Looking Back at the Virtual Collaboration Project

Final Blog Post

This was my first time working with a virtual team, and, thankfully, it was a positive experience. We engaged in socioemotional communication from the outset and throughout the process, as advised by Flammia Et Al (2016), and this helped to build trust, and contributed to a positive working relationship. In general, the team was eager to work harmoniously and to do the best job possible. However, I do feel that at times that there were too many people on the team for the amount of work to be done. For example, some tasks required only two or three people, which enabled some team members to disappear into the background. I learned a lot about group dynamics from the project. It is interesting to see how leaders emerge, and how others are more comfortable to follow. I also liked seeing how other people tackle assignments and I definitely learned from their methods. Overall, the team worked well together, and I would definitely like to collaborate with a virtual team again.

Skills I developed From This Project

• Facilitation skills: As the team leader, I needed to facilitate virtual meetings. This involved planning the agenda, arranging suitable times to meet, ensuring that everyone is heard and that a consensus is reached, and occasionally writing the minutes of the meeting. As the leader, I tried to make sure the team stayed focused on the agenda and that all discussions reached a conclusion with which the whole team was happy.
• Negotiation skills: Interestingly, I interviewed an instructional designer recently and they identified this as a very important skill in their job. Negotiation skills came into play in the collaborative project when there was a difference in opinion. For example, if I was unhappy with the wording of a particular sentence, and somebody else was reluctant to change it, we would have to discuss the issue professionally with each other, and clearly justify our points of view.
• Project management skills: This project was all about project management. The assignment was not difficult and could easily have been carried out by one person. However, the goal was to collaborate virtually. This meant listing the tasks to be done and dividing them among the team, according to everyone’s skills and talents. I also created a schedule to ensure that these tasks were completed in a timely manner, thus meeting our deadlines. I also would check in with different team members to assess their progress and offer assistance, if needed. I strived to keep the team updated about the project and elicit their feedback on the document.

Team Leadership

We decided to have a leader in each university. This made sense for the University of Limerick faction as there were five in the group. However, there were only two students from Paris and two from Florida, so I think that having a leader from those universities was not entirely necessary. As mentioned above, I was the team leader/project manager. I acted as a facilitator for meetings and ensured that the project was progressing according to the schedule. I think it was important to have someone in this role as meetings can get derailed if somebody is not keeping track of the agenda. As well as that, I took responsibility for the flow of the project, ensuring that we kept moving forward with the work, that everyone had a role, and that everyone was kept informed. 

Project Management Tools

The tools we used were not exactly project management tools, but they enabled us to communicate and work collaboratively on the document.

We used:

• Slack to communicate with eachother, share files, and hold virtual meetings.
• Google Drive to save drafts and images, where the whole team could access them.
• Google Docs to write and edit the document.

Collaboration Between Writers and Translators

We collaborated with the translators from the beginning of the project. The translators wanted to be able to access the documents throughout the writing phase so that they could highlight any localisation or translation issues from an early stage. Therefore, the document was uploaded regularly to a ‘Working Documents’ folder in Google Drive.

We edited the document on Google Docs. Everyone, including the translators, had access to the document as it was edited. The translators monitored our progress and notified us if they saw any problems with the writing.

We set up a translation channel in Slack and used this for the translation phase. Our translators identified some localisation issues at this stage and made suggestions on how to improve the document.

Scope for Creativity

A team member from Florida specialises in graphics, and therefore she had the most scope to work creatively. We collectively identified where graphics would be needed and she created them using Microsoft Word, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Reader. We evaluated the graphics and she made adjustments, where necessary.

The Most Valuable Things I Learned From This Project

• On a practical level, I learned how to use Google Forms, Google Docs, and Slack. I had not used these previously and can definitely see myself using them again in the future.  
• I learned that it is important to not be sensitive or precious about your work when working as part of a team. When writing, it is important to remember that other team members may have a different style. Additionally, editors will see issues in your work that you may not have noticed. Edits should not be taken personally; they are an essential part of the writing process. To add to this point, I learned to keep an open mind to everyone’s point of view.
• Virtual project management is a valuable skill I learned from this project. I had been part of group projects before in my undergraduate degree, but this is my first time virtually working with a group. I was amazed at how it was possible to build a group dynamic and work ethic through instant messaging.

