Global virtual (GV) teams provide an opportunity for engineering students to participate in meaningful, cross-cultural learning projects without additional costs of time and money associated with study abroad programs. However, students must learn how to communicate effectively with international team members. Instruction to help students learn which virtual communication technologies to use and how to use them is needed. Training must include cross-cultural training that facilitates team communications and interactions with people from different cultural backgrounds. This study focused on how 10 specialized lessons, Principles of Global Virtual Teams (PGVT), facilitated the communications and interactions of students participating on GV teams in an advanced engineering design course. All GV teams provided evidence that communications and interactions on GV teams are different than Co-located teams. However, teams receiving the PGVT instruction showed indications of increased communication ability on GV teams. These indicators included technology use, vernacular phrase use, communication competence ratings and descriptors from team emails.