ENGR802:

Lesson 4 Overview: Globalization & Communication and Knowledge Sharing

Globalization, new media, smart machines, and global connectivity are changing how we think about work and where we work. They are also changing the skills you will need to be productive contributors (Davies et al., 2011). This lesson will look at the implications of globalization on communication, including intercultural barriers, effective virtual teaming, and factors related to knowledge management and sharing on virtual teams such as knowledge integration, groupthink, and the collective mind.

Learning Objectives

Upon conclusion of this lesson, you should be able to

1. identify and resolve communication challenges working on intercultural teams;
2. identify and address knowledge management challenges on virtual teams;
3. explain what is meant by group think, global consciousness, and the global brain and their effect on virtual teams;
4. implement best practices for effective virtual teams; and
5. identify characteristics of Turkey's culture.

Lesson Reading Assignments

Please complete the other assigned readings prior to reading the lesson commentary.

• Rosen, B., Furst, S., Blackburn, R. (2007). Overcoming barriers to knowledge sharing in virtual teams. Organizational Dynamics, 36(3) 259–273.
• Turkey chapter from Textbook 1
• Lesson Commentary

Lesson Activities

This lesson has:

• Two (2) Journal Entries
• Lesson Reading Quiz
• Two Discussion Forums:
  • News Presentation Forum
  • Communication Discussion Forum
• Language Quiz: Turkish

Drivers of the Future Landscape and Future Work Skills

Globalization is changing the landscape of how business is conducted, including where our offices are located, where our co-workers and team members are stationed, how we communicate with our co-workers/team members, and how we share knowledge. Researchers at the Institute for the Future (Davies et al., 2011) investigated drivers that were most likely to reshape the future landscape. From their work they identified six drivers that were most important and relevant to future work skills.

Six drivers of change that are most relevant to future work skills (adapted from Davies et al., 2011):

1. Extreme longevity: Increasing global lifespans change the nature of careers and learning.
2. Rise of smart machines and systems: Workplace automation nudges human workers out of rote, repetitive tasks.
3. Computational world: Massive increase in sensors and processing power make the world a programmable system.
4. New media ecology: New communication tools require new media literacy beyond text.
5. Superstructed organizations: Social technologies drive new forms of production and value creation.
6. Globally connected world: Increased global interconnectivity puts diversity and adaptability at the center of organizational operations. (Davies et al., 2011)

Through this research, the Institute for the Future also identified ten skills that would be critical for success in the workforce; each skill is tied to the six disruptive forces previously described. Figure 4.1 represents the relationships between the six disruptive drivers and the 10 skills needed for future success. Within the figure, each skill is color coded to match one or more drivers.

Future Work Skills Include (adapted from Davies et al., 2011):

1. Sense-Making: The ability to determine the deeper meaning or significance of what is being expressed.
2. Social Intelligence: The ability to connect to others in a deep and direct way, to sense and stimulate reactions and desired interactions.
3. Novel & Adaptive Thinking: Proficiency at thinking and coming up with solutions and responses beyond that which is rote or rule-based.
4. Cross-cultural competency: The ability to operate in different cultural settings.
5. Computational Thinking: The ability to translate vast amounts of data into abstract concepts and to understand data-based reasoning.
6. New-Media Literacy: The ability to critically assess and develop content that uses new media forms and to leverage them for persuasive communication.
7. Transdisciplinarity: Literacy in and ability to understand concepts across multiple disciplines.
8. Design Mindset: The ability to represent and develop tasks and work processes for desired outcomes.
9. Cognitive Load Management: The ability to discriminate and filter information for importance, and to understand how to maximize cognitive functioning using a variety of tools and techniques.
10. Virtual Collaboration: The ability to work productively, drive engagement, and demonstrate presence as a member of a virtual team. (Davies et al., 2011)

To be successful in the emerging global landscape, engineers need all ten of these skills. This course is part of the Engineering Leadership and Innovation Management graduate program that, as a whole, is focused on developing all ten of these skills. Although this course may touch on all of these to some extent, it focuses more heavily on social intelligence, cross-cultural competency, and the ability to work on virtual teams in a globally-connected world.

Within organizations, diversity is increasingly seen as a driver of innovation. Diverse teams can include a combination of individuals of different disciplines, skills, ages, and thinking and working styles and approaches. With increasing diversity and global dispersion, it is more important than ever for employees to identify and communicate shared values, goals, and priorities, and build relationships to work together effectively on cross-cultural virtual teams. To be an effective communicator, you will need to understand barriers to communication when working on diverse intercultural teams as well as barriers to effective virtual team communication and knowledge sharing.

Communication and Culture (with Journal Entry L4-1)

Communication difficulties can occur when we interact with people from other cultures because of differences in language, values, gestures, emotional expression, norms, rituals, rules, expectations, family background, and life experiences.

As you watch the “Communicating Between Cultures” video (23:02 minutes), think of similar personal experiences that could have been included in this video. In one of the discussion forum's during this lesson you will be discussing a personal experience related to this video.

Watch video entitled Communicating Between Cultures via PSU Libraries (PSU access accounts).

Watch embedded video entitled Communicating Between Cultures via YouTube (PSU or FPS access accounts) by clicking on the video below. Once the video starts playing, click on the broken lined box symbol in the lower right corner of the video frame for the full screen video.

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Stop, Think, and Reflect: Journal Entry L4-1

Now is a good time to pull out Textbook 1 and look up your host country. Identify at least three (3) differences in communication (verbal or non-verbal) between your home country and your project's host country and discuss how these differences might impact your project. Discuss what you can do to make sure these differences do not impact your project.

Before you move on, reflect on your answers to these questions. Then write your answers or reactions and submit them in the text box of the Journal Entry L4-1 assignment page before you move on to the rest of the course content.

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When thinking about your own intercultural communication competencies, focus on these four key skills:

1. Using verbal and nonverbal skills appropriate to different settings.
2. Effective communication during stress caused by unfamiliar settings.
3. Understanding how you became the person you are and how your own culture influenced you.
4. Expanding knowledge of other cultures’ values and norms.