What I Would Do Differently

• If I was to do this project again, I would still use Slack, but I would also have added Trello. Trello is a project management tool and it helps teams to list tasks, and monitor their progress. This may have been clearer than Slack, as very often ‘to do’ lists would get lost in conversations on Slack.
• I would also assign a head editor to make final calls on edits. We had a number of editors, and we worked very well together. However, the editing phase took a long time, because every time we looked at the document, we would tweak something. If I was to do the editing phase again, I would divide the document between two sub-editors, and give them a deadline by which they have to submit it to the head-editor. The head-editor would have the final say on the document and would ensure there was consistency throughout the document.
• Now with some experience of CSS and XML, I would create a more defined style guide before the writing begins. This would spare time for the writers and editors.

My Motivations During This Project

Of course, getting a good grade is always a motivating factor; however, as project manager, I felt a weight of responsibility to guide the team, keep a harmonious working relationship, and drive the project forward. I was motivated to make sure everyone felt included, yet not overworked. I was conscious of the schedule at all times and felt responsible for the team meeting deadlines, and producing a high-standard document. I also wanted to have a positive experience of virtual teamwork, as it may be part of my future career. I was eager to learn from others and o see how my college experience compared to, not just those in Florida or Paris, but my fellow students who are taking the online or part-time MATCEL route.

This project made me realise that there are so many ways to carry out the same assignment. If I was to do this assignment on my own, my process would be very different to other people in my group. This fascinated me because nobody’s method was wrong and I’m sure that whichever methods we used would have produced a good document. Their contributions and work ethic is sure to inform my way of working in future.

References

Flammia, M., Cleary, Y. and Slattery, D. (2016) Virtual teams in higher education, Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Editing, Testing, & Shoulders to Cry On

The final week of our collaborative project has seen some final edits, our document put to the test, and the high emotions of a group juggling deadlines.

As I mentioned in my post about editing, it doesn’t matter how many times we look at our document, we will always find something we would like to tweak. At this stage of the project, editing comes with the added complication of needing to match the English document with the corresponding French document. In other words, if we spot something in the English version that we are not happy with, we must change it in the English document and ensure that the same change is made to the French version. All edits and changes need to be made very clear and editors need to confirm that both documents have been tweaked in the same manner. One team member has made this process very easy by clearly listing the changes made to the English document and crossing these changes off the list as they are changed in the French document.

One of our editors asked a friend this week to use the document. Their friend had never used Google Forms before and tried to follow the instructions.  They chatted informally about the document and it was interesting to see what aspects of the instructions caused confusion. Even with nine pairs of eyes reading and revising the document over the last few weeks, this person was able to point out some details that lacked clarity. Some of these ambiguities should have been obvious to us. However, we have become too close to the document which makes it difficult for us to put ourselves in the user’s shoes. Showing the document to a fresh pair of eyes proved invaluable.

With a number of other deadlines looming, our Team 6 Slack account has become something of a support group. While it is primarily used to discuss and work on the team project, Slack has provided a forum for us to vent about juggling college with our daily lives. Although we have such varied backgrounds, ranging from those in their early 20s studying for an undergraduate degree to those working full-time with a family to look after, we all feel like we are in the same boat. Discussing the pressure we feel, helps us through, and it also leads to the sharing of fantastic ideas.

Dare I say it, I may even miss logging on to Slack when the project is over.

A Technological Can of Worms

‘No such thing as a simple task’. This quote from one of my team mates sums up the the virtual collaboration project for me. I don’t think it is a negative comment but an expression of how much is being learned from the project.

We are in the final weeks of this assignment and the process has been rich in learning experiences. Even when you think you are practically finished, a few minor adjustments can open a can of worms. On this occasion, technological worms are emerging.

We decided to make some basic changes to line spacing, and to add page numbers and a table of contents; typical features you may leave to the end of an assignment.

