Dr. Petros Chamakiotis

Introduction to the innovation and the course
The innovation presented here concerns an innovative use of teaching in the classroom, involving a multidisciplinary approach, multiple teaching approaches, and relevance to a global challenge. I argue that these three aspects can contribute to fulfilling common challenges we often face in the classroom, while constituting a novel approach to teaching Information Systems (IS). In particular, the innovation is about a revamped course — entitled “Virtual (Project) Teamwork” (VPTW) — taught as one of the core courses of the MSc in Digital Project Management & Consulting, part of the “Diplôme d’Études Avancées en Management International des Entreprises” (DEAMIE) at ESCP Business School in Madrid, Spain. The MSc typically recruits between 30 and 40 students who have an undergraduate degree and at least one year of relevant work experience. The course was taught for the first time in the 2021–2022 academic year (in a slightly different format due to adjustments relative to the measures to reduce the spread of Covid-19 on campus), and it has been further revised and will be taught again this coming academic year 2022–2023. It comprises six two- hour sessions in class, selected materials taught asynchronously (e.g., short videos in which the instructor sums up relevant theory), complementing in-class teaching.

The teaching innovation: description, format and objectives
The innovation presented here responds to relevant calls suggesting that business and management education should respond to professionals’ actual needs (Thomas, 2010). Despite its catastrophic consequences, the recent pandemic has provided us with an opportunity to reconsider our approach to pedagogy by making our courses more relevant in novel ways. Consequently, I revamped an existing course focused on Project Management (PM) in the VT context to make it more relevant to the current context whereby new (largely under-explored) types of technology-mediated forms of work — including WFH — have become widespread. The innovation involves the following characteristics.

Adopting a multidisciplinary approach
IS is a multidisciplinary field of research and that should be taken into consideration when teaching complex IS phenomena. Traditionally, PM, which is what this course is partially about, has formed part of the IS curriculum and this is evidenced by the regular inclusion of PM tracks in major academic conferences in our field. At the same time, technology-mediated forms of work have attracted multidisciplinary attention — initially by computer scientists and IS scholars who introduced the
concepts of Computer-Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW; Schmidt and Bannon, 1992) and Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC; Walther, 1996), and later, among others, by IS, organisational and Human Resources (HR) scholars with the emergence of VTs (e.g., Martins et al., 2004). Most recently, we have seen an interest in issues of well-being and kindred topics from HR and this has been because of the emergence of new IS phenomena, including digital burnout, digital well-being, and Zoom fatigue (e.g., Bennett et al., 2021), for which consideration of cross-disciplinary literature is essential. Rather than concentrating on technology and its effects following a deterministic approach, the revamped course focuses on team and individual aspects of work, providing students with the opportunity to gain first-hand experience of how the use of certain technologies may influence them or their interactions with other students through the practical application elements of the course. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach was found to increase their levels of engagement as they were able to bring in theories from other classes (e.g., creativity) and understand how technology may influence creativity when we generate our ideas with our teammates online for instance.

Using multiple teaching approaches
The literature suggests that multiple teaching approaches are required for effective student learning (Avolio et al., 2019). Additionally, Mann (2009) states that a common challenge affecting student learning is boredom — and that using multiple teaching approaches, including hands-on activities, may address this challenge. VPTW involves multiple teaching approaches, outlined below:
• Lecturing — which aims to introduce relevant theory in two formats: first, in class during the two-hour sessions, whereby each session is focused on a specific theoretical area (see Table 1 above); and second, in innovative short videos which have been developed by the instructor, helping students to remember what has been formally taught in class. These are especially helpful when revising for the final assessment. The videos are short, between 3 and 6 minutes which, as per recent learnings, are ideal for concentration purposes (Manasrah et al., 2021).
• Case studies — which aim to show the practical significance of the theories taught in each session. Students are asked to read a selected case study upfront and then, once theory is introduced, discuss it in groups and at the class level in order to connect theory with practice, using the case each time in question. Inclusion of this type of case studies for discussion purposes addresses the challenge of relevance between the abstraction for which at times theory is criticised, and its actual significance for practitioners on the ground.
• Practical application — which takes student learning a step further following a “learning by doing” approach. Here, rather than linking theories to someone else’s experience, students engage with Chamakiotis and Pearson’s (2021) teaching case which has been considered one of the most successful recent cases published in SAGE Business Cases.
The case is linked to the unique aspects of VTs, including the launch of a VT from scratch (Activity 1), and hands-on construction of physical bookshops in class using flipchart, coloured papers, toothpicks, and other materials (Activity 2). The latter is done in a simulated environment whereby different student teams (simulating dispersed subgroups of a bigger GVT) are tasked with the construction of identical bookshops without being able to engage in face-to-face communications with one another. This simulation exposes students to real-life GVT challenges, while at the same time offering a sense of accomplishment due to the actual prototypes constructed at the end of the session.

