Fostering Group Collaboration in Virtual Worlds

In this paper, we investigate the potential of Virtual Worlds (VWs) in fostering group collaboration in Virtual Teams. A team building activity, the Get Together Activity (GTA), was built in Second Life. It consisted of a set of eight activities. The first six intend to offer the participants experiences of transformed social interaction and embodiment, facilitating a certain familiarity with the VW. The last two activities encourage collaborative experience with team members through coordination in time and space. The article reports the design of these activities and places them in the context literature on VWs. Eighty-one participants were invited to fill in a survey evaluating the GTA. The results are presented and analyzed. The results of fourteen structured interviews with a focus group of participants provided more insights.