However, in a virtual collaboration project, where a number of different tools and technologies are in use, there is no such thing as a simple task. A team member took on the task of making these adjustments and additions, and everything looked fine when she had saved it on her laptop. She was shocked to see, however, that the document had a totally different appearance when uploaded to our Google Drive. The page numbers weren’t right, the TOC had not converted to Google Docs correctly, and graphics had moved to the wrong place. This meant that some of the graphics did not make sense in their new locations and there were arrows pointing to the wrong features.

Someone suggested we make the changes in Google Docs instead. This also caused problems. Although Google Docs is a very useful tool for collaborating on a document, it lacks some of the features available in Microsoft Word. Google Docs limits the user to starting page numbering on the first or second page. This was not suitable for our document as we wished to use Roman numerals on our preliminary pages and start the page numbering on the first page of the instructions (which happens to be page 4).

This problem is not solved yet. For the final stages of the project, we may have to avoid using Google Docs, and resort to uploading each new draft as a PDF to ensure no surprise changes occur in the document. This will make collaborative work a little less efficient and a bit slower. It might mean that the team will have to make suggestions through Slack alone instead of comments in Google Docs, and one team member will be assigned the task of making all the necessary edits. This solution may be awkward but hopefully it will keep the technological worms at bay.

Found in Translation

3 Things I Have Learned From the Translation Process

The week leading up to the February 25th deadline (when the document was to be handed over to the translators) really was a peak in the level of activity on Slack and Google Docs for Team 6. Even though we had been sticking to a schedule, and our work ethic was quite consistent, that week we seemed to become extra self-critical and began to notice all the negatives in our work.

By contrast, this week is relatively calm. The translators translated the document in jig-time (quickly) and they heightened my awareness of localisation in my writing.

What I Have Learned from the Translators

• Neutrality is important in an instructional document. We are writing instructions on how to use Google Forms. If we were writing the document for Google, we would try to promote the product as much as possible. However, our French team mates have drawn our attention to the fact that we are not writing for Google and that in certain parts of the document , it seems as if we are advertising the tool by overusing the term ‘Google Forms’. After many hours of editing, we did not see this error. However, it became blatantly obvious to us once pointed out by the translators. A fresh pair of eyes cannot be underestimated.
• Writers must think about the multiple meanings of words before using them. The word ‘simple’ became a discussion topic this week. It appeared in a heading; ‘How to Create a Simple Form’. The translators had some localisation issues with this. Again, they felt that this was influencing the user, which left the writers a tad confused. How could a ‘How to..’ heading influence the user. After some discussion, we realised that the translators equated the word ‘simple’ with ‘easy’, which is not wrong. However, the writers intended the word to mean ‘basic’ in this context, which is also not wrong.
• Sentences must be as complete as possible, so as to avoid confusion or misinterpretation. This is not new information, yet at times writers still presume the reader knows what we are talking about. The translators pointed out a few instances where sentences were not complete. For example, when describing how to create a form with multiple choice questions, our final step read, ” Repeat steps 1 to 4 until you have added all the questions required”. Our team mates suggested changing this to “…questions and answers…”. This may be stating the obvious to us, but perhaps not to a non-technical audience.

Localisation in the Virtual Project

The Virtual Project has entered the translation phase. After a busy week of editing, editing, and more editing, we finally handed our document over to our French colleagues for translation.

We were relieved with their initial report that the document seemed clear and straightforward to translate. However, the conversations currently happening in the Translation channel in Slack are sparking my interest.

We have explored localisation in a few lectures and readings. Until now it was still an abstract concept to me. I understood it but it was not something I had any hands-on experience with. I am excited to see this concept come to life in the translation phase, although it may add to our extensive to-do list.

The first query that arose was the phrase ‘pop quiz’. The translators interpreted this as a quiz on pop culture. As I researched the term pop quiz in order to give them a precise definition, it also dawned on me that ‘pop quiz’ is not a phrase commonly used in Ireland either. I know the phrase from American television, but I have never had a teacher who gave us a ‘pop quiz’. We were given tests or exams. Note taken: ‘pop quiz’ is not suitable for a global audience.

We began a step with the word ‘Continue’. For example, ‘Continue filling in all sections of the form’. In writing this document as a group, we overlooked this phrase and how it may not be the clearest way to instruct the user. The translators pointed out that this would not make sense if translated directly into French. They suggested we change ‘continue’ to ‘repeat steps ___ to ___’. This will make more sense in French and it makes the step clearer for English-speaking users.

