IS-418 Working in Virtual Environments
- ECTS Credits:
- 10
- Responsible department:
- Faculty of Social Sciences
- Lecture Semester:
- Autumn
- Teaching language:
- English.
- Duration:
- 1 term
The course is connected to the following study programs
- Master's Programme in Information Systems
Teaching language
English.Recommended prerequisites
Equivalent to entrance requirements for the Master Programme in Information Systems.
Course contents
Working in virtual environments is becoming a large part of the day-to-day activities of the workforce of the future. The goal of this course will be to enhance students’ understanding of the theories, research results, challenges, and best practices in this area, particularly with regard to the implications of cross-cultural collaboration between geographically dispersed teams. The course will be give in collaboration with University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). The first part of the course involves a review of relevant literature focusing on theories, findings, and best practices of virtual work/virtual team/virtual project management. In phase 2, teams of students from both institutions will conduct a six week virtual project on a practical software development or design task. Other partners besides UiA and UNO may be involved in the project. The course tasks will be tied to on-going research activities at UNO and UiA and will involve both virtual interaction and collocation of students from the partner instructions. In the final phase of the project, the students will reflect on their experiences from the virtual exercise and develop a project report.
Learning outcomes
Upon completion of the course, students should be able to:
Understand existing research related to virtual work, virtual teams, and virtual project management
Understand appropriate methods for conducting research in virtual environments
Be able to apply the research to specific situations in order to improve their own performance in virtual work, virtual teams, and virtual projects
Collaborate effectively in a virtual team or a virtual project
Understand the characteristics of collaboration technologies and how different technologies are best used in different types of virtual work
Be able to use collaboration technologies for a range of tasks within a virtual working environment
Teaching methods
Combination of lectures, group work and project assignments, some of which are mandatory.
Offered as Single Standing Module
Yes
Assessment methods and criteria
Portfolio assessment, graded marks.