Ever have someone in a group project for a Capella course who didn’t seem to get it? He’d post late and ignore your emails for days. You had to explain the project’s scope over and over again until finally he did his share of the work. At the time, you might have wanted to throttle him, but in the long run he did you a huge favor.
That’s the view of Janet Salmons, a Capella faculty member who is about to release a new book on the lessons of collaborating online. The seemingly obtuse classmate is not so different than the people you’ll encounter in work situations, and your experience will better prepare you to engage others whose cooperation you need. The fact that you had to lasso the errant co-learner by electronic means underlines the relevance of the experience—it’s increasingly the way work gets done by organizations of all sorts.
“Let’s face it, people come with different levels of commitment to a project,” Salmons says. “The team may include employees and contractors and telecommuters and sales representatives who are on the road and who have all kinds of demands on their time. If you go into management, you’re going to be responsible for more than just participating. You’re going to have to rope people in to the project, keeping them on task, building relationships so they can respond to rapid change.”
Salmons, who has taught at Capella since 1999, is the editor of Handbook of Research on Electronic Collaboration and Organizational Synergy, which has contributing authors from 20 countries as well as several Capella faculty and a learner. She says Capella learners are well-suited not just for work projects but the whole range of business-related activities that increasingly occur in virtual settings.
“More and more today, professional exchanges and collegiality occurs online—through professional conferences, webinars, web meetings where people are interacting with others from their fields and disciplines—these are increasingly replacing getting on a plane and meeting in person,” she says. “And one of the value-adds of a Capella education is that you gain the ability to use the information and communications technology literacies that are essential to pretty much every field.”
That literacy facilitates collaboration with others, thinking together on how to tackle issues, and making personal connections that will help you move forward in your career.
It also means you’re able to quickly gather and evaluate information. “With a Capella education, you’re able not only access information online, but to be able to critically evaluate if it is credible, applicable, timely, and something that can help you make a decision.”
Salmons says these are key competencies that Capella learners and alumni should keep in mind as they talk to potential employers or their bosses. And you might just recall the story of the obtuse colleague to show how you’re ready for the next level of responsibility.
Salmons and co-editor Lynn Wilson will be part of an online discussion of topics in their her book on the following dates:
- Oct. 29, 2 p.m. Central Time: Electronic Collaboration within and Across Organizations
- Nov 6., 3 p.m. Central Time: Studying Electronic Collaboration: Research, Theories and Methods
- Nov. 12, 2 p.m. Central Time: International, Cross-Cultural Electronic Collaboration
Authors from around the world who contributed to the book will participate. To listen in, please go to www.eluminate.com and click the “Events” tab. The events will be accessible for later viewing as archived files on the Eluminate site.
This entry was posted on Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 at 9:41 am and is filed under Alumni, Learners. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
