Assessing Social Capital and Value Creation in Virtual Student Project Teams: Evidence from Online Management Courses

Abstract

This study contributes to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning by expanding the investigative areas on the role of social capital in collaborative learning environments. This is done by examining aspired and experienced social capital in student reflections on team dynamics in online project teams and aligning student narratives to expected student outcomes. Within a value creation framework which is aligned to the four stages of team development, including forming, storming, norming, and performing in order to illuminate value creation experiences and aspirations of participants, the study covered 39 management education students in 8 online project teams spanning 3 courses at an East Coast US institution of higher learning from spring 2015 to spring 2016. Findings from 185 emerging themes suggest an alignment between social capital and student learning outcomes and appear to validate the explanatory strength of the value creation framework in relation to social capital as a value creator and as value created in learning communities. The findings demonstrate that social capital is both inherent and created in learning communities of the evaluated online project teams, and that social capital contributes to both individual and collective objectives of online project teams. Recommendations for online project team learners and instructors are discussed.

Keywords

• online project teams
• team-based learning; value creation in learning communities; structural
• relational
• and cognitive social capital in learning communities; perceived learning outcomes in student narratives