Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Jolly 2021
Jolly 2021
Jolly 2021
A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T
Keywords: Developing collaborative and cooperative research across academic disciplines and university administrative
Delphi technique boundaries can be a challenge. In an attempt to understand and propose solutions to this challenge, the authors of
World cafe research this paper set out to: test an innovative combination of methods to generate and evaluate ideas and strategies; and
Remote working
to write about the findings using collaborative online methods. During this process universities in the UK moved
Collaboration
Academic writing
to online working and so the authors completed this paper through entirely online means.
Interdisciplinary writing The authors - a team of academic researchers from the University of AAA - came together in sessions designed
as a hybrid of World Cafe and Delphi technique approaches to discuss challenges and solutions. The findings were
written up drawing on insights from the use of massively authored papers (also known as ‘massively open online
papers’, MOOPs), and online tools to enable remote collaboration. Expert consensus was sought in this project
within a group of participants (N ¼ 7) in one university setting to create a MOOP.
This paper presents details of the process, the findings, and reflections on this collaborative and cooperative
exercise. That this paper was written using the methods discussed within it, highlights the value and success of the
approach. In light of the current Coronavirus pandemic and the increased need to work remotely, this paper offers
academics useful strategies for meaningful and productive online collaboration.
1. Introduction on insights from the use of massively authored papers (also known as
‘massively open online papers’, MOOPs).
Developing collaborative and cooperative research across academic This methodology could be applied to a number of purposes in aca-
disciplines and university administrative boundaries can be a major demic life, such as developing bids, drafting departmental strategies, and
challenge, as evidenced by numerous initiatives established by Higher most significantly, writing academic papers. In the current public health
Education Institutions to encourage greater social interaction, shared environment of increased social distancing and remote working across
research cultures, and shared corporate identities. This paper uses a the world, the method offers a flexible means of using technology to elicit
methodologically innovative combination of methods to generate and information, develop consensus and collaborate with colleagues.
evaluate ideas and strategies for developing a cross-faculty research
culture at the University of AAA and beyond. The paper draws on the 2. Literature review
findings from two participatory ‘Research Cafe’ seminars hosted by the
Institute BBB at the University of AAA. The first seminar used what can be This section will introduce the two methodological tools used in this
described as a ‘Cafe Delphi’ approach as it drew on a hybrid of the World paper - the Delphi technique, and the World Cafe method - before dis-
Caf
e approach and the Delphi technique to discuss challenges and solu- cussing the concept of massively authored online papers, and concludes
tions to building a cross-faculty research culture (both approaches are with a brief explanation of how cross-faculty working is currently utilised
described individually in more detail below). This session made use of an in higher education institutions.
online tool called Mentimeter. In the second follow-up seminar, the
approach our reflections were written up in real-time using a single 2.1. Delphi Technique
shared Google Doc. The final draft was completed using Microsoft Teams
group chat and video meeting software to discuss changes made, drawing The Delphi technique is a structured communication technique
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: a.jolly@wlv.ac.uk (A. Jolly).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2020.100095
Received 30 April 2020; Received in revised form 28 November 2020; Accepted 30 November 2020
Available online 23 December 2020
2590-2911/© 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
nc-nd/4.0/).
A. Jolly et al. Social Sciences & Humanities Open 3 (2021) 100095
2
A. Jolly et al. Social Sciences & Humanities Open 3 (2021) 100095
the rules allows for coherence and relevance. To this end, it is important
to invite appropriate people and ensure that the opportunity for expo-
nential growth in authorship is balanced with clear focus, direction and
control over membership. In effect, far from being a fluid or organic
process, the management of MOOPs should feature rigorous controls and
management. The use of online writing platforms, such as Google Docs or
other comparable platforms, can allow for collective writing, reviewing
and recognising a broad context for one’s work. It also allows people to
be allocated to focus on specific sections of a writing project, in addition
to academics working remotely.
Recognising the benefits of massively authored papers, Tennant et al.
