2016 Annual Conference

Graduate student collaboration is an under-examined area of research. In this session, the presenters will explore the findings of their study that examined the ways in which collaboration affects the development of graduate students as scholars. Participants will also engage in dialogue surrounding collaboration and share their experiences with collaboration.

Graduate students and those who teach and work with them will be most interested in this session because it reports upon a research study conducted by the presenters about their collaborative experience in a graduate program. The audience will gain insight into the collaboration literature, explore the findings of this particular research project, and develop their own ideas about how collaboration may benefit them. Finally, distance educators may also find the research interesting because the studied collaboration occurred at a distance.

One element of the broad landscape of adult learning is peer collaboration in an effort to learn and grow. Collaboration, as a field of research, covers a wide-ranging area of inquiry. However, little research has been conducted addressing graduate student collaboration. The foci of this study were on female graduate students’ collaboration and the ways in which that collaboration affected their development as scholars. In an interpretive and reflective qualitative study, the researchers examined their own collaboration during a graduate program. This session will share the findings of that study, engage in the discourse surrounding collaboration, and explore attendees’ experiences with collaboration. Study findings include the utility of collaborative work in minimizing feelings of being an imposter while increasing a sense of identity and belonging as an academic. Findings also indicate graduate collaborative work enhances productivity and flourishes in a group that inspires trust, maintains positive group dynamics, and encourages humor.