International Virtual Teaming

In fall of 2020, I was given the opportunity to work with students internationally. This project not only created an opportunity to experience working virtually with international team members but also provided valuable skills for editing English reports and communicating with non-native English speakers.

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The project spanned three months between September and November during which time myself and another American Mercer University (MU) student collaborated with four students from the University of Paris (UP). Members of the Technical Communication in English class wrote a short report in American English on the opportunities and programs for technical communication offered in France. My American teammate and I collaborated with them to help edit their paper, as well as create material that helped guide them through the writing process.

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During this project, our team focused on applying various communication techniques in order to effectively build trust and work together as a team to produce a total of seven deliverables, including:

1. Team Charter (Collaborative)

2. Introduction PowerPoint (Individual)

3. Editing Feedback Form (MU)

4. Short Report First Draft (UP)

5. Comprehensive Edits (MU)

6. Short Report Revised Copy (UP)

7. Reflection Documents (Individual)

 

These Documents not only guided the project through the stages of writing and editing English technical documents as non-native speakers, but also the stages of metacommunication and fostering a productive and mutually respectful team culture. The reflection document specifically provided the opportunity for both groups of students to evaluate which methods of communication worked best and where the team as a whole could have improved in the future, allowing all members of the team the opportunity to develop techniques to improve communication in future teams.

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The project was conducted almost entirely on Google Drive. The primary platform of communication was Facebook Messenger (due to unanimous familiarity with the platform and international reach) supplemented by email. Additionally, weekly synchronous meetings were conducted via Zoom.

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Below I have provided access to the Team Charter and Gantt Charts which were used as metacommunication tools over the course of this project (Note: some information has been redacted for privacy reasons). Additionally, I have included the Editing Feedback Form developed the MU team to guide the UP students when writing their report and which was used by my MU partner and myself as we edited the report. Finally, I have included a link to my personal reflection document.

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At the conclusion of the project, my Mercer classmates and I had the opportunity to collaborate on a publishable article for Corrigo, the official publication for the Society of Technical Communication Technical Editing Special Interest Group. The Article was officially published on March 10, 2021. Access to more information and the article itself can be found below.