Barriers to Intercultural Communication

As you develop the skills needed for effective intercultural communication, it isn't possible to learn the values, norms, and verbal and nonverbal communication aspects of all cultures. Athough we will examine these differences for a subset of cultures to help develop a deeper understanding of how they affect our ability to work with others, a more efficient approach is to examine the barriers to intercultural communication as this can help you improve your intercultural communication skills. LaRay Barna (1997) identified six barriers to intercultural communication (adapted from Barna, 1997):

1. Anxiety
2. Assuming Similarity Instead of Difference
3. Ethnocentrism
4. Stereotypes and Prejudice
5. Nonverbal misinterpretations
6. Language (Barna, 1997)

You have learned about ethnocentrism, stereotypes, and prejudices, in earlier lessons. This lesson will review the other four barriers.

Anxiety: When individuals are so anxious about not knowing what they are expected to do in a new situation, this can cause barriers during the communication process. In a study by Sugawara (1993), while only 8% of U.S. co-workers reported feeling impatient with the Japanese coworkers’ English, 30% of Japanese co-workers felt that their co-workers from the U.S. were impatient with their language and 60% felt that language was the primary contributor to communication problems with their U.S. coworkers.

Assuming Similarity Instead of Difference: Many misunderstandings can arise from assumptions of similarity. When assuming that individuals of other cultures are similar to ourselves we interpret their behavior based on our own interpretation of the same behavior in our own culture. For example, culture influences whether emotions are displayed or suppressed and in what situation. When we view emotional display (or lack of display) through our own filter we can easily misread the situation.

Nonverbal misinterpretations: Cultural understanding is critical when interpreting nonverbal symbols, signs, and signals. Most people expect differences in languages across cultures but they are less likely to expect and be able to recognize how nonverbal gestures and behaviors are different. People often rely on gestures to overcome language barriers. Nonverbal communication will be discussed in more detail in the next section.

Language: Language differences can contribute to intercultural communication misunderstandings in a number of ways. There are differences in vocabulary, syntax, idioms, slang, and dialects that contribute to our ability to understand others. There can be translation difficulties between languages when the full meaning of a word is not shared between the languages. When language is forced on a group of people by others with power it is more likely to become a barrier to communication.

Journal Entry L4-1

Now is a good time to pull out Textbook 1 and look up your host country.

Identify at least three (3) differences in communication (verbal or non-verbal) between your home country and your project's host country and discuss how these differences might impact your project. Discuss what you can do to make sure these differences do not impact your project.

Journal Entry L4-1 Rubric

Criteria	Fully Completed	Missing	Possible Points
Identify at least three (3) differences in communication (verbal or non-verbal) between your home country and your project's host country and discuss how these differences might impact your project. Discuss what you can do to make sure these differences do not impact your project.	5.0 pts	0.0 pts	5.0 pts

Nonverbal Communication and Intercultural Competencies

Nonverbal communication can include symbols, facial expressions, eye contact, gestures, body language, and behaviors that we use to create meaning. Some nonverbal behaviors are universal and are generally understood such as expressions of liking/disliking, pleasure/displeasure, tension/relaxation, and high or low status (Buck, 1984). Whereas others have distinct cultural meanings.

Nonverbal communication can have several functions (Jandt, 2010):

• Repeating: hand gesture repeats information conveyed verbally
• Substituting: when a gesture (head nod or wave) replaces words
• Complementing: when gesture or facial expression adds emphasis to spoken words
• Accenting: when a hand gesture or vocal use is used to stress certain words
• Regulating: when gesture or behavior controls the rate of verbal communication (standing up at end of meeting)
• Contradicting: when verbal and nonverbal communication does not match
• Deceiving: the use of nonverbal communication to hide deception (looking away)

The types of nonverbal communication that are most important to consider regarding intercultural exchanges are discussed below (adapted from Jandt, 2010):

• Proxemics (Personal space). The amount of space we prefer between ourselves and others depends on culture, family upbringing, the specific situation, and our relationship with the person (Hall, 1959). For example, in India there are cultural norms regarding how close members of one caste may approach members of other castes. Compared to North Americans, same sex Arabs may stand much closer to each other and when entering an elevator might stand right next to you even though there is plenty of room to spread out.
• Kinesics. Kinesics refer to various types of movements such as body movements, facial expressions, gestures, and eye contact. Sometimes gestures can convey class distinctions, for example in ancient Rome the use of four fingers and the thumb to pick up food indicated lower classes while the use of two fingers and the thumb indicated upper class. While many cultures indicate “yes” by nodding their head in an up and down motion and “no” by moving their head side to side, the yes/no gestures are reversed in Albania, Bulgaria, and parts of Greece, Turkey, Iran, and the former Yugoslavia (Morris, 1995).
• Chronemics. This is the study of how we use time. How we use time varies across cultures and can be a barrier to communication. There are differences in when you are expected to arrive for a meeting that is set for a specific time, how long you should be kept waiting, and how long you engage in informal conversation before the business discussion begins. For example, Arabs might spend up to 30 minutes on informal conversation before getting down to business (Jandt, 2010).
• Paralanguage. This refers to elements of the voice such as sobs, laughter, whistles, etc., qualifiers such as the intensity of the voice (loud or soft), the pitch of the voice (high or low), and extent of the pronunciation (drawl and clipping), and vocal segregates which include sounds such as “uh-huh,” “uh,” and “um.” The use of these elements also varies with culture. For example, using “psst” is accepted as a way to call a waiter in Spain but might be considered rude in the United States. Thais believe that an educated character as well as good manners are demonstrated by speaking in a soft and find speakers in the U.S. to be rude or angry (Jandt, 2010).
• Silence. How we view silence also varies by culture. In the West, silence is often considered socially disagreeable while in Asia is more commonly accepted (Oliver, 1971). For example, in the U.S. silence can mean a that someone is not interested or that they do not have initiative. In China, silence can represent agreement and in India silence can indicate mutual respect, sensitivity, affirmation, wisdom, and personal dignity.
• Haptics. Haptics is the study of touch to communicate. The amount of and type of touching varies considerably across cultures. The U.S. has one of the lowest rates of touching, with Great Britain even lower. Comparisons of the number of touches that might occur in a coffee shop between friends show that in the U.S. there might only be one or two an hour, in London none, but in Paris a hundred touches in an hour. In some cultures certain types of touch are considered rude. For example, in Thailand and Laos strangers or acquaintances should avoid touching the top of a child's head. Their culture believes that the spirit or soul's home is in the head and that a child’s spirit may not be strong enough to be touched and the child might become ill if patted (Smutkupt & Barna, 1976). Many cultures attach specific meaning to touch, for example in New Zealand, the “hongi” is a traditional Maori greeting. It's deep spiritual meaning is the belief that the breath of life is exchanged and is interpreted as the sharing of souls (Figure 4.2).

