Social Presence: The Secret Behind Online Collaboration

By Mary Beth Lakin

We all acknowledge the growing need to be able to communicate across cultures, to lead global teams, and to find information quickly and efficiently. Now collaborative experiences are helping foster these abilities in college classrooms and workplace settings alike. With the rise of collaborative technologies, professionals across sectors and around the globe use instant messaging, web conferencing, and content management systems to create collaborative groups. 

Of course, collaborative practice is not new to business or higher education. More than 200 years ago, University of Glasgow philosophy professor George Jardine designed a peer review method with rules to be followed by peer editors, whom he labeled “examinators.” By participating in collaborative learning settings, Jardine thought, students develop interpersonal traits and skills “indispensable at once to the cultivation of science, and to the business of active life.”

One hundred fifty years later, psychologist Kurt Lewin stressed that collaborative communities were the most effective settings for learning. He believed, for example, that to become a carpenter requires more than learning how to use the tools: “It involves coming to swear like carpenters, to walk, eat, and see the world from a carpenter’s point of view.”

It’s Not Just the Technology

Collaboration can be difficult enough “in person,” especially when the attitudes and practices that some people bring to the task include a kind of “I win, you lose” mentality. Who puts in the most effort? Who lets others do the work? Who gets the credit? Having experienced this kind of tension in classrooms and workplaces can make students and workers wary of collaborative activities.

So consider the challenges in moving collaboration from a “face-to-face environment” to a “virtual work team” or an online college course, especially when apprehension about unfamiliar technologies is added to the mix. The results: Another layer of challenges in making collaboration work. Moreover, as with face-to-face (F2F) interactions, online collaboration includes social aspects that can either foster or impede effectiveness.

Chih-Tsiung Tu, educational technology professor at George Washington University, observes that social presence—the degree to which an online user feels access to the “intelligence, intentions, and sensory impressions” of other learners—is key to the learner’s participatory level and, subsequently, the success of online collaboration. Facial expression, direction of gaze, posture, dress, and non-verbal and vocal cues—all are essentials that contribute to social presence in a face-to-face environment. Without these factors, other elements enhance “social presence” and, in turn, affect the quality of online collaboration.

Online Collaboration Across Sectors

Practitioners in two very different settings—a global telecommunications company and a graduate-level military school—are learning about building learning about building social presence in online collaborative communities.

Maricarmen Suarez, project manager in a multinational corporation, works with a “virtual team” of nine software developers located in India, Northern Virginia, and California.  Tasked with developing certified, error-free software code in a two- to three-month period, Suarez has to build successful teams quickly. “Most of our communication is done via e-mail or instant message. The time difference is pretty steep. We usually have scheduled conference calls (three days a week) for 9:00 a.m. EST.”  She uses questions, such as “What’s the best thing you’ve eaten in the past two days” to help her lighten the mood. During the calls, Suarez says, “team members in Pune, India are reserved [and] . . . . the West Coast team is usually quiet as well, not because they are shy, but because it is 6 a.m. there.”

Ken Pisel, dean of the Joint Continuing and Distance Education School of Joint Forces Staff College (JFSC) in Norfolk, Virginia, heads a “blended” educational program for Reserve Component officers—“a population with existing civilian jobs and drill commitments with their individual units.”  These students, from all services and functional specialties, already have advanced training, are highly motivated, and, often, will move into lead commands after completing the Advanced Joint Professional Military Education program (AJPME). The 40-week program provides two face-to-face sessions, the first at Week 11 and the second at Week 38, with the remainder online.

Because one of the objectives of JFSC programs is to “value a thoroughly joint perspective and appreciate the increased power available to commanders through joint, multinational, interagency efforts and teamwork,” activities that increase collaborative skills have a major place in the curriculum. The second stage of the online program, says Dan Goodman, AJPME’s chief for faculty and staff development, forces the students “to remain in phase with each other to facilitate the threaded discussions that are key to the learning.” Students work in small groups to develop, review, and revise products that are part of the combatant command process. The curriculum uses a two-year scenario that focuses on the activities of a fictional combatant command, to which the students are “assigned.”

