by Makayla Vasek, Communications Specialist

With the spring semester right around the corner, faculty and students across the country are preparing for another set of online and hybrid classes. The development of the COVID-19 vaccine gives us hope for an eventual return to normalcy, but our current state requires most universities to continue virtual learning. While a semester of experience has given us the time to adapt to virtual learning platforms, many challenges remain, especially in the area of online collaboration.

Group projects, also known as Collaborative Online Learning (COIL) or Virtual Exchange in the study abroad world, are stressful enough without the added component of working with people from different cities and regions of the globe. Below, we’ve identified 3 C’s to Success for Online Collaboration as they relate to virtual learning locally and globally.

#1 Communication

If there is anything I’ve learned from my own experience working on a global team project, it’s that you cannot work well together until you communicate well with each other. The greatest challenge of virtual group projects is the physical distance, which often evolves into a communicative distance, between group members.

It is critical that you create communication guidelines and expectations at the start of any group project to set your team up for success. Weekly synchronous communication via team video chats or phone calls should be the cornerstone of your communication plan while asynchronous commentary via a group chat can provide a welcoming space for team members to ask questions and share ideas outside of set work hours. Another useful tool for asynchronous communication is the “Comment” option on shared documents. Whether you are using Google Docs, Microsoft Word Online, or any other web-based document, you can use the “Comment” tool to highlight specific components of the project and type your relevant suggestions or concerns. Your teammates can then review and respond to these comments when they log on to the document at a later time.

To avoid interpersonal irritation down the road, make an effort before you initiate project work to have all team members identify their personal strengths and weaknesses as they relate to group projects. Moving forward, keep these items in a shared document to refer to regularly when you run into problems with a specific team member. By knowing their strengths and weaknesses you may be able to more efficiently understand where they need assistance and where they thrive on their own.

Every team is different and will require a unique communications plan. The most important thing, however, is that you always practice transparency. If you are ever concerned that you are messaging too much in a group chat or speaking too regularly during video calls as compared to your teammates, just remember that over-communicating is always better than under-communicating.

#2 Connection

Another challenge of online collaboration is working with team members you may never formally meet in person. It can be intimidating to talk to and work with people you know little about. Don’t look at your group project as just a grade in a class, but use it as a way to meet people outside of your inner circle. Identify common interests and passions and use these to propel your project forward.

Ultimately, finding time outside of the project to talk with your team about their daily lives and to check in on each other’s mental health is a great way to remind yourselves that you are working with real people, not robots. This is a best practice to avoid frustrations when a team member is running late on a deliverable because they are dealing with sickness or taking care of a family member for instance.

In addition to connecting personally, it is also important to connect professionally, even from miles apart. Whether you are working with students from your same university or with people on the other side of the world, everyone has their own busy schedule. Start your team collaboration by creating a master calendar where all team members can identify the days and times of the week that they plan to dedicate to the project. Remember to specify time zone differences and, as a team, select an appropriate time zone with which to communicate for the extent of the project.

Use this calendar to mark out specific days/times when all team members can log on, even if only for an hour at a time. Working synchronously is more efficient because you can have your questions answered in real-time. You can even use your master calendar to create sub-teams based on when some members will be logged on at the same time or based on similar time zones.

#3 Constructive Criticism

Finally, never underestimate the importance of feedback. Although we’ve listed this best practice last, we believe that the feedback loop should be an ongoing process at every phase of the project. Periodically, halt work to engage in a team conversation or, if it makes your teammates more comfortable, release an anonymous survey where members can share their concerns as well as what they have found most successful in regards to the project.

This phase of the process can be unnerving when you don’t know how a teammate will respond to your criticism, so make it a point to show your own openness to feedback as a way to encourage your team members to be transparent and truthful with you. You will undoubtedly run into problems and speed bumps with any group you work with, so it is a good practice to identify and discuss team issues rather than ignore them.

Happy Collaborating!

Group projects should be a fun and efficient way to complete your academic and professional work. Especially during this time of isolation, group work can be a great way to reconnect with your colleagues, to network with community leaders and students abroad, and to find solutions that improve our society.

Online collaboration skills are also a great resume booster because of their importance to real-world careers. For example, if you work for a global company, on any given day you may go from a meeting with your local Miami team to a call with the manager of the Portland office to a global conference with team leads from various countries around the world. So when your professor assigns you a group project, view it as an opportunity to prepare for your future career.

Read how Learn from Travel incorporates and facilitates Collaborative International Projects in its virtual study abroad programs here.