One of the primary selling points of synchronous classroom tools is the ability to create effective online collaboration. The sales pitch seems to make sense. When participants learn together in a traditional classroom, they have the opportunity to directly interact with one another and with the trainer. Concerns about moving courses online often seem to be related to the anticipated loss of this peer-to-peer interaction. So if online classrooms can encourage and replicate these interactions, they become more acceptable as a delivery medium and meeting space.
So what is online collaboration, exactly? While everyone seems to agree that it is a good idea, no one seems to be able to define the concept succinctly. As usual, to find the answer I turned to the Google™ search engine at www.google.com. Expecting to be overloaded with results, I confidently typed the term "Online Collaboration."
The "hit list" was surprisingly unsatisfying. Many of the resulting websites were vendor sites selling online collaboration tools. I had difficulty nailing down a definition. Often, the vendors said that they offered online collaboration solutions, but never went so far as to define what they meant by the term. The various software providers either thought the concept was self-evident or they did not actually have a working definition. So I focused my search a little bit and typed "Define Online Collaboration."
This produced more valuable results. Instead of vendor sites, I received articles and journals that actually discussed and attempted to define the process.
While there didn't seem to be a universally accepted definition of the concept, certain themes were obvious, such as:
Don't confuse "collaboration" with "communication." Having access to and using tools like chat rooms, whiteboards, and application sharing does not guarantee a collaborative interaction (Kontzer, 2003).
Do provide participants with achievable and well-defined outcomes and deliverables and guidelines or a specific process to help them achieve those outcomes. If participants do not understand what they are supposed to accomplish or how they are supposed to do it, the time will be spent on activities that do not necessarily support the goal.
Don't encourage lecture. Design interactions that transition the trainer from "lecturer" to "facilitator."
Do allow the participants to assist one another in the learning process. After completing independent work in an asynchronous format, participants can "collaborate" during the synchronous event to solve problems, answer questions, and pose solutions (see
www.cvm.tamu.edu/wklemm/cl2.htmlfor more information).Do recognize, and reward, the results of online collaboration so that participants feel as if they have engaged in a worthwhile endeavor. This will make them more responsive to future collaboration efforts.
These characteristics work together to support the ultimate goal of online collaboration, which can be summarized as follows:
When collaborating online, using asynchronous and synchronous online tools, participant groups should be able to get results (solve problems, create project plans, design projects, and so on) that are better than the results they would have obtained working individually.
It is interesting to note that the components of online collaboration have little to do with the tools and everything to do with the people using the tools. In short, collaboration is a human interaction no matter how it is achieved.
Remember that simply asking individuals to work together does not result in collaboration. According to Winer and Ray (1994), there are three distinct ways in which grouped individuals can interact, cooperation, coordination, and collaboration:
When individuals are cooperating, each individual works independently toward achieving personal objectives. Individuals will assist others when asked but they are not motivated to do so because they do not see what they have personally to gain. Asynchronous exercises should be designed to be cooperative in nature. Encourage participants to ask for assistance from the trainer or other participants using tools like email and discussion boards.
When individuals start to regularly plan and communicate, they are involved in coordination. Individuals are still concerned with their personal goals, but they are willing to make allowances for group needs. The group receives the benefit of the work of each individual, but the group members still have their own personal objectives. Problems occur when an individual starts to perceive that his or her personal goal is being overshadowed by that of the group. Coordination is often the most appropriate level of collaboration in the synchronous environment. Exercises should encourage participants to work together to solve problems, while at the same time providing opportunities that ensure that each individual can master concepts on his or her own in case one or two group members choose not to collaborate fully. These can include independent exercises in workbooks, tests and assessments, and individual practice opportunities.
When individuals put aside personal agendas in favor of the common goal of the group, they are collaborating. The groups create a plan to meet a goal, determine team leadership and responsibilities, and truly share resources. Successful attainment of the common goal is the ultimate achievement. This is a very altruistic outcome, and one not necessary to obtain in all learning events. True collaborative exercises are often most appropriate for goals like team building and real-life problem solving (for example, "How do we decrease our expenses by 28 percent in the next six months?"). Before you decide to include this level of collaboration, makes sure it supports your overall learning goals.
Effective online collaboration generally is not a spontaneous occurrence. Unfortunately, inviting a group of participants and a trainer to the same virtual space does not guarantee that collaboration takes place in the same way that a group of people working on the same project does not constitute a team. Working together to achieve results requires planning and preparation in several areas. The trainer must be ready to facilitate, the participant must understand how to contribute, and the exercises must be well-planned and have achievable outcomes.
Organizations often assume that an effective stand-up trainer can easily transition to the synchronous environment. However, the competencies required to be an online trainer are unique in several ways.
When online, trainers need to be able to manage and interact with participants who are geographically dispersed. They must learn how to read participants' cues without the benefit of eye contact or body language. When technology fails, online trainers must be ready and able to gracefully manage the issues while trying to maintain participants' confidence in the learning environment.