(2019) see the process as being able to open up academic debate and Fig. 2. Cafe Delphi process.
collaboration beyond the academic confines within which we can often
find ourselves operating. This might include working with potential
partners from other time zones, other institutions or, importantly, those In this case the method was adopted as a novel approach (participants
from outside of our own disciplines. Not only does this push the had not used it together before as a single group) in the hope that it
boundaries of our knowledge and expand analyses, it can also lead to would maximise the generation of ideas and dialogue that could be taken
appealing to wider audiences. With this in mind, it might be that the forward and then formally written-up via the ‘massively distributed
authors reflect different traditions within a particular subject area, such authorship’ approach illustrated by this paper. In order to conduct the
as Social Sciences or Humanities, but may also come from academic initial piece of ‘research’ and prepare the ‘findings’ reported in this
disciplines not previously associated with these topics but who are in a paper, a small and coherent group of researchers, already known to each
position to make critical and important contributions. Similarly, it might other in a workplace setting (n ¼ 7), went through a three-stage process,
also be that authors are invited to take part because of their different during which the clear, shared intention was to learn and practice the
experiences and knowledge, which may include professional and/or approach in order to apply it in other similar projects, and potentially in
lived experiences. Therefore, editorial control of the process means that other settings. It was therefore embarked on in a shared experimental and
not everyone involved has to take on comparable roles within the paper, ‘open-minded’ spirit.
produce the same amount of work, or come from the same starting point. The first step was to conduct an exercise that in effect was a hybrid
Tennant et al. (2019) set out a series of steps and guidelines to enable combination of a ‘real-time’ Delphi panel process (Gordon & Pease,
a smooth process and facilitate productive outcomes. Importantly, they 2006) and a World Cafe, which lasted for approximately 1 h in total, and
also recognise that research and writing projects never turn out entirely was carried out in the room where the researchers were gathered (all
as planned and that flexibility needs to be integral to the process. Further researchers were physically present). In keeping with the World Cafe
to this, Tomlinson et al. (2012) have explored the practicalities of the approach the setting was informal, and food and drink was provided. In
process, and usefully examined the feelings of those involved in the its most basic sense, the approach consisted of a group ‘brainstorming’
process. Recognising the challenge that authors could feel abstracted discussion in order to surface ideas, the outcomes of which were shared
from the process, feeling that their engagement was of a ‘helicopter’ on a large wall mounted video screen using Mentimeter; followed by a
nature and that they would have liked greater engagement. The risk of second stage in which the first round ideas were ranked in perceived
author isolation and sporadic engagement can limit feelings of owner- order of importance. Mentimeter allows users to ‘vote’ on the options in
ship. This also highlights the importance of inclusivity, raised by Tennant order to establish the final ranking. The schedule employed was as
et al. that can be achieved by identifying structures, roles and ensuring follows:
that these are maintained. The group-sourced answers to each question were displayed on the
For Vaish et al. (2017), the process of crowd research allows for a screen (in ‘bubbles’) so that the group could see the emerging ideas, but
democratisation of research and reporting. Inherent in this is the op- these were anonymised and unattributable to individuals (unless they
portunity to create a more diverse research team and reporting mecha- chose to highlight that they have supplied a particular answer, which in
nisms. On an instrumental level, such an approach is useful for this case no-one did). At this point there was no ranking or any other
introducing new and critical voices that can add a degree of validity and method of highlighting or distinguishing the ‘quality’ or popularity of the
insight to research and reporting. However, at a time when there is ideas - they are treated as equal at this stage. The next step of the exercise
greater scrutiny of diversity within research and higher education in however is to rank the ideas, an implicit recognition or judgement of the
general, then the democratisation of research can be seen as beneficial. relative merit of each idea.
We recognise that the process of working together as presented in the These ‘findings’ were then taken forward into the writing process
article can pose a challenge associated with the level of technological carried out through massively distributed authorship using Google Docs.
capacity and technological infrastructure required to write together. This In the transition from the ‘Cafe Delphi’ phase, decisions were made as to
can be especially problematic when working with institutions based in which answers to prioritise and discuss in more detail. The quantitative
countries with significant technological limitations. The work of scholars ranking suggested that the top four challenges were worth further
from the Global South is underrepresented in European and US journals exploration; and the top five ranked solutions came out well above the
in general and poor infrastructure is shown as one of the most important following options (see Figs. 3 and 4. In the findings we focus on these top
causes of that omission (American Political Science Association, 2016). four challenges and top five solutions.
For this process, the authors were face to face in the same room and
3. Method able to communicate directly with one another, although this could be
adapted to operate remotely using software such as Microsoft Teams.