The translators’ input will lead to some changes to the document. Some team members are reluctant to go back into the editing phase and I understand this reluctance. The editing phase took a long time and we realised the more we looked at the document the more we would change. It was a relief to hand it over to the translators. However, I have learned from the editing phase and from my previous post that it is essential that we have a strategy before we start making any changes. Formulating such a strategy is my goal for next week.

Editing: What I have learned so far

Before this project, I would not have known what an editor did. I knew they read articles, documents, and novels, and made corrections or adjustments, but I couldn’t understand how that was a full-time job.

My brother was a journalist. While working with a newspaper, he would keep his eyes and ears open for a story. He would go to the courthouse. He would telephone the guards. He would interview people involved in current affairs. When all of this information was gathered he would write numerous articles in a day, and then send them to the editor.

I could see how my brother was putting down the day, gathering information and writing. I had difficulty understanding what the editor was doing all day while this writing was happening. Were they sitting in their office waiting for the articles to arrive in? Did they even really need to change anything in the articles? My brother has a master in journalism and is an excellent writer. Did the editor just get paid to read the paper before anyone else?

The tables, however, have well and truly turned. We are in the editing phase of our virtual project. To the readers of last week’s blog, this statement may feel like déjá vu. Last week we were also in the editing phase of our virtual project. A week has passed and I now understand how an editor spends their time.

As mentioned last week, we were struggling to come up with a system that would enable us to edit as a team. We decided to put the text into Google Docs and put our thoughts into comments. If we agree or disagree with someone’s comment, we reply ‘agree’ and resolve the comment, or ‘disagree’ and add an alternative suggestion.

With a team of three editors, this has actually been going well. We have, for the most part, been in agreement about certain changes and cuts. The writers decided to keep their distance from the document during the editing phase. This is a decision I would highly recommend in a project like this. The writers did a fantastic job. They had spent a lot of time on their first and second draft, and I know if I was in their position, I would not enjoy watching a group of editors dissect my work. It also gave the editors the freedom to express their opinion without feeling like they were stepping on any toes.

Even though our editing process has worked for us, it is still not an ideal system.

1. It is time consuming.

That is evident in the fact that over a week later we are still editing a relatively short document. When we make a suggestion, we must wait to hear back from the other editors before making the change. The positive side of this is that it ensures that the edits are really well thought out. However, it makes the process seem never-ending.

  2. It is difficult to know when to stop.

I find that every time I look at the document, I think of something that I would change, omit, or add. I mentioned this to the group and they all felt the same. We reintroduced the writers to the document yesterday and even after all of our editing, a new pair of eyes saw issues that we did not see. I think knowing when to stop must be one of the skills of a good editor.

Our system has its pros and cons: it takes time but we are producing a document with which everyone is happy. I’m sure this isn’t the last time each of us will be involved in the editing of a document. I was reading some blogs to see what advice other writers have for the editing process. One blog I found, called A Writer’s Path (https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/72085838/posts/95226), gave two helpful pieces of advice with regard to editing, and I would apply these tips in the future.

1. The blog advises proper preparation before editing.

We did prepare and devise a system prior to editing. However, this blog recommends formulating a strategy and having one particular aspect to work on during each rewrite. This got me thinking that maybe instead of looking at the document as a whole during each rewrite, we may have been better off looking at sections of the text, or focusing our thoughts on different elements of the text, such as the numbering of the steps or the headings. It may have made our tasks more defined and our discussions more focussed. Still, this advice is not fool proof. I do think there is value in looking at the text as a whole, particularly a set of instructions.

2. The blog recommends a healthy amount of self-criticism.

While it is important to be critical of your own writing, it is possible to be too self-critical. Self-criticism helps us to edit our writing and improve on drafts. However, looking at a text too critically, as a writer or editor, can inhibit the whole process. Naturally, this advice resounded with me. As mentioned already, I realised a few days into editing that it didn’t matter how many times I looked at the text, I was always going to find something to tweak.  