Relevance to a current (and familiar) global challenge
A frequent comment by students is that theories are not relevant, and they need practical guidance in the subjects they study (Briggs, 2014). This is particularly the case in business and management education. It is believed that a relational perspective, whereby theories are not isolated, but embedded in a specific context, is advantageous to student learning (Ramsden, 1987). As mentioned earlier, the pandemic has provided a great opportunity for familiarisation purposes; students have
gained familiarity with the virtual WFH context as most students in VPTW were either studying for an undergraduate degree — and thus had to WFH due to the imposed lockdowns — or were formally employed and thus had to WFH for the same reason. This means that they were faced with some of the challenges described in this course (e.g., feeling disengaged) and they recognise them.


In VPTW, mention of the pandemic is not limited to the readings provided. Chamakiotis and Pearson’s (2021) teaching case — which is essentially a mega-case study involving three activities (and later discussion/reflection) — speaks about the Zeeta flu; a fictional pandemic that has emerged unexpectedly, interrupting the organisation’s (a bookshop called Smithfield) expansion plans. As a result, and instead of continuing with Smithfield’s expansion plans, the students (simulating Smithfield employees) are expected to transition into a virtual format overnight. This includes both Smithfield’s operations (e.g., reconsidering the bookshop’s online purchasing interfaces e) and the ways in which its employees are expected to work due to the lockdowns that have been imposed.

Innovation outcomes and learning
Although this is the second year in which the course will be offered, last year’s students appreciated the relevance and innovation of the VPTW course, characterising it as very different to what most courses look like in terms of format and delivery, and relevant to their needs. Educators too can learn from this innovation; existing courses can be revamped in novel ways, not only by introducing new literature, but also by linking their contents to current events and creating a familiar context for
students to learn in. In the case of the VPTW course, this has been the Covid-19 pandemic, and Chamakiotis and Pearson’s (2021) teaching case has been key in achieving this objective, and thus enabling students to grasp how the IS theories taught play out in practice. Davison et al. (2023) argue that IS researchers have a moral obligation to make the world a better place with our research. With the innovation presented here, incorporating in novel ways older and fresh IS research (including my own) in the student curriculum, I hope to have made a small but meaningful contribution, that both colleagues and students can learn from.

References
Avolio, B.E., Benzaquen, J.B. and Pretell, C. (2019). Global Challenges for Business Education and the New Educational Agenda: Graduate Attributes and Teaching Methods. e-Journal of Business Education & Scholarship of Teaching, 13(2), pp. 80–99.
Bennett, A.A., Campion, E.D., Keeler, K.R. and Keener, S.K. (2021). Videoconference fatigue? Exploring changes in fatigue after videoconference meetings during COVID-19. Journal of Applied Psychology, 106(3), pp. 330–344

Briggs, S. (2014). How to make learning relevant to your students (and why it’s crucial to their success). In: InformED. Available from: https://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/how-to-make- learning-relevant/
Chamakiotis, P., Panteli, N. and Davison, R.M. (2021). Reimagining e-leadership for reconfigured virtual teams due to Covid-19. International Journal of Information Management, 60, 102381.
Chamakiotis, P. and Panteli, N. (2017). Leading the creative process: the case of virtual product design. New Technology, Work and Employment, 32 (1), pp. 28–42.
Chamakiotis, P. and Pearson, A. (2021). “Going Global” Virtually: Smithfield’s (Digital) Expansion and Survival. In: SAGE Business Cases. Available from: <https://sk.sagepub.com/cases/going-global-virtually-smithfield-digital-expansion-and-survival>.
Chamakiotis, P., Panteli, N. and Pérez-Arechaederra, D. Understanding new member onboarding in global virtual teams in the financial services industry. Working paper. Available from: [currently unavailable].
Davison, R.M., Majchrzak, A., Hardin, A. and Ravishankar, M. (2023). Special issue on responsible IS research for a better world. Information Systems Journal, p.isj.12405.
Manasrah, A., Masoud, M. and Jaradat, Y. (2021). Short Videos, or Long Videos? A Study on the Ideal Video Length in Online Learning. In: 2021 International Conference on Information Technology (ICIT) (pp. 366-370). IEEE.
Mann, S. (2009). Why do 60% of students find their lectures boring? In: The Guardian. Available from:<https://www.theguardian.com/education/2009/may/12/university-teaching>.
Martins, L.L., Gilson, L.L. and Maynard, M.T. (2004). Virtual Teams: What Do We Know and Where Do We Go From Here? Journal of Management, 30(6), pp. 805–835.
Panteli, N., Yalabik, Z.Y. and Rapti, A. (2019). Fostering work engagement in geographically-dispersed and asynchronous virtual teams. Information Technology & People, 32 (1), pp. 2–17.
Ramsden, P. (1987). Improving teaching and learning in higher education: The case for a relational perspective. Studies in Higher Education, 12(3), pp. 275-286.
Schmidt, K. and Bannon, L. (1992). Taking CSCW seriously: Supporting articulation work. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), 1(1–2), pp. 7–40.
Thomas, H. (2010). Impactful management research: The importance of finding the voice of practice in management research. In: From challenge to change: Business Schools in the wake of financial crisis (pp. 4-6). Cambridge, MA: Emerald).
Walther, J.B. (1996). Computer-Mediated Communication: Impersonal, Interpersonal, and Hyperpersonal Interaction. Communication Research, 23 (1), pp.3–43