6 Essential tips for online teamwork!
So, you’re participating in remote or online learning, which has its own challenges, but now you’re being asked to do teamwork?!?
Don’t worry, we have you covered! Here are 6 essential tips to help you manage teamwork successfully.
1) OVER COMMUNICATE
Communication is absolutely key in any kind of teamwork. When you aren’t seeing your teammates in person or in a classroom it is absolutely essential to communicate even more than you normally would! WhatsApp, Outlook, Teams, Zoom, Trello, and Discord are among the many ways that you can communicate with your team, pick a platform and stick to it. If everyone is communicating what they are working on, what their plans are, how they are getting their work done, any questions they have, anything they need help with, it will make working together so much easier.
Where online teamwork has an advantage over in-person is that most work is done through messages and email. This means when you remember discussing something with a teammate last week but can’t quite remember the details, you can just go back and check.
2) SET UP AN ORGANIZED & SHARED SPACE
An often overlooked essential aspect of doing teamwork is setting up an organized, shared space online. Pick your platform (OneDrive, Google, Discord etc.) and set up folders for different assignments or classes. Label everything clearly and give access to all team members, this way everyone always has easy access to working documents and can share their work in a way that makes it easy to find.
3) SCHEDULE REGULAR MEETINGS
A meeting once a week even if there isn’t a specific thing you need to talk about can help build cohesiveness in a team and inevitably things you need to discuss as a team will come up. Meetings are also a great way to talk through projects, ideas, issues, questions, and more, in a quick and easy way.
4) REACH OUT TO YOUR INSTRUCTORS
If you’re having trouble working well as a team, reach out for help from your instructors and professors. They are there to help. Often they can meet with you individually or as a team and discuss strategies so that you can move forward working together effectively.
Do this early on, don’t let any issues pile up and drag down productivity and morale!
5) ESTABLISH TEAM ROLES
Creating team roles and establishing tasks that certain team members are responsible for can be a great way to break large projects into smaller manageable sections. Not everyone has to worry about communications if you have a designated person who is talking to your instructor, or client. Same goes for who is going to upload the assignments? What about setting up team meetings in zoom? Assigning these tasks is a great way for everyone to take responsibility for aspects of the project so that no single person is burdened with all of the stress or work.
6) LEARN TEAM MEMBERS’ STRENGTHS
Is someone really good at doing the finishing touches and formatting? what about research? or do their strengths lay in writing and editing? Figuring this out can be one of the most effective ways to get things done as a team. There are lots of tasks in team projects and having people work to their strengths typically motivates them and will get them more excited to work on a project.
Teamwork can be tricky, but there are ways to make it easier, more manageable, and enjoyable.