Culture and Nonverbal Communication

Test your knowledge of nonverbal hand gestures with this simple quiz. Then watch this video entitled “A World of Gestures” (26 minutes, 35 seconds).

As you watch the video and learn about gestures that have different meanings in other cultures, think about whether you have used these gestures in front of people from different cultures and how they might have influenced your interactions.

Global Virtual Teams

We saw in the early part of this lesson that one of the 10 skills that are needed for the future was virtual collaboration, which included the ability to work productively, drive engagement, and demonstrate presence as a member of a virtual team (Davies et al., 2011). After reviewing potential barriers to intercultural communication in the previous section, imagine how much more difficult it would be to communicate on a virtual team without the personal interactions and ability to observe the nonverbal communications. Many of the take-away lessons in this section are important for all teams, but are of particular importance in virtual teams.

Watch the following video, Global Virtual Teams.

Who is using virtual teams and how will this affect you?

In a study by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 46% of organizations surveyed reported that they use virtual teams (Minton-Eversole, 2012). The use of virtual teams was more than twice as much in organizations with multinational operations (66%) than those with U.S. based operations (28%). The top reasons cited for the use of virtual teams were to improve productivity, to minimize travel costs, and to collaborate more across global business because projects were becoming more global (Minton-Eversole, 2012). Of those surveyed, 43% indicated that a larger percent of their workforce will be telecommuting within the next five years.

Virtual Teams, Communication, and Knowledge Management

For virtual teams to be productive they must manage their knowledge creation, integration, and application. Productive knowledge creation and application occurs within social systems that can include problem solving groups and project teams (Alavi, 2002). The most valuable knowledge in any organization is the ability of the organizations's members to gather and use their tacit knowledge for productive collaboration (Davenport & Prusak, 1997). Tacit knowledge is difficult to transfer to another person through written or verbal communication and can be thought of as the expertise and know-how that is only held in an individual’s mind and expressed only through their actions (Alavi, 2002). An individuals’ knowledge can be combined into group-level knowledge within working groups.

Individuals in a group assume roles (by specialty and expertise), each helping their peers within given domains of specialization. Knowledge integration increases the likelihood that organizations will reliably respond to opportunities and threats. In social collectives, pre-existing essential knowledge may influence a group’s ability to interpret new information. Integration of diverse expertise of individuals in teams can result in new ways of doing things, beyond what is possible by known approaches.

Challenges to Knowledge Integration in Virtual Team Settings

A review of communication and group literature by Alavi identified four key challenges to knowledge integration in virtual team settings: “(1) constraints on transactive memory, (2) insufficient mutual understanding, (3) failure in sharing and retaining contextual knowledge, and (4) inflexibility of organizational ties” (Alavi, 2002). Components of the first three challenges are described below (summary adapted from Alavi, 2002).

1. Transactive memory (summary adapted from Alavi, 2002)
   • Definition and attributes:
     • A transactive memory system (TMS) is the collective team knowledge that is developed or acquired over time by individual members that is stored and retrievable by the team. A well developed system allows team members access to expert knowledge.
     • Cognitive interdependence in groups of people can be focused around memory processes. People in close relationships enact a single transactive memory system, complete with differentiated responsibility for remembering different portions of common experiences.
     • Transactive memory can be viewed as a meta knowledge system about who knows what in the group.
     • Two types of memory—internal knowledge in individuals’ mind and external repositories from which information can be retrieved when needed; external knowledge may be owned by other team members or may be contained in various storage devices.
     • Transactive memory systems (facilitated by interactions/transactions) enhance team members’ contributions and task performance.
   • Constraints on the development and maintenance of transactive memory:
     • Indirect (virtual) interactions
     • Lack of collaborative history
     • Diversity of backgrounds of virtual team members
     • Quality of knowledge integration will suffer, additional resources are spent on locating and acquiring the necessary knowledge
   • Suggestions for overcoming constraints:
     • Creation of an online “yellow pages” containing profiles of team members and their area of specialization.
     • Searchable libraries of codified knowledge relevant to the team task.
     • Electronic bulletin boards where team members can post questions and seek assistance and knowledge from team members. (Alavi, 2002)

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Focus on Research

Researchers at Case Western examined socio-cognitive aspects of virtual team dynamics over time. They found that transactive memory systems and the collective mind had significant influence on virtual team performance, especially later in the process (Yoo, 2001). The volume of communication among team members positively influenced team performance early in the process but the influence quickly deteriorated as teams developed transactive memory systems and a collective mind. However, early communications among virtual team members helped to build transactive memory systems and a collective mind. The collective mind is more likely to develop in the later stages of a project, after a transactive memory system (representing the map of team knowledge) is in place. The transactive memory system allows members to recognize the available expertise and knowledge in the team, however, it is the collective mind that “enables team members to connect and relate the distributed expertise and knowledge to perform the task as a coherent unit” (Yoo, 2001).

2. Insufficient mutual understanding among team members (summary adapted from Alavi, 2002)
   • Definition and attributes:
     • The knowledge that group members share (and know that they share) is what is referred to as “mutual understanding.”
     • Mutual understanding enhances comprehension and interpretation of information.
     • Provides an awareness of what others know and don’t know.
     • It is developed through joint training, first-hand experiences, and joint problem solving.
   • Constraints on the development of mutual understanding on virtual teams:
     • Dispersion of team members in space and time
     • Diversity of expertise and/or culture
     • Absence of work history among members (Alavi, 2002)
3. Failure to share and retain contextual knowledge (summary adapted from Alavi, 2002)
   • Definition and attributes:
     • Contextual knowledge is all the knowledge that is relevant to understand a given problem under well specified circumstances.
     • Contextual knowledge is evoked by situations and events, and loosely tied to a task or a goal.
     • In co-located teams contextual knowledge can be shared and understood through direct interactions and experience. Visiting team members’ offices, attending in person meetings, and experiencing the same organizational culture and environment contribute to a shared understanding.
     • In face-to-face teams, people tend to focus on commonly known information and uniquely held information by some members may fail to draw attention and be retained.
   • Constraints with sharing and retaining contextual knowledge on virtual teams:
     • In virtual teams, by definition, contextual knowledge tends to be unevenly distributed among collaborating members. This may result in misunderstandings and misinterpretations, with destructive consequences.
     • As virtual team members are dispersed across multiple locations, their work context varies by organizational culture, physical environment, competing work demands, and access to information technology.
     • Virtual teams often lack the mechanisms to communicate the context or the mechanisms to store information for later retrieval.
     • Failure to share and remember contextual knowledge on virtual teams can lead to misinterpretation and misunderstanding. (Alavi, 2002)

