Table 2 Focus group themes and faculty participants’ comments

Learning to effectively manage

Gaining control

Faculty focus group discussion participants felt that the online collaborative learning session afforded them more control as processes were more efficient and organized during the class. These may sometimes be lacking in face-to-face sessions. They were able to present their slides using their own computers which they were more used to and did not have the added stress of a classroom/lecture hall computer not being able to read their thumb drive. All students also were able to clearly view the materials as each was using his/her own computer.

• “I mean in terms of like what slides to show, what pitch to tap, as opposed to in a classroom where you need to go to a, a classroom computer, sometimes this computer doesn’t, doesn’t read my, my thumb drive format or certain files, that’s the problem.” (P16)

• “I, I find the monitoring of students’ attendance really effective and efficient. That’s one thing I could, I could see all students at one go, I mean, in terms of names, in particularly to online basically.” (P16)

• “You know, people that don’t want to talk or shy, shy one, they can use that chat. But then, for the faculty perspective, to look at a chat and try to talk to the student, the chat to me is very distracting.” (P18)

• “I don’t find it distracting but worried about the students being so used to typing because the whole purpose of tutorial in, in university setting is to encourage them to speak up right? To speak up. So can you imagine training a generation of people who can’t speak but can only type and write?... So, I think that is a risk that we are taking if they, they are overly relying on this chat.” (P15)

Providing a means to participate

There were some students who were naturally shy, and it was challenging for the faculty to make them participate, speak out and ask questions. Hence as the leads, the faculty would encourage them to use the chat function of the online platform to ask questions. This was helpful but distracting as some faculty felt that chat messages that constantly pop-up distract them. Aside from this, other faculty highlighted that not being able to verbally communicate during a similar session in the future would be a disadvantage when the students go into clinical practice.

Facing engagement constraints

Achieving true discussion is limited

The faculty mentioned that a robust interaction that results in good discussion was not really met as students tended to not open their cameras. Shy students, in particular, tended to hide their opinions and so good questions that trigger discussion are not shared for others in the group to think through.

• “This greatly restricts not only the type of question they ask, but also the expression of how the question is to be phrased. So, whether the answers will be delivered effectively according to what the students really feel, that will be greatly affected. And that one I’m not sure, but I felt that it is because the questions are being asked are usually quite technical, rather than an opinion or a shout up, you know, to add on what was being discussed. So having an avenue for students, shy students who hide their opinions will also greatly reduce the quality of questions being raised across should the students not having the mindset and culture to speak up to a computer, in the online session.” (P16)

• “So many factors actually don’t give them the security to show their face on the computer and that really again affects the way how we communicate.” (P16)

Having a relationship matters

The faculty perceived that students do not necessarily know each other personally as some come from different tutorial groups. Hence, there is really no relationship between them. In addition, the faculty also may not know all the students and students were also not familiar with all faculty involved in the session. All these variables limit the engagement necessary to have an effective collaborative learning session.

• “So, to bring them to the level whereby they could actually have the comfort of a, student-student interaction, questioning each other, I know discussing a question that would be ideal, but given the virtual situation, you will see that the relationship, because to be able to discuss you need, you need the relationship.” (P15)

• “If we don’t forge a very good relationship with our students, and students, between students, when anything happen, even if you just be a very small minute issue of maybe I give you the wrong class dates, it can translate into many issues. ...... when we can write a long letter, just because there’s a very, there’s no more, it’s no longer a... teacher-student relationship. It’s more of like a business connection. Then that shouldn’t happen in the education segment, because education is really about nurturing and human touch.” (P16)

Achieving integration

Clarifying principles of integration

The faculty participants reported that the collaborative element was somehow lacking in the online collaborative learning session. They mentioned that there is a need to clarify the principles and processes involved to achieve true collaboration so that the session becomes integration of knowledge and not a “two-in-one” session where the disciplines just share a timeslot but are still segmented in terms of knowledge presentation.

• “I feel that it was not really collaborative because it could have been done separately because it was the Patho and Physio go, Patho, Pharmaco go first, then Nursing. So, if you were to cut off that session, it could have function as well. I don’t see the collaboration being collaboration. It’s just that two in one, it appeared to be two in one rather than the collaborative to me. Yeah, but I think that is what we have to work out as well.” (P15)

• “It just, you know, integration of each discipline is not there and, I do agree with X that when we want to improve or enhance student clinical reasoning, they should be able to link Patho to nursing intervention. But right now, when I try to ask them for about, about how to link, I have to refer them to pathophysiology parts, which is if you know, both faculty can integrate that in the same situation and the same point and try to provide the students rational, think together, I mean, not segmental is think together, I think it’ll be more collaborative.” (P18)

Effective question structure is key

Better crafted questions that require answers that integrate concepts/knowledge from the different disciplines involved are essential to have a successful online collaborative learning session, as suggested by the participants. Questions with a collaborative element will also facilitate integration.

• “So, I think, I think the, whether how to improve the collaboration, it all comes with the design of the questions. Whether the design of the question, every question that put into a collaborative learning manual should have a collaborative element in it, because there’s no collaborative element then it will be presented Part A, Part B.” (P15)

• “So, the choice and the type of question has to be carefully selected and that can be quote[d] on the collaborative large group learning, think not necessarily like be a small group. Yeah.” (P16)