Surinder is my advisor and mentor in the doctoral program at Binghamton University. We have written several conference papers and collaborated on other projects together with Betsy and Professor Rui Huang at the university. Very often the two of us, or all of us, have worked together while geographically far apart. We have used tools like Google docs, Google groups, Yugma, Skype, e-mail and Team Viewer to communicate and collaborate. This has worked quite well and is often more convenient than trying to meet face-to-face, even if we are all in town. These days, however, I am working on my dissertation and we have found it different from working on other projects virtually, with its own challenges.

I am in the developmental stage of my dissertation proposal; I’m developing my research model, hypotheses, and methods for completing the dissertation. This is very time consuming and requires a lot of reading, reflection and creativity. Surinder and I have been connecting over Skype to discuss ideas about how to proceed and the direction my dissertation should take. These discussions help me formulate my thoughts more clearly for the next round of revisions. After our meeting last week, Surinder asked me to keep him updated on my thoughts as I went about writing the next draft. What happened, however, is that I didn’t speak with Surinder again or share any thoughts with him until I sent him the next draft, which sadly was also incomplete. It was incomplete because working alone without sharing my thoughts and bouncing ideas off Surinder slowed me down considerably and I was unable to finish before the deadline.

Why didn’t I discuss things with Surinder as I thought about them? Well, because we didn’t have any set meeting times during those days and we didn’t see each other face-to-face; I wasn’t sure when he might be available. Often, my ideas seemed so trivial that I didn’t want to disturb him with something that seemed, at the time, frivolous. So I found myself spinning my wheels, trying to get my ideas solidified and down on paper before interrupting him at home or on Skype. Had he been across the hall in his office, I probably would have dropped by to bounce some ideas around rather than continue spinning on my own. We had another meeting over Skype recently which quickly cleared up a lot of my troubles in further developing my ideas and put me back on track for writing my proposal.

The lesson we learned from this experience is that, for some projects or project phases, frequent, set meeting times are very important for continuing progress when working virtually – especially in a situation that requires a lot of creative energy and when one person is teaching or mentoring others for the project. Even if instructed to contact one another when something comes up, the tendency will be to not bother the person or try to save up all the ideas for one phone call or email that never seems to happen. It might be a bit more time consuming in the beginning to set up regular check-in meetings, but I’ve learned from this experience that it is, in the long run, the most efficient way to complete intensive, creative projects while working virtually.