Gender differences in teamwork and leadership within virtual engineering laboratories

Abstract

To adapt to changes in digital transformation and related Learning and Working 4.0, laboratories in engineering education must leap forward and employ well-thought-out pedagogical designs. This includes digital laboratories that in return change social dynamics and interaction patterns of students. This contribution takes the first step of examining gender-specific teamwork and leadership of groups conducting a digital laboratory in fluid mechanics. Self and external evaluation of perceived teamwork of team members (TMs) and leaders (TLs) was analyzed. Furthermore, possibilities for improvements were evaluated. A mixed-methods analysis was performed with respect to gender and role to assess whether differences occur. Conclusions show considerable homogeneity between genders and roles and identify communication as most important point of improvement.