Google Documents as a tool for Collaboration

Hello and welcome to this week's discussion on AU Online Learning.

Last week in class I discussed how I used Google Documents to streamline my group project. To remind everyone- the project was a group conflict analysis. The original format of the project as given to us by our professor was to generate a spreadsheet covering each week's reading topics and apply them to our conflict. Each week we would send our professor a copy of our document.

We originally used this service to eliminate the need to email drafts of our reseach document back and forth, however it also had  a number of unexpected, but very the beneficial consequences. One of these was of giving us the ability to work simultaneously and hold online discussions while doing so as Google Documents has an integrated chat setting which allows for communication between group members as we're working.

Google Docs is also a great way of sharing your own personal notes with a group. Here is an example from the Georgia conflict project.

I found this project to be one of the most rewarding of my projects at American University, in no small part because of this tool. The tool made group work easier and eliminated the need for most meetings outside of class hours. Rather than decreasing in group communication it actually increased the exchange of our ideas. It was interesting to see what each group member was contributing each week. This fueled a number of debates within our groups as we challenged each others perceptions and analyses. This was especially valuable, given the diversity of backgrounds and perspectives.

Since Google Documents is integrated with their other services such as Google's Picasa (a slideshow example is placed below) your students have plenty of room to come up with their own innovations.


At the Social Science Research lab Google Docs has been used in a number of ways to deal with the logistics of group work. Examples of this approach have been skill inventories and sign up sheets.

Altogether I've found Google Documents to be a great tool for making group more transparent and more collaborative.

I look forward to hearing everyone's thoughts, questions, reflections and experiences.