Thinking Together, Working Apart: Leveraging a Community of Practice to Facilitate Productive and Meaningful Remote Collaboration

Document Type : Perspective

Authors

1 Health Program, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, NS, Canada

2 Women’s College Hospital Institute for Health System Solutions and Virtual Care, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

3 Department of Sociology, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, NS, Canada

4 University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA

5 Canadian Autism Spectrum Disorder Alliance (CASDA), Toronto, ON, Canada

Abstract

Considering the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, scholars were encouraged to cease collocated meetings. Many researchers have turned to remote collaboration to continue group-based projects. This paper focuses on the structure, processes, and outcomes that a group of physically distanced, embedded researchers used to collaborate across Canada to produce research outputs prior to the pandemic. The intent of this paper is to provide an overview of mechanisms that can facilitate meaningful and productive remote collaboration using online and digital technologies as a feasible and effective alternative mode of communication for research teams.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

  1. Guidance IPP. Community Strategy for Pandemic Influenza Mitigation in the United States: Early, Targeted, Layered Use of Nonpharmaceutical Interventions. Department of Health and Human Services United States of America, CDC; February 2007.
  2. Wang C, Horby PW, Hayden FG, Gao GF. A novel coronavirus outbreak of global health concern. Lancet. 2020;395(10223):470-473. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30185-9
  3. Public Health Agency of Canada. Risk-Informed Decision-Making for Mass Gatherings during COVID-19 Global Outbreak. Ottawa, Canada; 2020. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection/health-professionals/mass-gatherings-risk-assesment.html.
  4. Ferguson NM, Laydon D, Nedjati-gilani G, et al. Impact of Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs) to Reduce COVID- 19 Mortality and Healthcare Demand. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/sph/ide/gida-fellowships/Imperial-College-COVID19-NPI-modelling-16-03-2020.pdf. 2020.
  5. Gillis C, Tushaus D. Value of Service Learning Through Global Collaborations. Asian J Leg Educ. 2017;5(1):1-20. doi:10.1177/2322005817730152
  6. CIHR’s Institute of Health Services and Policy Research. Funding Opportunities Details: Health System Impact Fellowship. https://www.researchnet-recherchenet.ca/rnr16/viewOpportunityDetails.do?prog=3203&language=E.  Accessed June 22, 2020. Published 2020.  
  7. Blanchette MA, Saari M, Aubrecht K, et al. Making contributions and defining success: An eDelphi study of the inaugural cohort of CIHR health system impact fellows, host supervisors and academic supervisors. Healthc Policy. 2019;15(SP):49-60. doi:10.12927/hcpol.2019.25980
  8. Blackmore C. Social Learning Systems and Communities of Practice. Dordrecht: Springer; 2010.  doi:10.1007/978-1-84996-133-2
  9. Canadian Health Services and Policy Research Alliance. Report from the Working Group on Training. 2015. http://ihpme.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/CHSPR-Alliance_Final_Dec7.pdf.
  10. Noseworthy T. A Flight Simulator for Careers in Health Services and Policy Research. Healthc Policy. 2019;15:6-9. doi:10.12927/hcpol.2019.25984
  11. Tierney A. Communities of practice in life sciences and the need for brokering. F1000Research. 2016;5:1-8. doi:10.12688/f1000research.7695.1
  12. Li LC, Grimshaw JM, Nielsen C, Judd M, Coyte PC, Graham ID. Evolution of Wenger’s concept of community of practice. Implement Sci. 2009;4(1):1-8. doi:10.1186/1748-5908-4-11
  13. Degn L, Franssen T, Sørensen MP, de Rijcke S. Research groups as communities of practice—a case study of four high-performing research groups. High Educ. 2018;76(2):231-246. doi:10.1007/s10734-017-0205-2
  14. Sawant SB. Google Classroom for Techno-Savy Teacher and Students. Stud Indian Place Names. 2020;40(57):96-101.
  15. Mahapatra T, Chopra M, Mahapatra C. Google Suite An Integrated IT application for Improved Business Efficiency. Int J Comput Sci Eng. 2017;5:276-279. doi:10.26438/ijcse/v5i10.276279
  16. Zhou W, Simpson E, Domizi DP. Google Docs in an Out-of-Class Collaborative Writing Activity. Int J Teach Learn High Educ. 2012;24(3):359-375.
  17. Karis D, Wildman D, Mané A. Improving remote collaboration with video conferencing and video portals. Hum Comput Interact. 2016;31(1):1-58. doi:10.1080/07370024.2014.921506
  18. Foster ED, Deardorff A. Open science framework (OSF). J Med Libr Assoc. 2017;105(2):203.
  19. Dabbish L, Stuart C, Tsay J, Herbsleb J. Social coding in GitHub: Transparency and collaboration in an open software repository. CSCW’12 Computer Supported Cooperative Work; February 11-15, 2012; Seattle, WA, USA. doi:10.1145/2145204.2145396
  20. Wolf C. Privacy and data security in the cloud: What are the issues. IP Litig Devoted Intellect Prop Litig Enforc. 2012;18(6):19-28.
  21. Sun Y, Zhang J, Xiong Y, Zhu G. Data Security and Privacy in Cloud Computing. Int J Distrib Sens Networks. 2014;2014. doi:10.1155/2014/190903
  22. Kiyanovska N. Free and open source cloud technology based on the type Software as a Service. New computer technology. Vol. XIII: special issue “Cloud technologies in education.” 2019;(17):52-58.
  23. Meaghan Sim S, Lai J, Aubrecht K, et al. CIHR health system impact fellows: reflections on “driving change” within the health system. Int J Health Policy Manag. 2019;8(6):325-328. doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2018.124
  24. Weijs C, McConnell-Nzunga J, Prince SA, Sim SM. Strengthening the health system through novel population and public health fellowships in Canada. Can J Public Health. 2019;110(3):323-326. doi:10.17269/s41997-019-00195-3
  25. Owens B. The benefits and challenges of international research collaboration. University Affairs website. https://www.universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/the-benefits-and-challenges-of-international-research-collaboration/.  Accessed June 22, 2020. Published November 2018.
  26. Sugimoto CR, Robinson-Garcia N, Murray DS, Yegros-Yegros A, Costas R, Larivière V. Scientists have most impact when they’re free to move. Nature. 2017;550(7674):29-31. doi:10.1038/550029a
  27. Chinchilla-Rodríguez Z, Sugimoto CR, Larivière V. Follow the leader: On the relationship between leadership and scholarly impact in international collaborations. PLoS One. 2019;14(6):e0218309. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0218309
International Journal of Health Policy and Management
Volume 10, Issue 9
September 2021
Pages 528-533

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 18 May 2020
  • Revise Date: 29 June 2020
  • Accept Date: 29 June 2020
  • First Publish Date: 01 September 2021

Share

How to cite

Statistics