People to Pixels and Back Again:
Critical Creativity for Collaborative Moments

Relationships are core to collaborative practice in education, including in university students’ group-work assignments. Could critical creativity help sustain collaborative momentum in a medical student group-research project during recent COVID19 stay-at-home-orders? Appearing as ‘pixels’ via Zoom, students shared photos, items and insights chosen and developed by them as people. We explore and explain our key messages about fun, flexibility and (re)flection for collaborative momentum, learning and relationships in higher education.

The Chief Presenters, Peter Lin, Heidi Bevan and Bonnie Zhu are 4th year medical students from the University of Newcastle and the University of New England. Commencing their journey as a research team spread across Australia, they discovered the challenges of being separated by distance and adapted to learning in a virtual world. They are excited to share how they were able to transform pixels into friendship and collaborative momentum. c3307602@uon.edu.au

Heidi Bevan is a 4th year Medical Student at the University of New England. Throughout the past two years, working alongside her research team, she has become passionate about the lived experiences of caregiver's in Palliative Care, and is excited to present how this passion allowed her to maintain creative collaborative momentum. hbevan3@myune.edu.au

Bonnie Zhu is a 4th year Medical Student at the University of Newcastle. She has an interest in understanding the interplay between creativity and education. c3307617@uon.edu.au

Anne Croker is a healthcare researcher and educator working for a regional university in Australia. She has long-term interest in educating for collaborative practice, undertaking PhD and post-doctoral research and supervision in this area. Valuing the importance of relational practice in education and qualitative research, she enjoys her roles in higher education supervisory teams as students learn about research ‘through doing’. anne.croker@newcastle.edu.au

Karin Fisher is a rural healthcare research academic and educator at a regional University in Australia. She has a long-term interest in exploring how social change can shape health, illness, and inequalities through harnessing critical creativity and imaginings to create new possibilities. Recognizing the importance of relational processes in her higher education role she enjoys dialoguing with students to co-produce their knowledge as they learn about research. karin.fisher@newcastle.edu.au