The core approach underpinning this project was a hybrid ‘Cafe
Delphi’ method, synthesising the approaches outlined in more detail in 4. Findings
the literature review above. The project took place across three 2-h ses-
sions over three days several weeks apart. In the first, information was 4.1. Challenges
elicited using the process outlined in Fig. 2 below. In the second, Google
Docs was used to write the article collaboratively in real time. In the final Reflecting on the role of technology and online collaboration, the
session, Microsoft Teams was used to review and redraft the paper. group raised 12 potential challenges to building a cross-faculty research
3
A. Jolly et al. Social Sciences & Humanities Open 3 (2021) 100095
4
A. Jolly et al. Social Sciences & Humanities Open 3 (2021) 100095
5.2. Multi-authored papers was convenient for collaboration within our institution, but would have
been a barrier for those outside of the institution who did not have paid
The positive, supportive peer environment, which led to a focussed access to Microsoft Office. The reliance on proprietary technology by
effort and rapid formation of a draft paper, was considered the main multinational corporations such as Google and Microsoft, while conve-
advantage to writing a multi-authored paper. All authors felt a great nient due to the network effects of their common use, raises concerns
sense of achievement at the end of a 1 h session. The authors reflected on about the impact if a particular programme or website is removed or
the positive social pressure of seeing others contributing to the content in becomes inaccessible (for instance the difficulty of accessing Google for
real-time and how this helped them maintain their own focus. Having users in mainland China), and privacy concerns around the security and
identified a dedicated time for all group members to participate in this use of sensitive data by technology corporations (Larson, 2020).
shared activity, it was found to be a good corrective to the procrastina-
tion and ‘writer’s block’ which can bedevil lone working (and particu- 6. Conclusion
larly lone home working). In particular it was found that writing sections
of the paper in small blocks of time, and agreeing a deadline, contributed This paper, we hope, does a number of things. Firstly, it is an attempt
to the timely completion of writing tasks. Furthermore, the agreed to put into practice the collaborative writing of a ‘massive open online
approach was for individuals to draft sections separately, so as to avoid paper’ (MOOP), in this case among a small group of academics who
duplication and ‘over-writing’, then to ‘swap’ in the next block of time ordinarily work together quite closely; but in so doing we hope to
and to edit or add to other participants’ previously drafted sections. This demonstrate that this is an approach that can work well for looser groups
led to rapid refinement of text and the overall progress of the paper. of academics to collaborate at distance. This is particularly useful at a
Overall it was felt that this method of multiple authorship was easily time when people are being required to work at considerable physical
applied to report writing. distance from each other as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Despite having a clear report structure in place, one challenge of Underpinning this particular process for producing a finished paper,
multi-authored papers is the various writing styles of different authors we employed a hybrid combination of the World Cafe approach and the
which can result in a poor flow to the paper and/or discrete sections of Delphi technique to brainstorm an issue and to reach a consensus. In this
the report, though this can clearly be an issue with traditional multi- instance we used these techniques to discuss challenges and solutions to
authored papers. It is really important to outline the style and focus of building a cross-faculty research culture, a topic that seemed particularly
the report and to have identified an editor who will take responsibility to fitting given the methods we had adopted. Given that this approach was
pull the draft paper together more coherently at the end. quite novel for us both individually and as a collective, we also saw it as a
Later in the process of completing the paper the Coronavirus crisis good opportunity to think more reflectively about what we had learnt.
intervened and we were forced to distance ourselves physically. We Thus we feel able to make a number of recommendations:
therefore found it invaluable to move to Microsoft Teams in order to
discuss changes to the paper in real time and particularly in order to ● Encourage some time to become familiar with each other’s commu-
agree wording and final edits. We used Google Docs throughout and nication styles and the relevant technology
recommend this way of working as a way to prepare and complete ● Select software solutions that work for you and your collaborators, in
MOOPs at distance. this case we used Mentimeter, Google Docs, and MS Teams
The findings and reflections presented in this paper should be read in ● Selecting a time when every member of the team is ‘present’ and free
the context of a group of collaborators who were, before embarking on from distractions is important
this process, already known to one another. This meant that some of the ● Working in short timed bursts on sections of the paper, and then
initial tasks were able to be embarked upon with good knowledge of the rotating in turn to edit each other’s writing was found to be partic-
group’s strengths and working styles, creating a quickly relaxed atmo- ularly effective
sphere. However, it is worthy of note that although the group were well ● Identifying a coordinator/editor to provide structure, guidance, and
known to one another, they had not previously embarked on a whole to refine the final voice and flow of the written paper
group collaborative project or paper. Furthermore, they did not have ● Further Delphi panels for each ‘solution’ to explore and unpack in
previous experience working as a group via only online means. We greater detail
recommend that where others adopt the methods outlined in this current
paper, that if they are unknown to one another, more time at the 7. Weblinks
beginning might be spent on the introductions and early small group
discussion rounds. This is likely to be particularly important where all Here are links to the online tools we used in the work described
sessions are conducted online. We would welcome insights from groups above. Other similar tools are available.
working in that way. Mentimeter https://www.mentimeter.com.
Google Docs https://docs.google.com.
5.3. Limitations Microsoft Teams https://products.office.com/en-gb/microsoft
-teams/group-chat-software.
