Participation Matters: Evaluating Shared Leadership in Online Games

Abstract

Socialization and teamwork enhance the learning experience, and as online teams perform complex tasks, can they benefit from sharing the leadership role? This study examines shared leadership in virtual teams that meet in an online game and examine participant perceptions as well as direct measurements as the leadership role was shared. The paper reviews the research method and research design for evaluating shared leadership within an online game simulation kit set in a 3D virtual world, and then analyzes the experiment's results and compares them to understand how online courses can benefit from shared leadership opportunities.