Barriers to Knowledge Sharing in Virtual Teams

From your assigned reading, Overcoming Barriers to Knowledge Sharing in Virtual Teams, by Rosen et al., the authors identified six barriers to information and knowledge sharing in virtual teams (Rosen, et al., 2007). Virtual teams must develop mechanisms to encourage the sharing of individual and collective knowledge, establish trust, communicate clearly, and resolve conflicts openly. Based on their study, the authors developed a model of information and knowledge sharing in virtual teams (Figure 4.3). The authors present “best practice” solutions for overcoming barriers to knowledge sharing in virtual teams (see Table 2, p. 9 of Rosen, et al., 2007). You will be creating a team contract for your course group project and will be asked to incorporate these suggested best practices within your contract.

Knowledge Sharing

Effective knowledge sharing not only depends on mechanisms for communication such as emails, telephone, instant messaging, etc., but also depends on the ability and willingness of team members to participate in the knowledge sharing process (Rosen, et al., 2007).

Leading Virtual Teams

All teams, whether virtual or collocated, need leaders that can clarify the mission of the group, create a vision, communicate the vision, develop strategies to achieve the vision, build coalitions of believers, attract supporters, and shape the team culture through clearly defined operating values (modified from Chutnik, 2009). Part of the leader’s responsibilities include idendifying the right team members and being able to motivate them, setting goals, building trust, establishing behavioral norms, and making sure their team members can plan for and handle new situations (Malhotra, et al., 2007). Executing these responsibilities on virtual teams can be challenging.

Watch the following video on “Overcoming Challenges Faced When Leading Global Teams” (36:30 minutes), this presentation is by Kitty Pearsall, IBM Distinguished Engineer Emeritus. This was a presentation originally given at the 2009 IEEE Women in Engineering Global Engineering International Leadership Conference. The lessons learned that Dr. Pearsall presents are important for all leaders (men and women). The last nine minutes of the video include the Q&A and are not required for the lesson.

As you watch the following video, look for tips and tools that you can use in your virtual team class project.

Group Processes: Collective Mind

As mentioned in your assigned reading, trust and communication patterns are integral to the development of effective virtual teams (Rosen et al., 2007). Early research related to virtual teaming reported that teams with a high level of trust spent time socializing at the start of a project and engaged in continuous and frequent communication (Iacono and Weisband, 1997). In the previous section of this lesson you also saw how transactive memory systems were critical for effective virtual team performance. However, team members must also be able to coordinate and interrelate their knowledge and actions to perform their tasks within a well-tuned team. Weick & Roberts (1993) developed the concept of the "collective mind" to describe the socio-cognitive system within teams to understand this system of interrelations. Social interactions within teams can result in collective mental processes and can vary in their degree of development across groups. These processes are revealed in the way individual actions interrelate within a group. In virtual teams, collaboration is successful when a proper state of the collective mind is developed and maintained. This can be achieved through heedful interrelating which includes “a disposition to act with attentiveness, alertness and care, and behavior that takes into account the expectations of others” (Weick & Roberts, 1993).

Case Study

The Nimitz Class aircraft carriers can hold 5,000–6,000 personnel (crew and aircrew) and are the largest warships ever built. One ship can displace approximately 100,000 tons, and a flight deck length of approximately 1,090 ft (figure 4.4). Interactions of personnel during flight operations were observed in a five-year long study.

Some organizations, such as the airport operations on an aircraft carrier, require nearly error-free operations in order to function without major disruptions/accidents:

Despite a high potential for catastrophic accidents, Navy carriers are quite safe. Organizations that are concerned with reliability (such as Navy carrier operations, nuclear power plants, spacecraft, air traffic control, etc.) use more fully developed aggregate mental processes than those that are seen in organizations that are only concerned with efficiency (Weick & Roberts, 1993). In tightly coupled and interactively complex technical systems it is crucial to strive for error free operation where a small event may lead to catastrophic consequences. Accidents in these systems are a result of a breakdown of comprehension and social processes instead of a failure of technology. In high reliability systems, members are required to act heedfully (i.e.: “carefully, critically, consistently, purposefully, attentively, studiously, vigilantly, and conscientiously” (Weick & Roberts, 1993)). Weick & Roberts (1993) suggest that performance, such as seen on the deck of the Navy carrier, is mediated by collective mental processes, including heedful interrelating.

Weick & Roberts outlined four defining properties of group performance through their observations of crew members on a Navy aircraft carrier (summary adapted from Weick & Roberts, 1993):

1. Group members create social forces for the group when they act as if these social forces exist. On the aircraft carrier, the aviator believes that he is receiving integrated information about his current status, but is actually receiving information from several independent sources located on different parts of the ship.
2. When group members act as if these social forces exist they contribute, represent, and subordinate. Within a well functioning team, individual members develop their actions (contribute) with an understanding of the larger system of joint actions (represent), while interrelating their action with the system (subordinate). The action of a pilot as she taxies onto the catapult, with the catapult attached to her plane, and then bringing the engines to full power, exemplifies this process. The pilot must examine her role, the role of the catapult team, and be aware of the joint situation to be able to respond and subordinate to the system.
3. Contributing, representing, and subordinating, create a system of interrelations among activities. This system is present in the interrelations between the activities of individuals. The “recovery” of an aircraft as it lands on the deck, is a set of interrelated activities among air traffic controllers, landing signal officers, the control tower, etc.
4. The effects produced by this system of interrelated activities varies depending on the style (heedful/heedless) and strength (loose/tight) used to tie the activities together. On an aircraft carrier, the interrelated activities involved during the loading of ordnance onto an aircraft can become more or less dangerous depending on how the interrelating is done. (Weick & Roberts, 1993).

Making connections that link distributed activities and an understanding of how those connections are accomplished are both important for the development of the collective mind. The way that individuals connect their activities to the system demonstrates whether their conduct is “mindful.” Weick & Roberts (1993) stressed that the development of the "collective mind" is separate from the development of a group.

Figure 4.5 illustrates how group development and “collective mind” development can occur separately. In a team with a well developed group but underdeveloped mind, groupthink can be observed (see the following section for more detail). In these situations there is an overestimation of the group’s power, morality, and invulnerability. Contributions are often made heedlessly and disasters can result.