Trainers new to the online environment should seek out and take advantage of every available opportunity to be a participant in synchronous programs. While observing more experienced (at least theoretically!) trainers, pay attention to how well exercises work. Take notes on what you consider best practices and situations to avoid. Then, after you understand the participant experience, make sure you master the use of the collaboration tools available in your platform. The best-designed program can fail if the trainer isn't certain of how to use all of the tools.
When preparing to deliver a specific program, the trainer should rehearse, utilizing the designer and any assistant trainers in the process. This will allow the designer to answer questions about exercises and provide an opportunity for the designer to make any last-minute edits to exercise construction.
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(Note: For more information on the role of the online trainer, see Chapter 2 of The Synchronous Trainer's Survival Guide.)
Participants share the responsibility for a successful online program. Learning in this environment often requires more attention and active participation than in the traditional environment. Organizations should provide opportunities for participants to be oriented to the environment and learn the technology. Before attending the events, participants have to make the time to thoroughly complete any prework assignments to ensure that they are able to fully participate in the live session. While attending the event, participants should be prepared to actively participate (not just listen!) and adhere to ground rules. (See the example in Figure 3.3.)
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(Note: For more information on ground rules and managing online participants, see Chapter 6 of The Synchronous Trainer's Survival Guide.)
Only when the participants are ready and willing to exploit the online classroom can true collaboration occur.
The online environment provides many ways for participants to collaborate. The asynchronous environment provides email, discussion boards, shared workspaces, and peer-to-peer networks. These types of tools allow users to create and post information, review and process information shared by others, and give each other feedback. All of this is done at the convenience of the individual, presumably managed by a training plan containing deliverables, expectations, and deadlines.
The synchronous environment provides tools for real-time collaboration, such as whiteboards, application sharing, and chat, among others. Chapters 4 through 9 examine these collaboration tools in detail in order to assist the synchronous designer in creating collaborative exercises.
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Don't confuse "feedback" with interaction and collaboration. While a trainer can get valuable information from polling and other feedback mechanisms, the act of sending feedback does not in itself create collaboration.
In order to encourage collaboration, opportunities must be provided for people to work together. When working with groups of ten, twenty, or more participants, achieving true collaboration becomes more difficult. Participation tends to be serial in nature. (For example, John talks, then Sarah talks, then Mary talks.) Generally, a trainer wouldn't ask fifteen people in a row to answer the same question verbally. There are several reasons for this:
It would take too much time. If twenty people talk for thirty seconds each, that is ten minutes—a substantial percentage of time if the class is only one or two hours long.
Once the first person has finished speaking, there is little incentive for that person to remain engaged for the rest of the discussion. He knows that he will not be "needed" for another nine minutes.
It can become boring for everyone, and later participants will often respond with statements like, "I agree with everything that's been said up to this point."
For these reasons, serial exercises that include everyone in a large group are rare. I think that online collaboration should include the "voice" of all participants by
Designing exercises for participants to work together in small groups, and
Designing exercises that allow all of the participants in the class to participate concurrently as a large group.
If these types of exercises are not included, some participants will be frustrated because their opinions were not heard, while others will see the opportunity to opt out of exercises and accomplish personal tasks—while keeping one "ear" to the classroom in case the trainer tries to engage them. Another risk is that the program will tend to be more lecture-oriented because the onus will be on the trainer to keep the course moving forward.
Creating concurrent collaborative exercises, during which all of the participants are working at the same time, minimizes lecture and increases the opportunity for participants to learn from one another in addition to learning from the trainer. Several versatile tools support concurrent collaboration:
The breakout room tool is a very effective way to facilitate small-group work. Participants can be divided up and encouraged to collaborate. Each group works independently. At the end of the exercise the groups can be recalled to the main classroom to discuss the results of their collaboration. (Examples are provided in Chapter 6.)
A group chat room allows everyone to communicate with everyone else simultaneously using text. (Examples are provided in Chapter 5.) When the group becomes very large, the trainer may need assistance with facilitation, but this type of application can accommodate a group of almost any size.
A multi-user whiteboard allows, at the discretion of the trainer, everyone to write on whiteboard slides at the same time. (Examples are provided in Chapter 4.) With planning, this type of exercise can accommodate up to twenty participants successfully.
Remember, these tool variations are not available in all synchronous platforms. For example, some vendors have determined that an "instant messaging" approach is more appropriate than a group chat area. (Check www.insynctraining.com and click on resources for information on what tools are provided by individual software vendors.)
I recently had a discussion with a representative from a vendor that did not provide a full multi-user whiteboard. When I explained why I thought it was such a powerful tool and why I thought it should be included with their platform, the representative responded that those exercises would be too difficult to facilitate. My response was, "Get a better class of facilitator! Don't limit ME!" In fact, these types of activities can be easily facilitated and highly successful if the exercise is well-planned and the trainer has a chance to practice. Chapter 4 provides detailed examples of successful whiteboard exercises.
Now that the program design, learning environment, and collaboration level have been considered, the next step is to create collaborative synchronous exercises. When used effectively, synchronous tools like audio, whiteboards, chat, breakout rooms, application sharing, and synchronous web browsing can support the learning design and program collaboration goals.