WIP: Virtual writing group participation: Surprises & unintended outcomes

This work-in-progress paper emerged from the shared experience of participation in a Virtual Writing Group (VWG) composed of early career engineering education researchers (EER) in a variety of positions at different institutions. In general, this particular group of EERs had limited resources and access to a peer community at their respective institutions, therefore, the VWG was formed with the intention to spur EER scholarly activity and output. Faculty in similar situations have resorted to virtual groups (comprising of peers located at different universities) due to the many benefits including networking, accountability, peer feedback, and developing a sense of belonging, to name a few. Moreover, for many EERs who attempt to get by without access to a peer group (on-campus or otherwise), lack of connection and peer feedback has the potential to decrease the likelihood of success in scholarly endeavors. This collaborative autoethnographic study of participation in a VWG, participants noted surprises and unintended outcomes which was achieved in just four weeks of group meetings. Specifically, the participants experienced phases of team development somewhat like Tuckman's well-known Stages of Team Development [1]. Based on these findings, the we propose a high-level conceptual framework of group development specific to the development of collaborative communities aimed to support research goals within engineering education. To confirm preliminary results, we are soliciting feedback on the proposed conceptual framework.