Table 1 Focus group themes and student participants’ comments

Achieving engagement and interaction

`Richness of face-to-face interactions

Some participants verbalized their preference for face-to-face collaborative learning sessions because unlike online collaboration, face-to-face sessions afforded them of the opportunity to not only take note of what was being said, but also enabled them to pay attention to non-verbal forms of communication that make the experience engaging and more robust.

• “I also think the dynamics in face-to-face [communication] is much richer because you will see body language as well. Because in online communication, you only see your face, your expression … only your head (laughs). You don’t see your body language. It’s harder to see that.” (P2)

• “But definitely, engagement is more there when you are together with a group, like physically.” (P4)

• “But if there are people they are like, X’s classmates who speak-up more. Because it’s virtual, then I think it [the online platform] will fit that kind of students more. But for those that need, like the physical interaction and the physical push, then it will, it will be a bit, like, less effective.” (P9)

• “[I] think generally, Asians are a bit shyer to appear on camera. And it didn’t, it didn’t seem [like a] real interaction. Yeah, so I think that hindered our learning a little bit, but then it was more of, like, a cultural shift.” (P13)

Personality and cultural influences

An individual’s background, experiences and intrinsic attributes were regarded by some as contributors to the success of any online collaborative activity. Some students were perceived by their peers to be more active and less shy in online platforms. They were thus seen as forthcoming in sharing their ideas using the online platform. In addition, cultural upbringing has been acknowledged by the participants to play a role in their readiness to fully participate in online learning.

Zoning in and out

The students perceived that discipline is needed as each participant is in his/her own space and being able to control personal feelings or emotions are important because for example, no one can force one another engage or to talk when they do not feel like it. There are also many distractions that could affect their attention during the online collaborative learning session.

• “… but the cons is that definitely the environment you really have to be really disciplined and like really open up the e-lectures and really keep at your own pace and that could be more distractions as well.” (P4)

• “Because everyone is individualized in their own space, you cannot really prompt your friend to like, speak up or encourage one another, in a sense. So, everyone is just zoning out on their own and just waiting for someone to speak up.” (P10)

Supporting the collaborative process

Knowing your peers matter

Group dynamics is a very important to be able to collaborate. Students thus perceived that it was difficult to socialize online and get to know more about their groupmates. Some in the collaborative learning session do not really know each other well as they come from a different tutorial group, hence the students felt that this prevented some of them from engaging or speaking out.

• “Because I feel like people tend to be shyer and softer spoken when they are with people that they don’t, they have not even seen their faces. They don’t even know who they are. Yeah, so I think if, if we can have tutorial with our own tutorial group, people will be more comfortable with speaking up or like asking questions and discussing with their peers.” (P5)

• “…like the socializing part where, I mean, socializing online, it’s very difficult sometimes, you know, in a class, you just talk to the person next to you, right, and literally just, you know, trying to find out a little bit more about the person next to you. But there’s no way of doing that in online session, right?” (P2)

Having a holistic view

Students thought that it would be good to view the different disciplines involved in the collaborative learning sessions from a more rounded perspective in order to facilitate collaboration. Knowledge from separate subjects or disciplines such as pathophysiology and pharmacology and nursing practice should be extracted from the case study being discussed and should link to benefit clinical practice in future.

• “Like, if let’s say, Patho has gone through certain things, then like in NP, we can just Zoom in to just what NP is doing. So, to me is, in a way it helps because it kind of flows like our prof don’t really had to ask, oh was it covered in, in Patho or was it covered in NP. So, it’s, to me it’s more holistic, more. Yeah, more realistic also when we are discussing the questions and things like that, yeah.” (P1)

• “So, for me, like, collaborative in a sense that we, like, how to say, because it’s like Pathophysiology and Pharmacology. So usually we study them separately, but I feel like collaborative learning, it’s more of like relating both two separate subjects in one particular tutorial or like one scenario. Yeah. So, we learned that how the Pharmacology will affect the Pathophysiology and like vice versa.” (P10)

Considering practical nuances

When connectivity disconnects

The participants reported that even if some of them were comfortable with online learning, factors such as internet speed could dictate how engaged or participatory, they become during the session. Such technical issues could also affect the information they derive from the online collaborative learning session.

• “I don’t think there’s anything wrong [with virtual/online learning]. I mean, I see [others] are very comfortable with virtual learning. But I guess, things that I wouldn’t like it’s something that no one can control, you know, like your internet speed. And then you get this kind of band things. And sometimes it’s not even, it has nothing to do with your friends or your prof but is your telecom and things like this. So, these are the only downsides to it.” (P1)

• “I face a lot of internet problems and odds doing online lesson. And it caused me to lose out on a lot of information that the tutors are trying to say.” (P8)

Being comfortable

Some students reiterated that an advantage of having an online collaborative learning session was that they were in their own private space and there was no need to waste time travelling hence, this set-up ensured their comfort.

• “I guess I like sitting like, in my own room, like all you see this. Like if I just turn here to eat you also don’t know, then like, sorry, but yeah, I like but I like. Like I was more comfortable.” (P9)

• “You know, I don’t have to travel to school every day. I stay in the East, so it takes me an hour plus to get to school and then back. So, it’s really waste of the two hours plus each day, just traveling.” (P2)