Krissy Wilson streaming on Twitch
What is virtual synchronous coworking? Rising in popularity, it’s as simple as creating an online space to work together in real-time. In addition to my work as a Learning Designer in the School of Professional Studies at Northwestern, I’m a coworking streamer on Twitch!
I’m excited to share some background behind the practice and how it may be implemented by instructors as a means of engagement for students in online courses.
What is Coworking?
Let’s start with a quick overview. As students pursue more online and blended coursework and more professionals choose work-from-home and hybrid options, they seek community and accountability through virtual coworking. Online hosts offer sessions based on the Pomodoro Method on social media and streaming platforms, setting timers for work and break times.
Coworking online has some parallels with physical coworking practices, such as in-class writing and shared spaces such as study halls, dormitories, art studios, libraries, computer labs, coffee shops, and, yes, spaces specifically for coworking that provide office space and amenities such as events, coffee, and mail service.
Although widespread on the open web, it is still an emerging practice in higher education.
However, recent research shows that instructors coworking with students has many benefits, including “successful socialization, minimization of time and economic resources, … mutual assistance and a comfortable atmosphere” (Ganicheva et al. 2020). This may be because it borrows existing practices from education: “gamification, synchronicity, community, participation, free operability, and common atmosphere,” suggest Buitrago and Torres (2022).
Benefits for Students
What is at the core of both virtual and physical coworking? Structure, accountability, community, and accessibility.
Structure
For students used to detailed, to-the-minute daily schedules, as they may have in the workplace or in high school, structuring their time to complete tasks in between infrequent college course meetings may be a challenge. When coworking, the host typically chooses a block of time and then sets a timer at regular intervals, often 50 minutes of work to 10 minutes of break or 25 minutes of work to 5 minutes of break. This can help students with task identification (“What should I get done before the break?”) and completion (“I’ve got to finish this before the break!”).
Accountability
Coworking hosts often invite participants to share tasks and goals in the chat, where others can see them. “We have a little extra motivation to work when we publicly make a commitment to someone else,” says Will Canu, professor of psychology at Appalachian State University. “There is an “implicit social reward,” (cited in Ables, 2022).
Community
Participants in coworking sessions may benefit from seeing their colleagues—and you! —more frequently. In addition to sharing tasks for the purpose of accountability, students can ask questions of you and their peers in the chat during work and break sessions. Students may be more likely to approach you in this context; sending an email or attending office hours may be a psychological hurdle.
Accessibility
For some neurodiverse students, the practice of “body doubling” helps avoid procrastination, increases focus, and aids in task completion. “The phenomenon isn’t entirely new. We often body double without realizing it. You might venture to a coffee shop to work alongside strangers or seek out the energy provided by others at the gym” (Ables, 2022). An asynchronous online course does not provide the opportunity for body doubling that an in-person class or synchronous online course does.
Benefits for Instructors
But the benefits of coworking extend beyond what it offers students to what it may also offer instructors: an informal course space using existing resources, structure for your own time and teaching responsibilities, and having fun.
For one, offering coworking sessions provides a way to “be together” online that is a step up from sitting in an empty Zoom room for unattended drop-in office hours. However, it is not as time-consuming to prepare for as a synchronous session that shares content and guides activities.
It is also not dependent on a specific platform; use what you have at hand. Coworking sessions can be offered via Zoom (or another videoconferencing tool) or Twitch (or another streaming platform).
Coworking sessions also offer a way to structure your time as an instructor. For example, you might dedicate your time in coworking sessions to providing assignment feedback or participating in written discussion forums.
In an online course, it can also help to make your labor visible; students may assume that if they don’t see updates in the course site, instructors are not thinking about them or making progress on course-related tasks.
This can also be a great opportunity for fun! For example, you can play games at the breaks or experiment with a crowdsourced music playlist.
Getting Started with Coworking
So, how can we begin offering coworking sessions for our students? Consider incorporating these practices for synchronous online coworking sessions into your courses:
- Setting a timer for work sessions and break sessions
- Asking students to identify goals for work sessions and describe progress during breaks
- Encourage students to ask questions as they are working alongside you
- Be encouraging, coaching students to focus, and celebrate successful task completion
- Crowdsource a playlist or play games during the breaks
- Encourage self-care during break times
In summary, online synchronous coworking is an emerging practice in diverse higher education contexts that may help students by providing opportunities for structure, accountability, community, and accessibility. It also stands to benefit instructors by providing an informal course space using existing resources, structure for their tasks and responsibilities, and a low-stakes way to bring fun, gamified elements to your course.
References
Ables. (2022). “Body doubling,” an ADHD productivity tool, is flourishing online. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/06/01/virtual-body-doubling-productivity-tiktok/
Buitrago, Martín García, A., & Torres Ortiz, L. (2022). Trabajemos juntos: Coworking online y sincrónico en Twitch como muestra del potencial colaborativo del live-streaming. Revista de Comunicación (Peru), 21(1), 49–65. https://doi.org/10.26441/RC21.1-2022-A3
Ganicheva, Kaitov, A., Nikitina, E., Savenkova, T. D., & Riekkinen, A.-M. (2020). Coworking As Innovative Educational Content in Modern Higher Education. SHS Web of Conferences, 79, 2007–. https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20207902007