In contrast, an undeveloped group with a developed mind can be seen in ad hoc project teams. The authors suggest that if heedful interrelating can occur on an undeveloped group, it changes the way we think about the stages of team development such as Tuckman’s model of Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing. The same actions that contribute to a well developed collective mind (contribute, represent, and subordinate with heed) can also be thought of as the same actions that are seen in the early stages of new group development (orienting, clarifying, and testing), seen as immature during the “forming” stage of teams. This suggests that teams might be smartest in their early stages and this concept could be tied to the dramatic increase in team comprehension often seen halfway through a project, when teams often undergo a mid-course reshuffling, potentially reflecting a renewing of the collective mind.

Work by Yoo (2001) reports that socio-cognitive aspects of teamwork, the transactive memory system (TMS) and the collective mind, both play an important role in the performance of virtual teams. Their work suggests that while the transactive memory system is important for group members to recognize the available expertise and knowledge in the team, it is the collective mind that allows team members to connect and relate the distributed expertise and knowledge to accomplish tasks as a cohesive team (Yoo, 2001).

Results from their research indicate that communication volume had a significant positive influence on early team performance. Their results also indicate that the collective mind is not fully developed until after the transactive memory system is in place, and then once fully developed, the collective mind mediates the influence of the team’s transactive memory system on its performance. Yoo suggests that equal attention is required for both TMS and the collective mind.

Organizations need to develop tools that facilitate the development of transactive memory systems, as well as ways to facilitate the development and maintenance of the collective mind in virtual teams. Tools such as those developed by Boland et al. (1994), that help facilitate team member’s understanding of the overall problem and to think systematically, can be used to develop the collective mind of the group.

Group Processes: Groupthink

Group processes can have both positive and negative influences during group efforts. As mentioned previously, groupthink can be present on a team with a well-developed group but an undeveloped collective mind can significantly negatively impact a group’s ability to critically evaluate their decisions.

The Challenger shuttle launch is a classic example of groupthink. Engineers at Morton Thiokol had been concerned about o-rings on the solid rocket booster joint for more than eight years prior to the launch. NASA was under increasing external pressure to launch a certain number of flights per year and this eventually led to a loss of effectiveness of their safety and quality assurance program. When it was realized that cold weather could be a problem on the day of the launch, a meeting was held where several Thiokol engineers expressed serious concerns about low temperature and the o-rings. Despite the information being presented to Thiokol managers, a decision was made to launch.

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Focus on Theory

Irving Janis was one of the first reserchers to work on groupthink theory. His initial definition of groupthink was:

“I use the term groupthink as a quick and easy way to refer to the mode of thinking that persons engage in when concurrence-seeking becomes so dominant in a cohesive ingroup that it tends to override realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action. Groupthink is a term of the same order as the words in the newspeak vocabulary George Orwell used in his dismaying world of 1984. In that context, groupthink takes on an invidious connotation. Exactly such a connotation is intended, since the term refers to a deterioration in mental efficiency, reality testing and moral judgments as a result of group pressures.” (Janis, 1971)

Source: Janis, 1971.

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Watch the following short video trailer on the Challenger shuttle launch.

Groupthink tendencies can be counterproductive

Symptoms of groupthink (adapted from Hart, 1991):

• Illusions of invulnerability lead members of the group to be overly optimistic and engage in risk-taking.
• Unquestioned beliefs lead members to ignore possible moral problems and ignore consequences of individual and group actions.
• Rationalizing prevents members from reconsidering their beliefs and causes them to ignore warning signs.
• Stereotyping leads members of the in-group to ignore or even demonize out-group members who may oppose or challenge the groups ideas.
• Self-censorship causes people who might have doubts to hide their fears or misgivings.
• “Mindguards” act as self-appointed censors to hide problematic information from the group.
• Illusions of unanimity lead members to believe that everyone is in agreement and feels the same way.
• Direct pressure to conform is often placed on members. (Hart, 1991)

Source: Paul Hart (1991)

Global Connectedness and the Global Brain (with Journal Entry L4-2)

The technologies and mindset underlying the flourishing global business and engineering environment present tremendous opportunities and challenges alike.

Heylighen describes this network as a self-organizing complex system (Heylighen 2007). The “global brain” can process information, make decisions, solve problems, learn new connections, and discover new ideas. Control of the system is not in the hands of an individual, organization or machine and its knowledge and intelligence are distributed across the globe over all its components (Heylighen 2007).

A common, current example is the Internet. Such “brains” form from the aggregated interactions among all the human and machine sub-components. Idem suggests that a system such as this might be able to solve current and emerging global problems that traditional approaches have yet to solve (Idem, 2004). While optimism exists in the potential to solve problems, there are also concerns that this network will also lead to new technological and social challenges that we haven't thought about (Heylighen, 2011).

In contemporary society people are connected by the flow of data and information. Various representations are available that show the topology of global networks and traffic over the internet. Figure 4.6 includes a map of Facebook, Figure 4.7 how the world reacted to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Announcement on Twitter, and Figure 4.8: a map of Twitter’s languages.

The interconnectedness of the world is mind expanding.

Figure 4.9 is a screen capture of the statistics related to Internet usage at the time the commentary content was originally written on July 20, 2016. This is provided so that you can go to the website and compare current statistics to those from July 20, 2016 to see how much has changed. The statistics presented in Figure 4.9 are:

• Internet users in the world: 3,416,730,454
• Total number of websites: 1,055,635,584
• Emails sent: 161,619,465,990
• Google searches: 3,429,143,979
• Blog posts written: 3,186,526
• Tweets sent: 451,240,462

Check out the real-time current statistics related to Internet usage to compare with Figure 4.9. How much has it changed?

Check out these interactive maps related to telecommunication. There are several different maps; try a few.

The enormity of this interactive nature is exciting. To consider that this tremendous interconnectivity has emerged in the 20 years since the start of widespread use of the Internet, the next 20 years promise even greater opportunities and challenges.

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Stop, Think, and Reflect: Journal Entry L4-2

• What do you think the future will look like?
• What opportunities and challenges do you think will arise as interconnectivity and the global brain evolve over the next 10 years?

Before you move on, reflect on your answers to these questions. Then write your answers or reactions and submit them in the text box of the Journal Entry L4-2 assignment page before you move on to the rest of the course content.

