With very few in-person, real time meetings, the entire event was planned and managed online. Dr. Ruth May, who teaches international management for the University of Dallas Internet MBA program, says she gives explicit guidance on expected deliverables, but little direction to project teams as to how they should organize themselves and communicate on their final assignment. Online group dynamics seem to be about the same as they are in live groups. People stew around in e-mail for about a week, maybe getting a sense of one another's level of verbal skills and areas of expertise. Then someone gets restless and takes the organizer role.
Creativity takes over.
May says the degree of collaboration is no more or less than happens in regular classrooms. Each team has a different personality and thus, a unique way of moving through a project that works best for them. I'm not going to force them to use my preferred way of virtual collaboration, because my way may not work for them. Key Practices Karen Steele, a project management consultant, has worked in project teams for over fifteen years, performing projects for NEC, IBM, US Life, Policy Management Systems, MCI WorldCom and others. Everyone sees project progress, changes that require adjustment and their own to do lists at the same time.