The key message I would take from this blog and apply to future projects is the following strategy:

1. Ask somebody else (another editor or writer) to read the document.
2. Compare their comments to your own comments, to gauge your level of criticism. If their criticism is similar to yours, your editing is probably on the right track. If your comments are much more critical, you are probably being too hard on yourself, or the writer.

If I was to do the editing process again, I think it would be better to assign a head editor. I think the head editor should be given time to review the document and note the edits they would make. Then the head editor should follow the two-step strategy above, by giving it to sub-editors and using the sub-editors’ notes to review their own comments. The head-editor should lead the process and seek advice from their sub-editors throughout.

EDIT: Even after publishing, I have gone into this blog three times to edit something. It is time to close the laptop!

Consistency: A Team Challenge

How does a team divide their workload and merge their products into a cohesive document?

It is week 3 of our virtual collaboration project and the cogs in the Team 6 machine are still turning. The process, however, is not without its challenges.

I think one of the biggest tests faced by our virtual team is dividing the workload among the nine members in a way that is fair and results in a product with a consistent layout and style.

We have moved into an editing phase in our project. Last week, we had assigned two team members the task of writing the first draft of our instructions. They were working from style guides put together by our research team. They also had a lengthy phone conversation about the style of writing, headings, and numbering that they would use. They decided to work on separate sections and merge them into a first draft. This all seemed to make sense; agreeing on the style and formatting, and sharing the workload between them.

The first draft came back and each section was well-written and clear. However, even with all the prior planning and preparation, it still contained many inconsistencies in format and writing style. It also highlighted how an application can appear differently on all computers, and how everyone has their own way of carrying out a task. For example, if two people were describing how to save a document on Microsoft Word, one person might say “Click File> Save”. Another person might choose to say “Ctrl + S”.

This left us with a dilemma. What is the best way to divide work in a virtual project? We started to use Google Docs in order to critique the draft and make suggestions. Having never used Google Docs before, I was fascinated at how I could watch somebody on the other side of the world make live changes to a document. The writers took the comments on board and redrafted the piece before leaving it in the hands of the editors. But again, the same question stands: how do we divide the editing among the editors?

One suggestion was to give a section to each editor, allow them time to edit and then put the pieces back together. However, I feared that this would produce the same result as in the writing phase: inconsistencies in style and formatting. The ideal situation would be to have a live meeting and edit the piece together. Alas, time differences and work commitments are also preventing this. While researching how to overcome this obstacle, one editor found this useful article:

https://www.samepage.io/blog/9-rules-better-real-time-team-document-collaboration

We are taking on much of the advice outlined in the above article.

1. We are not oversharing the editing task. The rest of the team have access to the document as we edit it, but they have agreed to save their comments until we are finished.
2. We have an editing channel set up in Slack so that we can discuss the process and ask questions, and not overcrowd the document with comments.  
3. No changes are made until the full editing team is in agreement. I think this is essential and shows respect towards your team mates.
4. Also on that note, nobody is to overwrite changes made by somebody else, without discussing it first.

I have suggested that we each make our editing comments on Google Docs to the full document rather than sections, and respond with whether we agree or disagree. We will make changes when the editing team are in agreement. Hopefully, this will lead to a more consistent look and feel to the document. If this process does not work, however, we may have to go back to the drawing board and find out from a technical communication professional how editing works in the professional world.

A Working Relationship Built on Emojis

Over the past few days, I have been looking at the communication challenges identified by Flammia et al. (2016), and cannot help but reflect on the communication styles on display in our own virtual collaboration project.

Flammia et al. (2016) describe four categories of communication styles and their challenges:

1. Direct/ Indirect Communication Styles:  Speakers with an indirect communication style do not express themselves explicitly and avoid bluntness. They focus on not upsetting the group. I think this reflects the mentality of a lot of Irish people. In my experience, we are concerned that stating things too bluntly or directly may be perceived as rudeness. To use a common Irish saying, we do not want “to put anyone out”; Translation: we do not want to upset or put any undue pressure on anyone. This results in a communication style fraught with ambiguity, which may be understandable to Irish people, but confusing to other nationalities, even native English speakers. However, from my point of view, the Irish faction of our team have been living up to the name of technical communicators by being as direct (yet polite) as possible. The chat groups have been clear, with the occasional clarification needed now and then.
2. Elaborate/ Exact/ Succinct Communication Styles: Flammia et al. (2016) define this style as a continuum, with ‘elaborate’ and ‘succinct’ on opposite ends, and ‘exact’ situated in between the two. The terms are self-explanatory: an elaborate communication style is long-winded in nature with the use of ornate language, and a succinct communication style uses the minimum words necessary. As I reflect on our Slack chat groups, I would identify the team’s communication style as being mostly ‘exact’. The Irish group sometimes appears to sway to the more elaborate side of exact but this may be due to the fact that we outnumber the other groups, or have not progressed on to the translation phase of the process. Our position on the continuum may alter as the project progresses on to other stages, where some participants will become more involved, and possibly more vocal, than others.
3. Instrumental/Affective Communication Styles: As the project manager for this assignment, I have strived to use an instrumental communication style at all times. An instrumental style is specific and conveys a message as clearly as possible. During meetings, I have attempted to have a well-defined agenda and ensure that I make my point understandable to the whole team. This communication style is very effective in this forum as it has led to our success in delegating tasks, organising a schedule, and providing constructive feedback.
4. Personal/Contextual Communication Styles: In a personal communication style, the speaker places emphasis on himself/herself. In a contextual communication style, the emphasis is on the group. In the latter, the speaker uses ‘we’ instead of ‘I’. I would not have thought about these communication styles before this week and I cannot say, as of yet, which bracket the members of our team fall into. However, so far the team has been working harmoniously, looking out for one another, and giving words of encouragement where necessary. This may indicate that we are employing a contextual communication style. In other words, the team is thinking of the group as a whole and not emphasising themselves over anyone else.

Non-Verbal Communication

Flammia et al. (2016) emphasise the importance of non-verbal communication. They point out that the inability to communicate non-verbally with a virtual team may interfere with overall communication. My virtual team are communicating through chat groups on slack. It is difficult to convey the correct tone or emotion in a written message, particularly when most of the group have never even met face-to-face. We are not familiar with our colleagues’ personalities, and yet we are striving to build up a positive, friendly working relationship. To help convey the tone and emotion behind our messages, quite a few of us have started using emojis. We don’t overuse them but they have proven to be useful in lightening the tone or conveying when we are joking about something. It may not seem like a very professional approach, and it probably would not go down well in the working world. However, it has definitely helped build a good balance of work and play. In fact, I was looking at this blog post by Someone Somewhere:

https://zedie.wordpress.com/2018/07/17/what-your-emojis-say-about-you/

This blog discusses how psychologists are investigating the effects of emoji use in communication. They have found that emojis enable non-verbal communication and add to the clarity of a message. Our virtual team group chats are the living proof of these findings.

References:

Flammia, M., Cleary, Y. and Slattery, D. (2016) Virtual teams in higher education, Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Unconventional Meetings for Non-Conventional Students

Virtual Collaboration Project Update

My virtual collaboration team have crossed another few items off the to-do list this week by deciding on a topic and devising a schedule for the coming weeks. We are in a research phase at present, investigating style guides, existing instructions, and usability tests.

Convergence

I was reminded of my virtual Team in a lecture this week, when the topic of the convergence of student types arose. Tait and Mills (1999) describe student archetypes of the conventional and non-conventional (distance learning) student. They describe the conventional student as being aged under 24, and most likely not working. Therefore, being a student is their primary role. The non-conventional student is the opposite of this description, i.e. over 24, and working as well as studying. Nobody on my virtual team seems to fit the conventional student archetype described by Tait and Mills (1999). The group fit in both the over 24 and under 24 categories, and study both on-campus and off-campus. Yet, the majority seem to work in some capacity. A younger member of the group particularly contradicts the archetype, as she is studying full-time for an undergraduate degree and working in the evenings when lectures are over. Most team members appear to be juggling work, family, and college life, and this brings its own challenge.

Unconventional Meetings for Non-Conventional Students

Due to the team’s range of commitments, it is nearly impossible to arrange a meeting time to suit all team members. This is not ideal because we will always be missing somebody for whom we may have a question, or who may have a valuable suggestion or solution to a problem.

