Core Area 4: Communication and Working with Others

Other projects I've worked on, correspondence has been mostly digital through email and instant messages. Each communication form has pros and cons though. I appreciate email for it's ability to archive messages, forward content, and act as a central system on campus. It is limited in that you have no confirmation of when your party receives the message and email can weight you down to the point where you keep putting off writing replies to certain messages. Instant messaging has been a great tool because it is fast and easy to shoot a message off. The lack of history can be problematic because I like searchable documentation for future reference though. Choosing the right tool can be imperative sometimes. One example was a task where four project members were working on an educational award application. The original application was Microsoft Word, so members would make a change to a section and email the document in a group email. Over the course of three days, dozens of emails went back and forth. There were so many versions of the document floating around and sometimes conflicting changes were made simultaneously and had to be merged. The process was a nightmare and I vowed to improve the process next time. A few weeks later, three team members were tasked with creating a poster for a sharing session. This time, I took the template right away, converted it to Google Slides format, and shared a link to team members. Hundreds of changes took place over a week, but this time changes were real-time in a single document. This saved time and made the entire process so much more straight forward. I had the inclination to use this process for the award application, but I held my tongue since I'm a non-confrontational person. I've learned that I need to speak up when I have a solution that could help the team. While I have been quite satisfied with the collaborative effort in my project teams, there is still room for improvement. One way would be implementing more standard processes in regards to collaboration. Sometimes we might share a document on Google Drive, other times Dropbox, and sometimes OneDrive. This can be confusing and the abundance of options have actually created a more fragmented environment which makes it harder to find what you're looking for. Below is a screenshot from the Google Slides document I created to improve the normal process of simply replying to group emails.

I have introduced shared drives to colleagues, improving the communication and sharing of information also, rather than sending meeting minutes, presentation files, and proposed course content in email attachments. I found email to be inefficient and lacking in organization, so I setup a shared folder on OneDrive for the project. It certainly wasn't easy to migrate the team's processes which were second nature by this point, but I made a case showing the many benefits of a shared folder system and the ease of use since the login was tied to our university accounts. Luckily, in the past at Lansing Community College, I was the training adviser on the team tasked with implementing Office 365, so I had very detailed knowledge of the product. I feel OneDrive is much more cumbersome compared to Google Drive, so in more recent projects, I have implemented shared folders and documents through Google Drive more often. Adoption certainly did not occur overnight. There was a period of time where team members would email me a document like in the past and I would be the one to archive it in the shared folder. When a team member would request a document from me, I would share the file in OneDrive which ultimately led to better adoption since members could see how convenient the system was. In the future, I will be more aware of the processes and procedures when I start working with a team initially, so I can see if there are any areas for improvement since I am experienced with a variety of technologies. Below is a screenshot of a shared folder I created to store project files for collaboration. This was using the OneDrive and Office 365 subscription provided by PolyU.

My current team at PolyU, the eLearning Development and Support Section of the Educational Development Centre (eLDSS) uses monthly team meetings to communicate and disseminate knowledge among the group. The teams I have been a part of have probably taught be more than any other source over my career. We openly share information and tips to better the efficiency of our work. Being someone of a technical nature, I'm glad that colleagues can feel comfortable coming to me when they have questions about hardware and software. I also know my questions about HTML code, Excel macros, pedagogical strategies, and classroom techniques will be warmly received and thoroughly answered when I have questions about topics I am not as knowledgeable on.

There have certainly been some cultural challenges since I've moved to Hong Kong. I've had to learn from experience that things like directness, punctuality, and even speaking volume can differ among the local Hong Kong, mainland Chinese, American, British, and Australian colleagues I work with on a regular basis. I suppose this is similar to understanding your target learners--you must also understand the colleagues you work with for best efficiency and effectiveness. I have found that catering my language and mannerisms to the person I am communicating with can make for a much more pleasant and effective experience.

In the courses which I have converted online from face-to-face, I always ask whether the user preferred attending online or if they would have preferred a face-to-face session. I think the feedback responses on this question are a good indicator of how engaging the course is. Some users prefer online or face-to-face almost explicitly however. I have found the same can be said for team communications however. Personally, I need elements of in-person communications when a task is complex and I have immediate questions about portions, or when delegation and discussion are required among a group. I spend a lot of my time behind a computer though where communication is digital, which is great because it is fast, there are records of everything, and asynchronous communications are just plain convenient.

I am largely a non-confrontational person who has problems bringing issues to the attention of others. I am aware of this and I know it is an area I can improve upon. I need to actively become more direct and vocal at times to improve communication. Also, this problem could be detrimental to my future aspirations and upward mobility since directors, supervisors, and managers have to maintain a certain level of frankness. In the past, when I used to co-facilitate face-to-face and deliver employee orientation at Lansing Community College, I had more opportunity for public speaking which is certainly a good skill that should be exercised regularly. I think this would be helpful for debate, confidence, and becoming more comfortably outspoken in the future also.