Building a Collaborative Environment

Project Manager Suarez begins to build the virtual team environment with a project charter. “This is usually the first document I distribute at the beginning of the project. It lays out the ground rules,” she says. “I find that if they are aware of the rules from the get-go, they will be likely to follow them. The most useful one is that ‘we must agree to disagree, but we will do it respectfully.’”

In Suarez’s experience, the virtual team members located in India “are very non-confrontational. . . .The rest of us are more ‘Americanized’—we live in a hurry, we want everything done yesterday, we get animated and raise our voices. So it is very interesting to have this sharp contrast.”

Suarez considers these contrasts, along with the project goals, when she constructs the collaborative environment. “I want them to feel like they have a vested interest in this project, because they do. We do not work in a vacuum. . . . It’s essential that we somehow achieve a sense of community.” With this in mind, Suarez includes exercises in which virtual team members talk about what they want to accomplish. And between the weekly conference calls, e-mail messages flow back and forth; Suarez captures these notes to build agendas for upcoming calls. “Seventy-five percent of the real feedback and communication happens virtually, mostly over e-mail. Over time we have learned to trust each other’s skills and we know who is an expert of what, so it flows.”

Further, project managers like Suarez must watch for potential problems in synchronous and asynchronous communications alike. Rapid pace; frequent topic changes; difficulty in following the threads of the conversation; and limited response time: All are factors that can create miscommunication. Even a seemingly small item such as salutation protocol can make a difference in collaborative efforts, especially at the outset. Suarez says, “As the project manager, I act as the traffic cop. I ensure that the communication that filters from group to group is clear.”

In the AJPME program, as with Suarez’s virtual work team, the group has a clear goal that must be met in a limited amount of time. The group must swiftly develop collaborative strategies to carry them through their online projects. To foster that, says instructor John Wrenn, the faculty “encourage interaction during the first F2F so that relationships are started and are carried over into the online portion.” Faculty also continue to build social presence by creating “chat threads for any issues students want to discuss, especially those personal issues . . . and current events threads where students can discuss topics not related to the course.”  Instructor Bridget Powell adds, “Student feedback lets instructors know that after the first F2F, combined with our virtual homeroom where they can view classmates’ photos, they [students] now relate to a real person as opposed to a virtual presence.”

Suarez’s virtual team increases social presence by “switching hats every three to six months.” “The team lead currently in Pune, India, was stationed here [Northern Virginia] for three months, so she knows exactly who we are.” Virtual team members from both India and the West Coast visit the Northern Virginia headquarters and learn how they “fit into the company’s picture,” Suarez adds.

For Suarez, managing a global virtual team for the first time, has been challenging—what she calls “extreme project management.” For the AJMPE instructors, online orientation and training have helped them learn firsthand what works and what doesn’t work. They’ve learned from trial and error, as well. Powell says, “Part of the building of effective online collaboration is what we don’t do. . . . One of the best things that happened was when we got over the need to respond to every single post and now inject occasionally, for example, where a mid-course correction is desired or if a particularly salient point was made.”

This kind of stepping back makes room for students to step in. Wrenn says that student peers definitely play a big role in building online collaboration. “Groups that are more junior, and have fewer senior officers generally develop social interactions, as there is still some hesitancy to engage and discuss topics with a senior officer. This doesn't always happen. . . . A lot depends on the personality of the senior officer. Additionally, the amount of discussion sometimes depends on the student’s job. The traditional reservists . . . . seem to engage more, or at least offer that differing viewpoint.”

Suarez agrees that the roles of team members help with online collaboration. One U.S. team member provides technical leadership, allowing Suarez to focus on team building and administrative tasks.

Collaborative Results

These practitioners see notable results from their hard work. Suarez has watched the team grow in its cooperative efforts and its respect for one another. “Different backgrounds contribute greatly to the project; we analyze every project from multiple angles.” Instructors Wrenn and Powell consider the  spirited and substantive discussions on course topics and current events—not to mention, their lives outside of class—to be vital indicators of thriving online collaboration. As with Suarez’s team, enhancing social presence through online collaboration helps lifelong learning flourish.