The method relied on social networking technology both in devel-
oping and collaboratively writing the paper. Although other tools are Funding
available, for the purposes of this paper we used ‘google docs’ and
‘mentimeter’. These were chosen because they are either free to use, or This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies
have free versions. They are therefore more accessible to those in con- in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
texts without institutional access to academic networking software - such
as those outside of higher education, and using a common, free to use CRediT authorship contribution statement
platform, can encourage Global north - Global South partnerships and
collaborations. However, it is recognised that in contexts without a A. Jolly: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Writing -
reliable wi-fi infrastructure, this method would be of less utility. As original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization. L.S. Caulfield:
discussed above, the method also relies on ‘real-time’ editing and Investigation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visu-
collaboration which could act as a barrier to collaboration across time alization. B. Sojka: Investigation, Writing - original draft, Writing - re-
zones. view & editing, Visualization. S. Iafrati: Investigation, Writing - original
We also used Microsoft Teams for part of the write up process, which draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization. J. Rees: Investigation,
5
A. Jolly et al. Social Sciences & Humanities Open 3 (2021) 100095
Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization. R. Macfarlane, A., Galvin, R., O’sullivan, M., Mcinerney, C., Meagher, E., Burke, D., &
Lemaster, J. W. (2017). Participatory methods for research prioritisation in primary
Massie: Investigation, Writing - original draft, Visualization.
care: An analysis of the world cafe approach in Ireland and USA. Family Practice,
34(3), 278–284. https://doi.org/10.1093/fampra/cmw104, 26th November 2019.
Declaration of competing interest Page, S. J., & Temple-Malt, E. (2018). ‘World cafe: A participatory research tool for the
criminologist engaged in seeking world views for transformation: British Society of
Criminology Conference papers (Vol. 18, pp. 5–19).
The authors whose names are listed immediately below certify that Rowe, G., & Wright, G. (1999). The Delphi technique as a forecasting tool: Issues and
they have NO affiliations with or involvement in any organization or analysis. International Journal of Forecasting, 15(4), 353–375.
entity with any financial interest (such as honoraria; educational grants; Tennant, J. P., Bielczyk, N., Tzovaras, B. G., Masuzzo, P., & Steine, T. (2019). Introducing
Massively Open Online Papers (MOOPs). https://doi.org/10.31222/osf.io/et8ak
participation in speakers’ bureaus; membership, employment, consul- The World Cafe. (2020). World Cafe Method Greenbrae CA. World Cafe Foundation.
tancies, stock ownership, or other equity interest; and expert testimony http://www.theworldcafe.com/key-concepts-resources/world-cafe-method/, 21st
or patent-licensing arrangements), or non-financial interest (such as January 2020.
Tomlinson, B., Ross, J., Andre, P., Baumer, E. P. S., Patterson, D. J., Corneli, J.,
personal or professional relationships, affiliations, knowledge or beliefs) Mahaux, M., Nobarany, S., Sambasivan, N., Lazzari, M., Penzenstadler, B.,
in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript. Torrance, A. W., Callele, D. J., Olson, G. M., Silberman, S., St€ander, M., Romancini, F.,
Palamedi, F., Salah, A. A., … Saper, C. (2012). Massively distributed authorship of
academic papers. In International Conference: International Conference on Human
References Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) at: Austin, TX. https://upcommons.upc.edu/bitstre
am/handle/2117/171295/Academicþpapers.pdf;jsessionid¼F972A0C5EA1
Brown, J., & Isaacs, D. (2005). The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations A8ED455393824945A836B?sequence¼1, 26th November 2019.
that Matter. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Vaish, R., Gaikwad, S. N. S., Kovacs, G., Veit, A., Krishna, R., Ibarra, I. A., Simoiu, C.,
Fouche, C., & Light, G. (2010). An invitation to dialogue. ‘The World Cafe’ Soc. Work Res. Wilber, M., Belongie, S., Goel, S., Davis, J., & Bernstein, M. S. (2017). Crowd
Qualit. Soc. Work: Res. Pract., 10(1), 28–48. https://doi.org/10.1177/ research: Open and scalable university laboratories. In Proceedings of the 30th Annual
1473325010376016, 26th November 2019. ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, October 2017 (pp.
Gordon, T., & Pease, A. (2006). RT Delphi: An efficient,“round-less” almost real time 829–843). https://doi.org/10.1145/3126594.3126648
Delphi method. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 73(4), 321–333.
Larson, R. (2020). Bit Tyrants: The Political Economy of Silicone Valley. Chicago: Haymarket
Books.