Contexts and Tools

The Trial Projects covered a number of different collaborative contexts:

• With international partners (business and education)
• Within a region (individual and groups of educational establishments with regional business partners)
• Lifelong Learning
• Between departments within an institution
• Between institutions and external partners
• Community of practice
• Learning and teaching

For the same type of collaboration and/or task, similar and different online tools were used making for a rich mix of experiences.

Same Tool, Different Context

Global Studio, Northumbria University

The same tools (Elluminate in this example) used in different contexts can elicit very different responses from the user group. The BCE CT Project used Elluminate very successfully for a couple of updating sessions and a training session on 'Video production'. Birmingham Metropolitan College also successfully used Elluminate within the Midlands Health Academy albeit with some problems (not with the tool itself but concerning headset and camera use within the NHS). However, the University of Huddersfield's partners within their Lifelong Learning Network had problems adapting to a tool that they believed was designed for a learning and teaching context.

An example of a tool used in different ways within one trial project was Wimba, which is of the same product type as Elluminate This was successfully used by the University of The Arts for Webinars working with an international community of practice for photojournalists. They identified that they needed different kinds of Webinar to debate different types of issues and so used Wimba in slightly different ways:

• Themed panel presentations where an invited/volunteer group of 3-4 'thought leaders' in the community (or from outside of it) each present on the same theme/concept, then a Q&A with the audience. This is how they initiated each major conversation that they dealt with
• A follow up session where a smaller group meet to discuss that topic of the panel presentation in much more detail - a kind of workshop session to actually try and come up with some new ideas/insights
• More 'portfolio like' presentations about geographic or organisational themes e.g. one about what is happening in photojournalism in Asia, or an individual photographer presenting their work
• Presentations linked to events, exhibitions and festivals of photography or real world conferences where they put together a panel to engage in a series of questions in a round table discussion. Most notably they organised a one day conference on the relationship between NGO's and visual media, and webcast the event live through OPEN-i
• Seminars based on specific groups within the community e.g. non profits/NGOs where they would meet to discuss issues specific to them

Listening to Innovators

If particular products are not allowed by an institution, the students will find suitable alternatives working outside the firewalls; these are not always approved by the business partner who may also block for security reasons. In preparation for working in an industry that is extremely security conscious, is this good practice? The University of Northumbria Trial Project shows that by working with IT Services from the beginning, taking time to understand each other's requirements then great leaps can be made. Also by having an open approach within the teaching side of the team, the students were able to share their concerns and were open about using an alternative system in addition to Plone, resulting in WordPress being adopted for the second trial.

People Matter

Whatever the context, it is usually the people relationships that are important to the success of any collaboration. Building trust and working with users to elicit their needs before engaging the online tool will pay dividends. Working with all stakeholders (within the institution and business) from the start of the project is equally important to the success, or otherwise, of the venture. Familiarity with a particular collaborative online tool or one with a similar interface can similarly help to get people on board.

Professional Face

These points are discussed further in the Professional Face section of the infoKit

In using collaborative online tools in business and community engagement the initial impression, as with all relationships, is important. Selecting the right tool for the job is a first step and some advice and guidance from the trial projects can be found in another section - 'Selecting an appropriate tool'. Other factors that can help in giving good first impressions are:

• Having clear objectives
• Having a well-designed site with help/training/advice
• Use a familiar tool or look-alike interface or one that industry is using
• Have resource available to support use
• Have uniqueness, so people have a reason to be involved