sandhyaloud@gmail.com
mbetasolo@civil.unitech.ac.pg
svnil@narod.ru
The term ‘co-creation’ is not new, it is often used fairly synonymously with co-creativity or related ideas such as open innovation, and collaborative innovation [1, 2]. However, the global nature of the remote technologies like Skype, Google, and Facebook is expanding opportunities for international networking [3]. According to Eileen Clegg, founder of Visual Insight, an intellectual climate that encourages individuals to tap fully into their creative potential, there is even more potential to harness the magic of co-creativity [4].
Co- creation in the education sector is any act of collective creativity such as co-authoring and publication of an article that is experienced jointly by two or more people [2, 5]. Co-creation or co-creativity can occur in a single project, or spread over a period of time to strive for its continuity. In this case, co-authoring is an expression of the desire for co-creation throughout life; it is continuity, associated with shared values and approaches. This approach expands the boundaries of all consciousness and allows enhancing the potential to co-create. This sort of co-creativity is seen in the genius of the authors who have been co-authoring many articles at an international level, using the help of the internet and social media to communicate with each other without ever meeting each other in person. Such is the commitment! There has to be a lot of motivation for the university teachers to keep on co-authoring and make it an on-going process. Co-authorship is considered in different countries. One of the authors of this article brought it to the notice of the Russian scientists in 1999. In the Russian pedagogical science the phenomenon of co-creation is considered much more extensive than cooperation. It includes a mandatory component of novelty for its participants and joint activities focused on creative self-organization. It links geographically separated users to achieve a common goal. Their effective use can lead to the membership in the international network of co-creation as a part of virtual teams. The experience of our creative international team confirms this. The team includes representatives from Russia, India, and Papua New Guinea. What is important to note is that co-creation or co-creativity is indeed a challenge. In obtaining a continuous and successful co-creation, an IEO (Interest, Experience, Odds) framework is laid out as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: The IEO framework for successful continuous co-creation
The figure shows that in any global co-creation, there are challenges that affect the project’s success and continuous co-creation. These challenges are factors that influence the continuity of work development. The diagram shows that the members of international co-creation provide an opportunity motivating them to be creative and express their thoughts in co-authorship, the gap in the framework provides wider opportunities/challenges encountered by them. Their co-creation activity provides a valuable experience that overshadowed every odd that they faced. Their experiences moreover drive their interest and enhance their co-creativity. To understand the IEO framework, each word used in the diagram is explained below:
Odds: It is important to take into account the peculiarities of the phenomenon of virtual teams and their joint activities. Previously the difficulties in the interaction between participants of the international virtual teams in their work were identified. They are:-
1) The potential for confusion arising from the nuances in translation;
2) The time limit constraint, due to the difference in time zones;
3) The need to address not only the personal qualities, but also the national characteristics of its members [3].
Experience: Webster dictionary defines the word experience as the process of doing and seeing things and having things happen that sharpen skill or knowledge and from doing that something that is co- creation. The global nature of new technologies is expanding opportunities for international networking; and thus linking geographically separated users, to achieve a common goal.
Interest: By definition the word interest is something that a person enjoys learning or doing. Figure 1 shows that the higher the interest, the lower the challenges. From our experiences in more than a year of co-creation, interest keeps us going despite our differences. An old English Proverbs says,” If there’s a will, there’s a way” So, an interest in what we are doing, outweighs any odds that may come along the way is a proven secret. Interest compliments experience because despite the constant changes in the environment, the current tasks of each member give a sense of novelty, and the choice of the subject of co-creation depends on the interest of the members.
Fulfillment seekers are a self-actualized person. They are motivated to go through personal growth regardless of any circumstances they may face along the way as shown in figure 2. Working together gave confidence, esteem, and recognition while we created individually and then did it as a collaborative effort. Motivation to co-create also came from the urge to fulfil the need for self-satisfaction. In addition, we learnt to be patient, value each other’s contributions and work hard and long, with no expectation of extrinsic rewards.
Figure 2: IEO Framework reflected in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Odds complement the physiological and safety needs as shown in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Maslow said that we need to fulfil our basic needs first. Similarly in our diagram we feel that we must learn to face all odds first. The basic tenet of international global co- creation starts with the many odds the members face and work against all the odds to form a team. It is the starting point, and continuous co-creation is needed for the triangle to stand perfectly; otherwise taking out the white part will tip the inverted triangle. The white portion surrounding the figure shows that continuous co-creation challenges have to be met, to enrich experiences and keep the authors interested at all times.
Experience complements the love/belonging and self-esteem motives of Maslow. In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs after fulfilling the physiological and safety needs, we try to fulfil our need to love and be loved. The sense of belonging increases our confidence and esteem. According to Maslow, most people have a need for stable self-respect and self-esteem. He noted a lower version and a higher version of esteem needs. The need for respect from others is the lower version because people have a need to feel respected and to have self-esteem. The typical human desire to be accepted and valued by others is esteem. People often engage in professional work or hobby to gain recognition. Engagement activities give the person a sense of contribution or value such as what we do in co-creativity is the higher version, and it takes precedence over the lower one because it relies on an inner competence established through experience. In our figure we have put in our experiences as the next important need. We work on and share our experiences at work. By working together, we feel a sense of belongingness and our co- creativity leads to a sense of rising self-esteem. After facing odds, they add and use their experiences to their individual creativity. They learn to know understand and accept each other. They respect each other’s knowledge and strengths.
