VCL Didactical Design Patterns

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Organization of the Team Assignment

- While assigning the team it should be considered that some participants drop out before the start of the project or enlist during it. Due to these facts less than the maximum amount of teams shall be assigned. This facilitates an equal allocation of members. Accordingly an assignment into teams of 6 is advisable in the beginning, whereupon the real group size is five. This avoids strongly understaffed teams. If there are some participants left, an additional team can be assigned, if necessary.

1. To ensure that a virtual and collaborative teamwork is as intensive as possible, the teams should consist of members from different universities as well as members with different expertise. For this reason following rules in the team assignment are recommended:

• Participants from at least 3 universities
• Maximum 2 participants of the same university per team
• Maximum 3 participants of the same country per team

1. For a high motivation the identification of the participant with his or her corresponding role and team is necessary, which means the VCL participants should apply for a role with their own profile in the learning platform. This should include their existing expertise, experience and so forth. A period of one week is advisable for the “application process”. The lecturer appoints the project managers with the help of their profiles. Afterwards, they can assign their own team with the listed restrictions and the number of necessary roles. The period for this assignment should not last more than 2 weeks. Altogether this method shall reflect a real life application process in the labour market. Consequently the participants have to practice how to best present their skills. This useful practice can also be applied to their future careers as well.

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