Work in progress: Leadership emergence among groups in an online environment

Virtual learning is a growing means of expansion for both courses and programs for numerous colleges. As the popularity of online courses and programs increases, the question of ensuring “excellence” often follows particularly when discussing curriculum concerns. Certifying online instruction presents challenges especially with regard to traditional methods such as that of group work. One factor that assists groups or teams with their work is that of leadership. Often, in more traditional classroom settings, group leaders are selected by the team after several meetings. How then is the selection and the determination of a leader established in online groups? Is the process similar or different? Does an online group share the same experiences in regard to leadership as a face-to-face group? These questions assisted in directing a two year study at the School of Engineering and Technology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) that sought to determine how leader emergence is realized in one online course, International Management, in which a group project has been assigned in place of the final exam. The goal of our project is to not only better understand the process of leader selection in group work, but to help guide faculty in developing an online learning that will enhance and promote student engagement. There are several steps to be performed in our project and this work-in-progress paper will outline those steps and our progress to date.