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Journal Entry L4-2

Answer the following questions before moving on to the rest of this course to realize the full potential impact of these assignments:

• What do you think the future will look like?
• What opportunities and challenges do you think will arise as interconnectivity and the global brain evolve over the next 10 years?

Journal Entry L4-2 Rubric

Criteria	Fully Completed	Missing	Possible Points
What do you think the future will look like?	2.5 pts	0.0 pts	2.5 pts
What opportunities and challenges do you think will arise as interconnectivity and the global brain evolve over the next 10 years?	2.5 pts	0.0 pts	2.5 pts

Information Networks

As information networks have become more global they have also become more closely linked with the people and groups that use them and more sophisticated in how the networks service the users. As mentioned previously, the Global Brain is a metaphor for this emerging, collectively intelligent network that includes the people of the globe, along with the knowledge bases, computers, and the communication linkages (Mayer-Kress & Barczys (1995).

The concept of a universal knowledge network began during the Enlightenment period and was discussed by Chevalier de Ramsay, when describing a freemasonry objective (Heylighen, 2011):

Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopedia, published between 1751 and 1772, helped to spread the ideas of rational inquiry, science, and technology, helping to fuel the industrial and French revolutions (Heylighen, 2011).

Eventually the amount of knowledge had grown to the point that a single volume or collection could not hold it. The father of information science, Paul Otlet of Belgium, developed a structured system of documents containing texts and images connected by links. His concept of a global brain was very similar to the World Wide Web:

If you are interested in learning more about Paul Otlet visit BrainPickings or his online biography.

H. G. Wells helped to develop the concept of a world encyclopedia, called a World Brain, containing the memory of the world with continuous updates (Boyd, 1999).

Tim Berners-Lee, in 1991, laid the foundation for the World Wide Web. He combined the HTML hypertext document format with the ability to locate documents on the Internet (Berners-Lee, 2000). This breakthrough provided the ability to link documents on different computers based on subject matter. The human brain is able to link information without an apparent relationship through free association. Berners-Lee applied this concept to computers in an attempt to increase their power by imitating the functioning of the human brain's ability to link arbitrary bits of information (Heylighen, 2011).

If you are interested, you can learn more information about hypertext and hypermedia.

The traditional encyclopedia has been transformed with the Internet. Wikipedia, created in 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, is the largest encyclopedia with millions of authors and users worldwide.

Wikipedia is continuously being expanded and is approaching the “world memory” and “global brain” described above.

Heylighen argues: “…the web learns from its users…As such, the web could turn into an intelligent, adaptive, self-organizing system of shared knowledge, structured in a flexible and intuitive way.

Unlike material resources, knowledge and information do not diminish by being shared with others. Since the learning web would make this sharing effortless and free, this enables a positive-sum interaction in which everyone gains by making their individual knowledge and experience available to others. This provides a continuing incentive for further cognitive integration. Here, the web plays the role of a shared memory that collects, organizes and makes available the collective wisdom. It achieves this without demanding anything from its users or contributors beyond what they would have had to invest if they were working on their own.” (Heylighen, 2011).

Language Lesson: Turkish

In this lesson we are studying Turkey and Turkish is the predominant language spoken in Turkey.

Please watch Video 4.5 (9:59 minutes) for a bit of history of the Turkish language and a short overview of the structure of the Turkish language.

The following is an overview of the percentages of people in Turkey that speak each of these languages as their “mother tongue” (adapted from Wikipedia, Languages of Turkey, data from Toplumsal et al., 2006):

• Turkish—84.54%
• Northern Kurdish—11.97%
• Arabic—1.38%
• Zazaki—1.01%
• Other Turkic languages—0.28%
• Balkan languages—0.23%
• Laz&mdassh;0.12%
• Armenian—0.07%

Table 4.1 provides the Turkish translation for each of the 10 words/short phrases. Be sure to study this table as you will have a short quiz at the end of this lesson. Click on the link in the table to hear the word pronounced.

If you would like to hear additional phrases pronounced, please go to this website and listen to the Basic Turkish Phrases.

Only the words in Table 4.1 below are on the language quiz. Listen to each word below and practice repeating it back, repeat the process several times for each word.

Table 4.1. Key words/phrases in English and Turkish.

English Word/Phrase	Turkish Word/Phrase
Yes	Evet Note: Audio removed. You will have access to the audio in the actual course.
No	Yok hayır Note: Audio removed. You will have access to the audio in the actual course.
Hello	Merhabā Note: Audio removed. You will have access to the audio in the actual course.
Goodbye	Güle güle Note: Audio removed. You will have access to the audio in the actual course.
Excuse me	Affedersiniz Note: Audio removed. You will have access to the audio in the actual course.
Please	Lütfen Note: Audio removed. You will have access to the audio in the actual course.
Thank you	Teşekkür ederim Note: Audio removed. You will have access to the audio in the actual course.
You're welcome	Rica ederim Note: Audio removed. You will have access to the audio in the actual course.
How much	Ne kadar Note: Audio removed. You will have access to the audio in the actual course.
I don't understand	Ben anlamıyorum Note: Audio removed. You will have access to the audio in the actual course.

Lesson 4: Test Your Knowledge of Turkish Culture

Your readings this week also included a chapter from Textbook 1 on Turkey. Based on this reading, where do you think Turkey falls on Hofstede's dimensions? Think about where the index score for Turkey would fall within each dimension and then hover over the scale to test your knowledge and see the correct answer.

Note: Country specific pop-up information is from: https://geert-hofstede.com/turkey.html and Cultural dimension indices and rankings are from Hofstede et al. (2010).

Lesson 4 Summary

This lesson provided an overview of how globalization affects communication, including barriers and best practices related to intercultural communication and effective virtual teaming, and knowledge management and sharing on virtual teams.

You were also introduced to group processes such as the collective mind and groupthink and how they can have both positive and negative influences on group performance.

Information networks were then discussed as these have played a critical role in globalization and will continue to be drivers of a global connected world and “global mind.” In the communication activity in this lesson, you will explore the concepts discussed in the lesson regarding cultural differences in communication. As you continue the assigned readings from Hofstede’s book, you will learn more about each of the six cultural dimensions and how each of these affects how we interact and communicate with others.

During Lesson 7, you will revisit the concepts discussed in this lesson as you develop your group project plan and team contract, incorporating best practices for effective virtual teams when appropriate. In the next lesson, you will develop a better understand of yourself as well as your interactions with others. You will build upon the basics of psychometrics that you may have encountered in earlier courses, and delve into how these personality preferences and types vary between cultures and affect virtual and cross-cultural team performance.

