With the increase in technology and demand for more innovative ideas, collaboration has been made possible across the world. The Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) defines collaboration as “a working practice whereby individuals work together to a common purpose to achieve business benefit“. AIIM goes further to separate collaboration tools into two general types: synchronous collaboration and asynchronous collaboration (AIIM, 2013).
Each type of collaboration has its advantages over the other, but before the advantages of synchronous and asynchronous collaboration can be understood, synchronous and asynchronous collaboration must first be defined.
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Synchronous collaboration is explained by the University of Wisconson-Madison as real-time collaboration (Allen and Seaman, 2004). Individuals act and react to other individuals as responses occur, there is no lag between the sender and the receiver of the message. This type of collaboration includes chat sessions, whiteboard drawings, and other group interactive work (Allen and Seaman, 2004).
The major advantage of using synchronous collaboration tools is the immediacy that it provides (Allen and Seaman, 2006). Questions can be answered in seconds allowing work to continue.
In contrast to synchronous collaboration, asynchronous collaboration take place outside of real-time collaboration (Allen and Seaman, 2004). In this type of collaboration there is a lag between the sender and the receiver. For example, emails are sent, and then opened at a later time by the receiver. This type of collaboration includes activities such as viewing videos linked to the course site, reading a textbook, and writing a paper are all asynchronous activities (Allen and Seaman, 2004).
The major advantage of using asynchronous collaboration tools is the flexibility they provide. Information is reviewed at the convince of the receiver which provides time for the information to be reviewed properly before a response is developed (Allen and Seaman, 2006).
Both types of collaboration have been used throughout my college career in and out of the classroom, and both will continue to be used in my career. I can expect I will be using email, and face-to-face meetings in my future career to communicate with colleagues. In addition to traditional collaboration tools I expect I will also be using social software and free-form collaboration tools. Many organizations are using these types of collaboration tools to reduce the number of emails used for collaboration (AIIM, 2013).
Collaboration is founded on openness and knowledge sharing. As I begin my career after graduation I can expect that collaboration will be my most educational tool. It will be a life-long activity that I will use to further my success in the business world.
AIIM (2013). Glossary: What is collaboration? Retrieved from: http://www.aiim.org/What-is-Collaboration
Allen I.E. and Seaman J., Entering the Mainstream: The Quality and Extent of Online Education in the United States, 2003 and 2004. Needham, Mass.: The Sloan Consortium, 2004. Retrieved from sloanconsortium.org/publications/survey/pdf/class_differences.pdf
Allen I.E. and Seaman J., Making the Grade: Online Education in the United States, Needham, Mass.: The Sloan Consortium, 2006. Retrieved from sloanconsortium.org/publications/survey/pdf/class_differences.pdf
Taylor cameron 