Self-actualization of Maslow is reflected in the ‘Interest’ part as shown in Figure 2. In the figure given by Maslow, the final need fulfilment is for self-actualization. Maslow originally thought the needs of humans had strict guidelines, and found that the levels are interrelated rather than sharply separated. In our figure we have given importance to interest because we are not getting any sort of rewards for co-authoring and co-creation. It is only our interest that constantly brings us back together. The international co-creation team exhibits its continued interest in their quest for personal and professional development. Interest prevails even in the invariants of conditions to the continuity of international global network co-creation.
Сo-creativity has a creative focus. It can be noted in the saying “To think globally, to work locally.” This saying is applicable in the way this article has been co-authored by members from 3 countries; Russia, India and Papua New Guinea. Their thinking was at a global level, but they have used their creativity by working in their own space at the local level. We worked on Google Docs and communicated on Skype. Mail was used to share work done on word docs. So we tried to create individually first, then put our work together, debated on skype. We agreed and disagreed till we could come to some common agreement. Creativity for all of us has different connotations based on the differences in our cultural values and motivations. However, we managed to keep the differences aside and used them to work together with mutual trust and respect.
The Ministry of Education and Science (Russia) discusses questions on equating of distance learning with the internal. The right decision will help students to complete a course online and it will be considered in specific educational programs of the universities. On the one hand, development of higher education institutions taking into account distance learning is an essential need; on the other hand, remote technologies will lead to a reduction of the faculty and change in its structure. While undergoing the pressure of displacement at work, the professional growth is a motivating factor through interaction with colleagues. In Papua New Guinea, the odds faced are a slow network despite the acquisition of an O3b facility, which affects communication, but this has not stopped networking and co-creativity.
Let's consider the example of our project of distance course for teachers of the two universities in Russia and Papua New Guinea [6, 7]. The project organization and holding of distance course for teachers was faced with technical problems that were associated with the refurbishment of the network at The Papua New Guinea University of Technology. It was necessary to change the timing of its implementation. And then the serious circumstances of liquidation of the Department of Pedagogy and Educational Technologies at Ivanovo State University put the final set of co-creation project in jeopardy. The ability of the parties to understand the circumstances of members of co-creation is an essential aspect of its continuity and its further development.
Another example is that of the joint effort of Mirzi Betasolo and Sandhya Rao in co-authoring an article (Smartism) which was selected for an International conference. It was a time bound venture and the article had to be written by using different modes of online technology. The common interest and common goal brought the joint efforts to fruition. The write up was selected for publishing in a prestigious online journal [1]. Continuity in international co creation of this sort is possible when there is trust, open communication, maturity arising out of experience and sustained interest in the project and mutual respect for each other.
There is a high potential of co-creation in a large country like India .The idea of co-creation is not a new or alien concept in India. They took to social networking rather naturally when compared to their western counterparts, given their traditionally collaborative, democratic and social culture. An analysis of the future of co-creation opportunities in the private sector indicates that public- private partnership and entrepreneurship will follow.
In the words of Lou Holt “Motivation determines what you do”. Self-motivation and motivation of the team determined what this trio from 3 nations did so far (co-author) are doing (co-authoring) and will continue to do in the future. Their individual creativity combined with teamwork and collaboration will pave the way for more co-creations in the field of education and knowledge dissemination.
1. Llego-Betasolo M., Sandhya Rao. (2015) Smart-ism: Key to success for effective online collaboration, Proceedings GV-Global Virtual Conference, GV 2015.
2. Co-Creation - P2P Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://p2pfoundation.net/Co-Creation
3. Нилова С.В. Рао С., Бетасало М. Виртуальная команда участников МООК как форма эффективного сотрудничества в дистанционном обучении // Образование как фактор развития интеллектуально-нравственного потенциала личности и современного общества. СПб., 2014. С. 45-51.
4.Blog Visual Insight. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.visualinsight.net/blog/page/3/
5. Betasolo, Mirzi L. Nilova, Svetlana V. Rao, Sandhya I. International networking co-creativity: experiences and possibilities // Личностное и профессиональное развитие будущего специалиста. Тамбов, 2015. С 280-285.
6. Бетасало М., Нилова С.В. Некоторые аспекты личностно-профессионального развития преподавателя университета // Профессионально-личностное развитие преподавателя и студента: традиции,
проблемы, перспективы. Тамбов, 2014. С.225-228.
7. Нилова С.В., Бетасоло М. Досента-Лего. Международное сотворчество как путь современного развития: на примере сетевого взаимодействия двух университетов // Преподавание информационных технологий в Российской Федерации. Пермь, 2015. C. 63-65.