Before you move on to the next lesson, please make sure you have completed all of the readings and activities listed for this lesson within the Course Schedule of the Full Syllabus.

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References

• Alavi, M., & Tiwana, A. (2002). Knowledge integration in virtual teams: The potential role of KMS. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 53(12): 1029–1037.
• Barna, L. M. (1997). Stumbling blocks in intercultural communication. In L.A. Samovar & R.E. Porter (Eds.), Intercultural communication: A reader (8th ed.), pp. 337–346. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
• Berners-Lee, T. (2000) Weaving the web: The original design and ultimate destiny of the World Wide Web. New York,NY:Harper Collins.
• Boland, R. J., Tenkasi, R. V., & Dov, T. E. (1994). Designing information technology to support distributed cognition. Organization Science, 5, 456–475.
• Boyd R. W. (1999). H.G. Wells's idea of a world brain: A critical reassessment, Journal of the American Society of Information Science, 50:557–573.
• Buck, R. (1984). The communication of emotion. New York, NY:Guilford.
• Davenport, T. H., & Prusak, L. (1997). Working knowledge. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
• Davies, A., Fidler, D., & Gorbis, M. (2011). Future work skills 2020, University of Phoenix Research Institute. Retrieved from http://www.iftf.org/uploads/media/SR-382A_UPRI_future_work_skills_sm.pdf
• Durkheim, E. (1933). The division of labour in society, Simpson, George (Trans.). New York, NY:The Free Press.
• Hall, E. T. (1959). The silent language. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett.
• Hart, P. (1991). Irving L. Janis' victims of groupthink. Political Psychology, 12(2), 247–278.
• Heylighen, F. (2011). Conceptions of a global brain: An historical review. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.90.9498&rep=rep1&type=pdf
• Hofstede (n.d.). Country specific descriptions. Retrieved from https://geert-hofstede.com/colombia.html
• Hofstede, G., Hofstede, G. J., Minkov, M. (2010). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind, (3rd ed.). New York, NY:McGraw Hill.
• Iacono, C. S. & Weisband, S. (1997). Developing trust in virtual teams. Paper presented at the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICCS-30) Conference, Hawaii.
• Janis, I. L. (1971). Groupthink. Psychology Today. 5(6): 43–46, 74–76. Archived from the original on April 1, 2010.
• Jandt, F. E. (2010). An introduction to intercultural communication, (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:SAGE Publications.
• Minton-Eversole, T. (2012). Virtual Teams Used Most by Global Organizations, Survey Says. Retrived from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/organizational-and-employee-development/pages/virtualteamsusedmostbyglobalorganizations,surveysays.aspx
• Morris, D. (1995). Bodytalk: The meaning of human gestures. New York, NY:Crown Trade Paperbacks.
• Oliver, R. T. (1971). Communication and culture in ancient India and China. Syracuse, NY:Syracuse University Press.
• Otlet, P. M. (1935). Essaie d'universalisme, 390–391. Brussels:Editions du Mundaneum.
• Rochlin, G. I., LaPorte, T. R., Roberts, K. H. (1987). The self-designing high-reliability organization: Aircraft carrier flight operations at sea. Naval War College Review, 40(4):76–90.
• Rosen, B., Furst, S., & Blackburn, R. (2007). Overcoming barriers to knowledge sharing in virtual teams. Organizational Dynamics (36)3, 259–273.
• SISU (2007) Perception by Prany Sananikone, SISU intercultural course. Retrieved from https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/intercultural-communication/0/steps/11055
• Smutkupt, S., & Barna, L. M. (1976). Impact of nonverbal communication in an intercultural setting: Thailand. International and Intercultural Communication Annual, 3, 130–138.
• Sugawara, Y. (1993). Silence and avoidance: Japanese expatriate adjustment. Unpublished master’s thesis, California State University, San Bernardino.
• Yoo, Y. (2001). Developments of transactive memory systems and collective mind in virtual teams. The International Journal of Organizational Analysis (9)2, 187–208.
• Weick, K. E. & Roberts, K. H. (1993). Collective mind in organizations: Heedful interrelating on flight decks. Administrative Science Quarterly (38)3, 357–381.
• Wikipedia, Languages of Turkey, data from Toplumsal et al., 2006. Accessed from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Turkey.

Lesson 4 Activities

Lesson 4 Reading Quiz

Please choose the best answer to each of the questions.

Communication Discussion Forum

This is an individual assignment, please submit your initial discussion post by Thursday. Each student will then respond to at least two other posts (not related to the host country of their project).

Initial post: After watching the video on the page Communication and Culture (with Journal Entry L4-1) and thinking about your past experiences, describe one of your own experiences that could have been included in the video. Include what you could have done differently in this encounter or situation.

Lesson 4 News Presentation Discussion

Discussion Overview

Please see the News Presentation Videos assignment and either post your video presentation and questions (if you are a presenter this week) or review this lesson's presentation post(s), which should be available by Thursday. Then, reply to your classmates.

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News Presenters

Post your video presentation and at least two thought-provoking questions for class discussion by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday. See the News Presentation Videos assignment for additional information on preparing your presentation.

You will be graded on your presentation in the News Presentation Videos assignment. Additionally, you will receive up to 14 points for your two thought-provoking questions and timely responses to students in this discussion.

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All Other Students

All students, except for the presenters, must first view the posted video presentation(s) and respond to at least one of the news presenter's questions by noon on Saturday. Clearly indicate to which question you are responding in your replies. Please post this response as soon as possible after the news presentation is posted in order to provide time for classmates to reply to you.

Additionally, you must reply to at least two (2) peer responses by Sunday at 11:59p.m. North American ET. “All Other Students” receive up to 14 points for this assignment. Please click on Show Rubric to see the rubric for this assignment.

Additional information may be found in the News Presentation Videos assignment.

Language Quiz: Turkish

Match the English and Turkish words/phrases to demonstrate your understanding of the key words/phrases covered in this lesson.

Please use this as a learning opportunity. I realize that you could simply look at the course page, but instead please give this a try without looking when you take the quiz.

You will receive three tries to take the quiz and your highest score will be kept.

If nothing else, try it twice without looking at the Canvas page.

