Online Meeting Challenges in a Research Group Resulting from COVID-19 Limitations

Abstract

COVID-19 social distancing limitations have resulted in the utilization of hybrid online formats focused on visual contact among learners and teachers. The preferred option has been Zoom. The focus of one voluntary, democratic, self-reflective university research group—grounded in responses to writing prompts—differed. Demanding a safe space for self-reflection and creative questioning of other participants, the private Facebook group was chosen over video conferencing to concentrate on group members’ written responses rather than on visual contact. A narrative research model initiated in 2015, the 2020/21 interaction of the group in the year’s worth of Facebook entries, and the yearend feedback received from group participants, will be compared with previous years when the weekly group met in person. The aim is to determine the appropriateness of the online platform chosen compared with when the group met in person, pre-COVID-19, and suggest changes to improve future online group meetings. The results in relation to COVID-19 limitations indicate that an important aspect of self-directed learning related to trust arising from team mindfulness is lost when face-to-face interaction is eliminated with respect to the democratic nature of these meetings. With online meetings the new standard, maintaining trust requires improvements to online virtual meeting spaces.

Enhancing Hopeful Resilience Regarding Depression and Anxiety with a Narrative Method of Ordering Memory Effective in Researchers Experiencing Burnout

“…The year-end feedback forms from three years-the full year before COVID-19 restrictions, the year COVID-19 required that the HeNReG no longer meet in person and moved online after 12 March 2020, and the first full year after the COVID-19 restrictions were imposed-have previously been examined chronologically in detail [49]. What will be novel in the analysis offered here is an assessment of that feedback using the HeNReG process of ordering itself.…”

“…The year immediately prior to COVID-19 and the years post-COVID-19 remain comparable, even with these slight modifications. The ways in which they are comparable have been highlighted in detail elsewhere [49].…”

“…The group is free of charge and operates as an intentional community [45] defined by its philosophy and practice and is neither therapy [46] nor a research study [47]. Its process has been previously reported [48,49].…”

“…The people brought together in this group are amazing 1 I miss the personal interaction now that everything is online 1 2 What I had expected this was a creative writing group, but I easily shifted focus 1 I am thankful to express myself in a non-judgmental environment 1 It got me engaged with research during the lockdown 1 COVID-19 affected my ability to participate 1 I like the flexibility and structure of the group 2 The year has been very isolating, this group was a great way to network 2 How I would like to try to not use prompts 1 It would be good to have some exercises related to writing and art 1 Maybe we could include video chatting 1 1 Fewer people responded to questions asked when we were entirely online 1 I'm glad we did not use the videoconferencing format; it's too exhausting 1 It would be nice to get tips for navigating the online platform 1 Why This is a good program 1 A wonderful experience 1 I love this group! 1 1 I love learning about other fields of research 1 * Responses regarding themes not a focus of this article (doodling [67] and thanks given) but reported elsewhere [49] have been removed.…”

Together Alone: Going Online during COVID-19 Is Changing Scientific Conferences

“…There appears to be inherent differences between online and physical mediums, and online conferences are reported to limit engagement and networking [1,16]. Virtual meetings may not focus on issues that require a high degree of trust, are controversial, or call for long-term process transformation [19,20]. Currently, it is unclear whether these limitations are due to poor technology implementation or inherent differences in the ability of people to interact online versus in-person [1,14,21].…”