How this project came to be.

Brigitte

Everything started when I sent a message to the whole class searching for a partner for the final project. 

I was interested in learning more about distance education, online learning, collaboration/socialization in distance learning and wanted to do a project on it to be able to find more information about it. 

I was very pleased when I got an answer from Patrick.  Yes! I thought…somebody with similar interest as mine.  So our collaboration started using email to set up a time for discussion.  Because both live in Calgary, Patrick proposed that we meet face-to-face.  At first, I must say that I was surprised of Patrick’s request, because I had never met anybody yet face-to-face from my program.  So far, I’ve work in groups only from a distance. 

So we meet face-to-face for the first time.  It’s always interesting to meet someone face-to-face after knowing them from cyberspace.  The face-to-face creates a different feel.  Anyway, we discussed for about an hour the directions of our project.  When partners discuss face-to-face it’s much faster to come to a consensus because responses are more immediate and feedback is richer. 

So after an hour of meeting I left somehow satisfied, feeling that I knew where I was going with this project, had an idea of my share of work. 

After meeting face-to-face, we communicated a lot by email.  That was our primary communication tool.  I told Patrick I would use email to send ideas, thoughts, etc and that I didn’t expect an answer for each email.  It was a way to share ideas, like brainstorming. Then, we would send each other our work and the other would add to the work and send it back, etc, etc.  It worked well as we both checked our email very regularly.  

I felt comfortable with this approach as we were eventually able to created boundaries to our project that both liked, and that were not forced upon by the other or by the ‘majority’. 

When emailing didn’t seem to be enough, we used the phone.  As I learned to work with Patrick, I realized that in many ways our skills and interests were completing each other. 
 

Patrick

When I first responded to Brigitte's email regarding the final project I had a vague idea on what I wanted to do and it sounded like she had similar interests. It took a few emails back and forth before we had finalized how exactly this web resource would be built. We both and similar and different interests. So, we decided to pursue our own interests, yet work together on similar interests and building this resource. 

The key to accomplishing this project was distance collaboration. Mainly, we used email, with some phone calls when we really needed to communicate. But for the most part, the collaboration was done online. With emails, we were able to send and reply when we had the time and attach any relative files. The sharing of files was extremely important to the creation of this resource. 

As part of the process, we collaborated using some of the existing groupware products. We started of using WebCT chat. Chat is an asynchronous communication method that allows us to communicate with written words in real time. WebCT chat was straight forwarded and easy to use. From our experience, it gets very difficult to follow the conversation. We had to be focused, and use written cues to let the other know we were moving on to another topic or idea. This is frequently known as "having the floor". The only problem with WebCT chat, or whiteboard is that the instructor can not control who has the floor. 

Once we moved onto blackboard, things got a bit more interesting. We found using blackboard more complicated to use. There was lots going on. The whiteboard and many other functions can be used at once and we often got confused as to what was going on. Also, the email and discussion tools were a little more awkward to use than WebCT. 

The next tool we used was CentraNow, the free audio-conferencing tool from Centra. Although Centra Symposium has more functions, CentraNow has much of the same functions, and it is free. The thing we liked about centra is that the instructor can control the floor, or who can speak, draw and share applications. The audio is very good, and allowed us to collaborate at a more detalied level than simple text communication. The chat tool as also very good, and using both chat and audio, we were very productive. We really like the ability to share applications, which allowed us to collaborate on a whole new level - we could build something using applications that before, were kept separate between us. 

We also used Teamwave - a product still in it's infancy. But we could easily share files between us. -- One cool feature with the environment of Teamwave is that a group can work synchronously or asynchronously. That is a group can work together at the same place and same time or leave their work there and come back later to work at different time. Aside from the shared whiteboard and the chat, some of the major important features with the version we tried is that you can present documents from various aplication but also you can co-browse web pages making it easy to present information to other, to exchange and discuss material.

The next part of this resource page was to get some input from other users of online groupware and collaboration tools. We conducted a small survey with other students in our class. We were interested in comparing the auido section to the campus section and how each section collaborated individually and as a single group. We found no significant differences but did collect some very useful information on how students in different mediums collaborate. 

The final part of this project was to build the website. Brigitte took the lead and developed a template. We feel that it is important to have a leader when collaborating online. The group has to be organized and know what everyone else is doing. If chaos occurs, then group members could be working on the same part - and the work would not get done as fast. Brigitte and myself basically divided up the sections and went to work. I had to email the files to her so she could incorporate them into the website. One aspect of online collaboration is trust. We had to trust each other with the responsibilities before any work got done. I had to trust that she would incorporate the files that I was sending her. Plus, any changes she made I had to trust her judgement. The relationship we establish was very important to the creation of this site. We also learned some important key points about online collaboration through this project and course. In the end, the resource is a continuum that we will be using and building into the future. 
 

Last update: April 15, 2001