Collaboration or working with other students is a normal part of study in higher education. Collaboration increasingly takes place online as well as in face-to-face learning. Collaborating may involve speaking and listening and/or communicating using voice or text-based channels. What requirements are there for collaborating online? Is collaborating online very different from collaborating face-to-face? And what kind of tools are best suited for online collaborations?
In these activities you can listen to some students talking about their preferred online collaboration tools. You will also think about the skills needed for working together online and consider the potential of some specific tools for collaborative work.
Activity 1: Which tools do you use to collaborate online?
What do you think are the most popular online collaboration tools among students? In this activity you are going to listen to some students explaining what tools they prefer to use and how.
Instruction
Watch the video to find out which are the most popular online collaboration tools among students and how they use them. First think about how you work with other students online and try to predict what you think popular tools will be. Make a notes of any tools mentioned and their purposes in the text area provided. Then read the feedback.
The students mentioned the following tools for collaborating online and study-related tasks: Facebook - when doing a group presentation; to organise individual tasks and when to meet to practise the presentation Facebook - for a group discussion and sharing YouTube videos, pdfs; email - for sending information; Google Docs - for modifying group documents Facebook - to talk with people and get ideas for essays Facebook with link to Dropbox - to share files, ask questions and comment in one place
Facebook was the most commonly used tool among these students; however, not all the students found it useful. Some students were required to do more collaborative tasks than others on their course; some students needed to share files more than others; some just needed to share ideas.
The kinds of online tools that will be useful for you are likely to depend on the type of course you are doing and its requirements. How do you need to work with other students on your course? Which tools can help you do this?
Activity 2: Needs for effective online collaboration
What are the requirements for collaborating online as opposed to face-to-face? Are they different or essentially the same? In this activity you are going to consider what participant skills and needs there are for effective collaboration online.
Instruction
Look at these participant skills and needs and decide which apply only to face-to-face collaboration, which only to online collaboration, and which apply to both kinds of collaboration. Drag and drop the items into the correct box and then read the feedback.
Face-to-face collaboration
Online collaboration
Any collaboration
being punctual for meetings
cooperating not competing
ensuring everyone is skilled in tool use
finding suitable physical location to meet
fixed meetings across time zones
legible paper records
selecting an appropriate tool to use
turntaking when speaking and listening
working towards common defined goals
Here are participant skills and needs matched with types of collaboration: Face-to-face collaboration: finding suitable physical location to meet; legible paper records Online collaboration: ensuring everyone is skilled in tool use; fixed meetings across time zones; selecting an appropriate tool to use Any collaboration: being punctual for meetings; cooperating not competing; turntaking when speaking and listening; working towards common defined goals
Practical issues such as the need to keep paper records and arrange a physical location for meeting do not normally apply to online meetings. Meetings online can usually be automatically recorded and participants are nearly always in different locations; however, if participants are in different time zones it is important to be clear about the time and manner of any meeting online. This may require checking the Coordinated Universal Time website.
For online collaborations it is essential that everyone has pre-trialled and can use the meeting tool otherwise a lot of time may be wasted with technical issues. Remember that not all online collaborations need to take place at the same time; some tools such as standard discussion forums are appropriate to use for asynchronous collaborations especially if participants need time to reflect before exchanging ideas and comments.
There are certain basic needs for all collaborations whether face-to-face or online if they are to be effective.These include the need for participants to be punctual for meetings; to cooperate and not to compete; to take turns when speaking and listening; to work towards common defined goals.
Activity 3: Which tools can help you collaborate in course work online?
In this activity you are going to explore some commonly-used online tools that could serve for study collaboration purposes.
Instruction
Think about how these different types of tool could help in study tasks requiring collaboration. Open the links to explore any tools if you are unfamiliar with them. Next, for each tool, select the checkboxes next to any possible collaborative uses. In the text areas provided make notes on other ways of using the tools collaboratively. Then read the feedback.
planning how to start a group project reporting verbally on work that each group member has done interviewing someone for a course-related survey
Even though it includes text chat functionality, which can be useful for sharing links and short written comments, Skype is predominantly a tool for oral communciation (with or without video). It would not be suitable for collaborations involving writing or editing.
writing and editing a group project report together creating the slides for a group seminar presentation collaboratively making a joint poster for a conference
A tool such as Google Docs allows a group to work collaboratively on creating text-based items and using different formats (e.g. doc, PPT slide for presentation or conference poster).
building sets of useful links with others on your course locating, annotating and publishing topic-related weblinks with others
Scoop.it is a public curation tool that can be used to collect together your favourite online topics and content and share with others.
Delicious is a social bookmarking web service. Users can tag, store and share web bookmarks. It is possible to create a collection of everyone's bookmarks using one tag, making it quite an effective tool for collaboration purposes.
Diigo is also a social bookmarking website. Diigo stands for "Digest of Internet Information, Groups and Other stuff". The free option allows users to bookmark and tag webpages. Users can highlight and add a sticky note to specific parts. These can then be organised and shared with others.
setting up and inviting others to a project group sharing and responding to each others' ideas sharing links to project documents and other files
A social networking site would not allow you to to edit documents together online but, as the name suggests, it would be useful for general networking activities for participants working on a collaborative project. Facebook is often used by students for informal collaborations. LinkedIn is more of a professional social networking tool but it is increasingly being used by students, particularly post-graduates.
