Team flow experience in ONL

This year has been special in my life in many respects. I travelled a lot physically, virtually, cognitively, socially, and even emotionally. In June, during my business trip to Singapore, I met a highly professional and extremely nice person, Kiruthika Ragupathi, Associate Director for Educational Technology and Research at the Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning, National University of Singapore. She was the one who suggested that I join the Open Networked Learning course. I'm so glad that I took her advice! Thanks so much, Kiru! It is an extra bonus that she became the co-facilitator of my PBL group.

The most important thing that I have learnt during these weeks (from September to December) is that group collaboration can work perfectly in an online environment. But I also learnt that it is dependent on a lot of factors. It is essential to have a clear course design with topics, tasks and deadlines. The focus on a problem, i.e. a scenario, every second week was also a good arrangement. The background sources helped not only a better understanding of the scenarios, but also made us think about the topics at a more abstract, theoretical level. It was exciting to participate in the synchronous group meetings and discuss each topic with my peers. We had a diverse group, with participants from different parts of the world (Switzerland, South Africa, Sweden, Romania, Hungary, and Finland). I got to know great people, who were working in different fields of higher education as pedagogical and academic developers, researchers, and educators. Thanks a lot, Gizeh, Kiru, Rachel, Carmen, Rajh, Birger, and Norma!

I also learnt that good collaboration has the following secrets: 1) great facilitators (crucial, especially in the first weeks), 2) lots of synchronous meetings, 3) topic leaders, 4) "tangible" output, i.e. a co-created product, 5) fast exchange of messages, 6) socialization, 7) humour, 8) mutual interdependence. The ONL group work is actually designed in such a way that the prerequisities of team flow (Hout et al. 2018) are either given or have a good chance to develop: collective ambition, common goal, aligned personal goals, high skill integration, open communication, safety, and mutual commitment. What is team flow? When you experience team work as a lifting experience; you have a kind of intrinsic motivation to contribute to the on-going work.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1990) defines flow as the optimal experience, when one is in a highly focused mental state, fully involved in an activity. Optimized team dynamic can lead to team flow, which is characterized by a sense of unity, joint progress, and mutual trust. I think it is not an exaggeration to state that our group experienced team flow. But it did not happen fast. Our group developed into a team gradually. There was even a kind of mid-way low point, which we overcame with the help of the facilitators. I believe that people willingly contribute to group work if it is a postive and enjoyable experience. Humour, laughter, smiles, encouragement and informal chat (about the weather or whatever) can play an essential role in this.


I would like to build on the knowledge I acquired in the course by designing blended courses and perhaps by integrating similar, problem-based online collaboration practices into my teaching. I would also like to encourage my colleagues at the university to join one of the future ONL journeys.




Sources


Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York, NY: Harper and Row.


Jef J.J. van den Hout, Orin C. Davis & Mathieu C.D.P. Weggeman (2018) The Conceptualization of Team Flow, The Journal of Psychology, 152:6, 388-423, DOI: 10.1080/00223980.2018.1449729