The development process towards achieving a framework for incorporating virtual teams into projects in engineering courses

As the digital age advances, it is perhaps not surprising that the growth rate for students corresponding electronically is increasing greatly. This includes students who are working on projects in their classes. However, team dynamics is always a significant issue for students when working on teams and continues to be an even bigger source of concern for them once they graduate and go out into the work force. In this paper, the authors talk about the process of initializing a study to study the functioning of partially distributed teams and developing a framework for incorporating projects into engineering courses where students are required to work on projects virtually (with student project members located at two or more universities) and hence be better prepared for 'real world work scenarios,' when they graduate and go into industry. This course curriculum design and research will include mapping engineering management courses between the Engineering Management Departments at Texas Tech University and California State University, Northridge and creating distributed project teams, by virtue of which the students would be compelled to work both traditionally (intra-university) and virtually (inter-university) and learn about managing partially distributed teams. Pedagogically, the researchers/professors will also be compiling information and lessons learned in coordination of this inter-university educational endeavor.