Motivational Patterns in Virtual Team Collaboration

This paper reviews experiences from a research project into international collaborative learning, involving trials between virtual teams of students at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) and Uppsala University (UU) in Sweden. In this research-linked model of teaching, several issues have arisen, associated with motivating students to participate in a research project as an integral element of their learning. The literature on student motivation is briefly reviewed and related to observed student motivation over a two-year period of collaborative trials. Identifiable patterns of behaviour have emerged, for which some underlying causes can be discerned. While findings at this stage can be considered tentative in this complex environment, nonetheless we believe some light is shed on the process of motivation for such a model of learning. The paper concludes by outlining our proposed modifications to enhance student motivation in forthcoming collaborative trials.