Intercultural Development Plan (IDP)

By now each student should have received their Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) results and your individualized Intercultural Development Plan (IDP). If you have not received them please contact your instructor immediately.

Please read the entire IDI Individual Profile and Intercultural Development Plan (IDP) as it provides an overview of learning opportunities that you can use to develop your own intercultural competencies and move you on long the intercultural development continuum (a primary goal of this course). For those that are already within the 'adaptation' orientation, there are still growth opportunities for you as well.

Your personalized IDP pdf document will help guide you through the development of your intercultural development plan.

1. Before you get started on your IDP please review your IDI Individual Profile results.
2. Complete parts 1–3 of the IDP document. You will provide responses to all of the questions from parts 1–3 in the IDP pdf.
   • 1.0. What has been your experience with cultural communities?
   • 2.0. Please identify 1-2 goals you have for more effectively navigating cultural differences and commonalities.
   • 3.0. Identify challenging situations or barriers you face.
3. Identify at least 5 hours worth of activities from part 4 that you will complete throughout the semester. Part 4 of the IDP provides several activities that are tailored to your specific developmental stage on the continuum. You do not need to complete the activities for this submission but you must identify them now and then work on these activities throughout the semester.
   • Each activity has an estimated time for completion. Use the time estimate to identify at least 5 hours worth of activities.
   • At least one of the identified activities must involve an interaction with another person.
   • For this assignment you need to identify the activities by highlighting them in yellow within the pdf.
   • Do not select the final activity in the plan (Summary reflection questions) as part of your 5 hours. This final reflection will be part of the final assignment due in Lesson 13)
4. Use the IDP pdf to develop your plan and submit the partially completed pdf document to this assignment. The pdf is setup to be able to type your responses directly in the document using Adobe Reader.

You will then implement the identified activities throughout the remainder of the semester and towards the end of the semester (Lesson 13) there will be a final reflection activity where you will submit the completed activities identified in this assignment, along with the final reflection questions at the end of your IDP pdf.

You need to start on this assignment in lesson 2, but you are given until lesson 4 to submit your IDP.

You should also start to implement the suggested activities that you identified for your intercultural development as soon as possible to gain the greatest benefit from this activity within the next 11 weeks of this course.

News Presentation Videos

Activity Overview (Lessons 3–13)

Each student is required to present one news presentation by video during the course of the semester. Depending on the number of students in the course, it may be necessary to have multiple students present during the same lesson.

The presentation should be focused on the global economies/markets or industry events/developments impacting engineering and related to one of the countries that we are studying during the course (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Turkey, Mexico, Colombia, Japan, and Saudi Arabia). Your presentation should include 1–3 PowerPoint slides and should be sourced appropriately.

Students will sign up using the Canvas Group space. Based on the news presentation signup schedule, student(s) post their “news presentation” video along with their questions for discussion during the beginning of the week that they have signed up. The rest of the class must respond to the questions posed by the presenter(s) and respond to at least two different students' replies to the posed questions.

Signing up for a Presentation Week

To sign up for a presentation week, select People (from the course navigation menu), then Groups, then select News Presentation Sign-up. There must be at least one news presentation each week, so please fill all the dates before doubling up on any of them. Please start with Lessons 3–6 to ensure that we have a presenter for the lessons that occur over the next few weeks.

Timeline

Please choose and sign up for a presentation week as early as possible. Posts for each week are due as indicated in the following table.

Weekly Posting Deadlines

Day and Time (ET)	Task
Wednesday, 11:59 p.m.	Presenters: Post video presentation and questions
Saturday, noon	Non-Presenters: Review presentation(s) and post responses to questions
Sunday, 11:59 p.m.	All Students: Post 2+ replies

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Presenters

You will post your presentation in the News Presentation Discussion for the week you sign up (e.g. post to the Lesson 3 News Presentation Discussion if you signed up to present in Lesson 3). However, you will be graded for your presentation in this space using the rubric below.

News Topic

You should be regularly reading The Economist (Links to an external site.), Bloomberg Markets (Links to an external site.), or other quality sources of information. Your presentation should be based on a recent (i.e. last 3 weeks) news story that directly relates to global economies/markets or industry events/developments with a potential impact on engineering related corporations/industries within one of our studied countries (listed in the Activity Overview).

Presentation

• Develop an outline and/or rough script for your presentation.
• Prepare a summary of the article that you present, in your own words.
  • Discuss the three main points of the article, (i.e. “This issue/article can be boiled down into three points: 1, 2, and 3.”). Include supporting information from the article about each of these three points.
  • Clearly relate the topic of the article to global engineering.
• Use the recording software of your choice to create a 3–5 minute video of your presentation.

Preparing the PowerPoint Slide

• Keep the PowerPoint slide image rich and text lean (i.e. use lots of pictures/diagrams/graphs and very few words). Remember you do not need to include every piece of information that you want to talk about on the slide itself.
• Include your source citation on the slide.
• While not necessary, assertion evidence based design can be very helpful in creating an informative and visually appealing slide. See slide templates at The Craft of Scientific Presentations for more information on how to use the assertion-evidence approach.

Preparing Questions for Class Discussion

• Student presenters must also prepare at least two thought-provoking questions for class discussion; these should be at a level that students could contribute based on the information presented and not require additional knowledge/experience on the topic.
• Include your discussion questions on a second slide in your PowerPoint presentation in your video and in your discussion post.

Discussion Posts

• Post your video and questions to the discussion.
• Presenters should follow up in the discussion and comment on at least two students' responses to their thought-provoking questions.

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Non-Presenters

• All students who are not presenting for the week must first watch the presentations posted to that lesson's News Presentation Discussion by your classmate(s).
• Then respond to at least one of the news presenter's questions, clearly indicating the question to which you are responding.
• In addition to responding to the presenter's question, reply to at least two peer responses to earn full credit.

News Presentations Rubric

Criteria	Excellent	Satisfactory	No Points Awarded	Possible Points
Choose a news story from the past 21 days that relates to the course content	4.0 pts Timely and related to course content	2.0 pts Timely or related but not both	0.0 pts Neither timely nor related	4.0 pts
Create a video presentation on this topic	11.0 pts Video made and posted to the appropriate discussion	Not applicable	0.0 pts Missing the video	11.0 pts
Include a Powerpoint overview of your topic	5.0 pts Powerpoint slide complete and included in video presentation	2.5 pts Powerpoint slide included but missing at least one key element	0.0 pts Slide was missing from presentation video	5.0 pts