Notes for a study of online course intercity/ interstate/international collaborations
by Laura Gabiger (lonewolfinprovidence)

Question:  to what degree can students function effectively to solve an authentic problem for a community client when collaborating in intercity teams in an online introductory technical communication course? 

General starting observations and assumptions:

Online team collaboration is already a commonplace in other environments:  business and industry, professions, social media, games. 

It may be considered more challenging to complete projects with teammates in another city as opposed to those in one’s own city and same classroom.

Basic definition of success:  that students collaborate to meet at least a minimum college-level standard, in one academic term, of solving an authentic client’s problem by producing a formal piece of writing drawing on college-level primary and secondary resources.  To be considered of a basic or minimal standard, the document must have sufficient content, organization, and clarity to advance the client significantly in the right direction for solving the problem.  The client should be left better off than when we found the client.  An outstanding job will address the problem with exceptional or professional-quality precision, efficiency, and clarity, leaving the client without further needs in that area.  [define a successful team too]

Technical writing is commonly defined as workplace writing that enables people to make decisions and perform tasks.  The common documents usually are reports or proposals (decision-making documents) or manuals (task-performing documents). 


In this course, the students form teams around problems chosen from an instructor-provided list or from a team member’s own environment, profile the client to identify the specific needs, and employ research methods taught and reinforced in the course by the instructor in collaboration with the university’s digital services librarian. 

Here are some factors that can influence or promote success in students in an online course;  the list includes factors that can influence success in any college course:

•    Student has sufficient time in schedule to complete a college course
•    Student has adequate technological infrastructure to engage in an online course, is prompt in acquiring and using needed tools
•    Student demonstrates experience or comfort with the rhetorical and cognitive demands of an online communication environment (regular use of Skype, Facebook, and Xbox Live or other online video games may be groundwork regardless of prior experience with online college courses)
•    Student has sufficient prior educational background to master the material in the course
•    Student has realistic expectations as to the attitude, skills, and effort he or she must invest in the course
•    Student takes initiative in and responsibility for own education
•    Student generally shows a positive attitude toward meeting new challenges and facing obstacles
•    Student uses resources provided by the instructor and the university to complete course work
•    Students in teams have accepted the reality of collaboration as a commonplace of professional problem-solving in general and of technical writing in particular

•    Project is worth doing, problem is worth solving, path to solution is reasonably visible
•    Client engages with students early and consistently

Failure factors—the list can include factors that also may cause failure in a classroom setting for any college course.  As may be expected, failure factors tend to be the reverse of the success factors:

•    Student attempts course without sufficient available time in schedule to complete a college course (common online course problem)
•    Student has inadequate technological infrastructure to engage in an online course and is slow to correct the inadequacy
•    Student demonstrates inexperience or discomfort with the rhetorical and cognitive demands of an online communication environment
•    Student has insufficient prior educational background to master the material in the course
•    Student has miscalculated the skills and effort needed for the course
•    Student takes insufficient initiative in and responsibility for own education
•    Student generally shows a negative attitude toward meeting new challenges and facing obstacles
•    Student declines to use resources provided by the instructor and the university to complete course work
•    Student in team exhibits a disinclination to collaborate or expresses a preference for working alone
•    Project is ill-defined or of limited value, pathway to solution is unclear
•    Client engages with students late, half-heartedly, or not at all

(address course and instructor success and failure factors—collaboration strategies built into course, adequacy of tools and university support, instructor experience with rhetorical and cognitive factors in distance collaboration, mastery of tools) [address the level of authenticity of project-based work in the discipline and of online collaboration for completing projects in the discipline at the professional level]

Qualitative study

Secondary resources:  articles on online technical communication instruction, collaboration in online courses, online service learning, models for online collaboration in professions, business and industry.