Communication and interpersonal skills

ASCILITE 2017 paper: 'What's in a name?'

I co-wrote a paper for ASCILITE 2017 with two colleagues located in different universities, one located in a different state in Australia. To collaborate effectively we needed to organise and allocate roles, and use a number of technologies (Email, Slack, Office 365 Word, Google docs/Google apps, Blackboard Collaborate) to communicate, work collaboratively and keep each other up to date. 

Our process involved mostly managing ourselves over Slack to keep the team informed, but with key check in meetings in Blackboard Collaborate, typically in the mornings before work, about once a month. Collaborate was useful as it allowed us to talk through our thinking and to manage action plans, which was sometimes difficult over Slack. We used Office 365 Word online and Google docs to form our paper collaboratively. We also used Google slides to prepare and present/publish our presentation for the conference.

We were successful in submitting the paper to deadline and having it accepted for the ASCILITE 2017 conference in Queensland. We were able to present our paper to others within the field and have continued to generate discussion and relationships with the broader community through the paper and using social networks such as Twitter. We provided open access to our Google Slides presentation - I created a Share link in Google slides and then generated a bitly link and we tweeted this out to others. 

I learnt a number of skills through this process, including: 

• How to use collaborative technologies more effectively and for research purposes

• The process of writing and submitting to conferences including actioning/responding to reviewer feedback 

• The ability to be more concise with my written communications both when working with my colleagues and in my research/academic writing

• How to work effectively with others when we may have disparate viewpoints or opinions - how to effectively negotiate and form consensus

• How to engage with the broader learning/TEL/research community effectively through a range of channels to promote research and generate further discussion on topics of interest. 

When working with colleagues with disparate viewpoints, generally I would defer to one of the other team members who had more experience submitting to publications and conferences, and tried to be pragmatic in my reasoning, recognising that we only had scope to cover so much in a concise paper format. However it was difficult at times as we all had slightly different perspectives and opinions on what should be the focus areas. This led to some tensions in the team at times - in these instances I think some of the ways we combatted this that worked well included: 

• Being clear on the scope of the paper and what was achieveable in the word count and key goals

• Using a seperate Slack channel to capture additional thoughts that we might wish to use later or in other papers when they were too broad to cover within our current research

• Being clear in communicating a rationale if we felt something needed be included (both via Slack and in Blackboard Collaborate)

• Not being precious about the work, and allowing the rest of the team to take turns in editing and signing off

• Using the comments feature in the collaborative document to highlight areas for others to weigh in

• Being respectful of others' opinions. 

In terms of engaging with the broader community, I found Twitter a really great mechanism for this, and myself and my two colleagues were able to promote our paper and presentation and disseminate the research to others through this channel, as well as provide the Google slides and a periscope recording to others. This was an easy process for collaborating, presenting but with benefits for sharing post presentation. The Periscope recording allowed those unable to attend the conference to participate on some level. This session generated quite a bit of interest via Twitter, including over 100 views of the Periscope presentation, and colleagues from ASCILITE introducing us to additional parties across the globe who could further our research. I believe that this promotion of our work also supported me in raising my professional profile across individuals and institutions, which has seen benefits for me with further employment and mentorship opportunities. 

The original paper is available via the ASCILITE 17 website. A pdf copy of the paper has been included below.

Slack channel screenshots of discussions

Slack channel screenshots demonstrating communication and ways of working, and use of Blackboard Collaborate and Google slides alongside Slack

Presenting the research to the wider community - presentation and Twitter discussions