To overcome this problem, we have set up channels on Slack about different topics. Usually, we need everyone’s input on a topic, but cannot arrange a whole-team meeting.  Now, we put a deadline for when we have to have come to a consensus on this topic. For example, we have been trying to research and agree on a design template and style guide so that the writers can get started. We want everyone to be in agreement about this but due to work and family commitments, we cannot have a meeting to discuss it. Therefore, we set up a design/layout channel on the 6^th of February. Everyone has agreed to check in each day with the channel to provide their own research, review the research of others and come to a consensus, by the 9^th of February at 2pm.

We have started to call this process ‘informal meetings’ and they usually take place over two or three days. The obvious drawback is that the decision process takes much longer, but on the plus side, everyone is included and this process generally leads to a fully informed decision with which everyone is happy.

References:

Tait, A. and Mills, R. (1999) The Convergence of Distance and Conventional Education. London: Routledge.

My First Experience with a Team Collaboration Tool

Slack

My virtual collaboration team has decided to use Slack as our main tool for communication and planning.

Purpose of Slack

On a basic level, Slack is a messaging app or website for teams. It is used in workplaces and colleges to enable teams to communicate with one another, and share documents, while they work on a task or project. This communication can take the form of a forum-like discussion with the whole group or a one-on-one chat between individuals.

Key Features

Everything you need in Slack is accessible in the purple menu bar located on the left-hand side of the screen.

• Search bar: To find a certain channel, application, or team member.
• Channels: Set up to discuss different topics. Channels appear as a chat thread. When setting up a channel, the user can invite the whole team to the channel or just those who need to be involved in that topic.
• Direct Messaging: To contact team members individually or to discuss tasks that do not involve the rest of the team.
• Slackbot: If a user has a query about Slack, they can ask the slackbot and it responds instantly with a solution.
• Applications: Applications such as Skype, Google Drive, or Trello can be added to the team’s Slack account to enrich communication and co-operation (See image below)

Slack enables a team to work across a number of apps.

My Personal Experience

I am a part of a team of nine people, living across three time zones, who, for the most part, have never met each other before. Yet, with the help of Slack, we have been able to volunteer for roles, agree on frequency of communication, decide on the technologies to be used in the project, and hold meetings. All of this was achieved without meeting face-to-face, without spending a penny, and without arousing too much confusion or frustration.

The team have set up a number of channels to discuss different items. For example, one channel is called meeting times. This channel is only used to discuss times that suit to meet and to post the times of future meetings. This is useful because team members can access the meeting times easily and important details do not get lost in long streams of conversation.

Two team members are taking on the role of researchers. They have set up a channel to discuss and share their findings. They will be the main users of this channel. However, the rest of the team can access it to keep up to date with their progress and to stay informed.

We have also availed of the option to add the Google Drive App to our team account. This allows us to upload documents as they are updated, thus keeping everyone abreast of the team’s progress.

Potential Benefits

I think the strength of Slack is being able to set up different channels for different topics of conversation. Most of us can relate to being part of a large chat group, on Whatsapp or Facebook, where the important points of information, e.g. times and dates, get lost among the chatter of participants. The channels feature enables participants to stay on the topic of a particular channel, while still having fun and casual conversation in another channel. It means that it is not all work and no play.

Additionally, I have found Slack to be very intuitive. I had not used it before this experience and I did not follow instructions or watch a YouTube tutorial in order to familiarise myself with the app. I simply joined the group and learned as I went. The interface is self-explanatory with a simple, user-friendly layout.

Potential Challenges

As with all text-based communications, messages or comments can be misinterpreted or misunderstood. As participants cannot hear the tone of voice being used in the comments, it is a challenge to ascertain how people are feeling, or know when people are being serious or light-hearted. So far we have not experienced this challenge but the team are striving to be as clear as possible in our writing. It has been a positive challenge that will, I’m sure, allow our writing skills to flourish.

Slack does not allow teams to screen share, which would be a very useful feature when working on a joint document.

Overall, I will use Slack again for collaboration projects and I would definitely recommend it to others.