care at participating providers. Virtual peer-to-peer workgroups can serve as a foundation for increasing regional collaboration in healthcare as it is a very simple platform that does not require major financial or resource commitments

Industry-driven innovative system development for the construction industry: The DIVERCITY project

Collaborative working has become possible using the innovative integrated systems in construction as many activities are performed globally with stakeholders situated in various locations. The Integrated VR based information systems can bind the fragmentation and provide communication and collaboration between the distributed stakeholders n various locations. The development of these technologies is vital for the uptake of these systems by the construction industry. This paper starts by emphasising the importance of construction IT research and reviews some future research directions in this area. In particular, the paper explores how virtual prototyping can improve the productivity and effectiveness of construction projects, and presents DIVERCITY, which is th as a case study of the research in virtual prototyping. Besides, the paper explores the requirements engineering of the DIVERCITY project. DIVERCITY has large and evolving requirements, which considered the perspectives of multiple stakeholders, such as clients, architects and contractors. However, practitioners are often unsure of the detail of how virtual environments would support the construction process, and how to overcome some barriers to the introduction of new technologies. This complicates the requirements engineering process

The Metadata Education and Research Information Commons (MERIC): A Collaborative Teaching and Research Initiative

The networked environment forced a sea change in Library and Information Science (LIS) education. Most LIS programs offer a mixed-mode of instruction that integrates online learning materials with more traditional classroom pedagogical methods and faculty are now responsible for developing content and digital learning objects. The teaching commons in a networked environment is one way to share, modify and repurpose learning objects while reducing the costs to educational institutions of developing course materials totally inhouse. It also provides a venue for sharing ideas, practices, and expertise in order to provide the best learning experience for students. Because metadata education has been impacted by rapid changes and metadata research is interdisciplinary and diffuse, the Metadata Education and Research Information Commons (MERIC) initiative aims to provide a virtual environment for sharing and collaboration within the extensive metadata community. This paper describes the development of MERIC from its origin as a simple clearinghouse proof-of-concept project to a service-oriented teaching and research commons prototype. The problems of enablers and barriers to participation and collaboration are discussed and the need for specific community building research is cited as critical for the success of MERIC within a broad metadata community

Primary and Secondary Virtual Learning in New Zealand: Examining Barriers to Achieving Maturity

This paper describes the organisational development of virtual learning in networked rural schools in New Zealand, specifically the obstacles that e-learning clusters of rural schools face in their journey to sustainability and maturity through the lens of the Ministry’s Learning Communities Online Handbook. Analysis of a nationwide purposeful sample identified three common barriers: a lack of a coherent vision; difficulty in sustaining necessary funding and resources; and of the need for more collaboration within and between clusters. Based on these findings, it is recommended that VLN e-learning clusters develop specific strategies to encourage greater collaboration between schools and work towards greater consistency between their activities, including professional and organisational development and also of the approaches to virtual learning

Virtual Learning in New Zealand: Achieving Maturity

This proposal describes a study into the development of virtual learning in New Zealand, specifically the obstacles that e-learning clusters face or have faced in their journey to sustainability and maturity through the lens of the Learning Communities Online Handbook. Using a variety of data collection methods, the researchers identified three common barriers, including a lack of a coherent vision, difficulty in securing the necessary funding and resources, and a lack of collaboration and cooperation within and between clusters. Based on these findings, it is recommended that individual e-learning clusters develop specific strategies to encourage greater collaboration between clusters and work towards greater consistency between their activities, including professional and organizational development and also of the approaches to virtual learning