USC VCoP on Collaboration

Summary Notes

Background

Heterogeneous group of faculty/staff who support graduate and undergraduate students in 7 different schools and shared an interest in online collaboration

Commitment to meet synchronously once a month; spend 2 hours per week working asynchronously

Group started up in September and will conclude this January

Planned Outcomes

Share the findings with our Distance Learning Network members

Post the resources into a database supported by the Office of the Provost

Create workshops for others based on this model.

Unanticipated Outcomes

Participants became familiar with learning theory and had a place to practice it before bringing it to their students.Participants got to try several different types of online meeting platformsCollegial relationships were strengthened

Unanticipated Outcomes

Group set their own project themes and accompanying goals

Survey data was acquired

Lessons Learned

Individual expectations have not yet been met

Participants need to feel ownership

Asynchronous activity is challenging to sustain

Lessons LearnedCommunication needs to be simple and well-organized.The more practice from theory, the better for the group to value the investment of their timeVCoPs are more of an evolving experience for participants than a typical training/workshop approach to development.

Next Steps

Get commitment from current members; some will leaveInvite new membersInvite the members to input on meeting goals and activitiesDetermine our own university platform for supporting the synchronous and asynchronous activity