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SINGAPORE - Donning virtual reality headsets and hand-held controls, medical undergraduates in Singapore enter a simulated hospital environment to learn about patient care - digitally.

Even though the setting resembles a virtual game, the experience is designed to teach future doctors the procedures required for surgery, from anesthesia and safety protocols to patient management.

The coronavirus outbreak has forced educators in the city-state to get more creative and has advanced online learning.

Singapore has reported more than 57,500 cases of the Covid-19, and migrant workers make up nearly 95% of them. The spread of the infection outside migrant dormitories appears to be largely under control, but the country will face the same post-pandemic challenges that the rest of the world faces.

The virtual experience for the medical students is the latest education technique used by the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Also known as Pass-It - or Patient Safety as Inter-Professional Training - it helps students understand how to treat patients safely where they would have otherwise accompanied a doctor to a patient's bedside or the operation theater.

"Pass-It's 'gamified' style lets multiple learners be immersed in situations where they are given the opportunity to participate in what would usually be a highly restricted environment," said Associate Professor Alfred Kow, a surgeon and Assistant Dean of education at NUS Medicine, who is one of the educators spearheading this digital initiative.

"With the Covid-19 situation, students have also been removed from these settings of practical learning due to the risk of exposing them to aerosol-generating procedures."

Digital learning is not new to Singapore schools, but the pandemic has made remote learning more important than it was before.

Even before the pandemic, medical students at the Nanyang Technology University were already taking their education digitally, with some scanning bar codes of diseased organs stored in jars, while others bent over human bodies preserved in plastic polymers at the dissection table. Others who prefer a more hands-on experience use 3D printers to reconstruct scans of an organ with color codes.

"In this part of the world, we may be the first ones to deliver a curriculum with plastinated specimens," said Dr. Sreenivasulu Reddy Mogali, head of anatomy at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine at NTU.

Singapore's government is pushing universities and other schools to come up with better ways to prepare students for the more digitized jobs they'll encounter in the future.

Another university, the Singapore Management University (SMU), is trying to make use of so-called e-learning and artificial intelligence.

"With AI and machine-learning, you can use data to make smarter recommendations to students in terms of what courses they should pick, or how they can leverage their strengths, or perhaps work on their weaknesses," said Dr. Lieven Demeester, director for the Centre for Teaching Excellence at SMU. "The pandemic and the online teaching that came with it has generated renewed attention to the value that instructors bring."

With funding from Singapore's government, most universities are investing in artificial intelligence.

NTU is using AI to track the progress of students, and develop a platform that gives virtual lessons.

The school is looking at the impact of technology on society, AI and ethics. It is also working with IBM Watson, an artificial intelligence platform, to develop a virtual tutor to help with digital learning at its school of medicine.

Prof. Tan Ooi Kiang, deputy provost of education at NTU, said the university is using AI to track student assessments. It enables the school to tailor its remedial lessons to weaker students, and help them in the topics they are struggling with.

In line with its goals to extend learning into the digital realm, NUS is offering its engineering undergraduates three new specializations: Internet of Things, Robotics and Digitalization in Urban Infrastructure.

"NUS has leveraged digital technology to broaden our teaching pedagogies," said Prof. Bernard Tan, Senior Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education at NUS, in an email. Examples include the use of game-based learning and "flipped classrooms," a teaching method where courses are delivered online to students who later attend follow-up classroom activities to practice and discuss the subject.

He said the university also uses augmented reality and virtual reality for learning. Augmented reality is an enhanced reality created through computer graphics and technology, while virtual reality uses computer technology to create a simulated 3-dimensional environment that is interactive and can be used for educational or entertainment purposes.

The Singapore government has invested heavily into preparing its citizens for a digital economy through projects such as SkillsFuture, which was started in 2015 to encourage people to upgrade their skills in order to meet workforce requirements. The government credits 500 Singapore dollars to all Singaporeans aged 25 and older to help them develop new skills. An additional one-time credit of the same amount is also being provided now to support mid-career transitions for citizens between the ages of 40 and 60.

"We operate in four countries but the support we've got from the Singapore government has been number one so far," said Nitish Jain, President of S.P. Jain School of Global Management. The college was invited by the Singapore government to set up a campus on the island, along with graduate business school, INSEAD, and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Undergraduate students at the collegestudy in different campuses across Singapore, Mumbai, Dubai and Sydney, and get conferred an Australian degree. As part of its digitization efforts, the school runs classes in Singapore where working professionals can log in from any part of the world, interact with faculty members, as well as collaborate and share documents with fellow students that are saved in the university's cloud system.

"We've seen our Executive MBA online classes grow by six times since the pandemic," said Jain, citing student enrollment from Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Australia, Europe and U.S. "No need to travel, no quarantine, nothing."
Correction: This article has been updated to correctly identify the deputy provost of education at NTU.

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Universities in Singapore try to ramp up their digital efforts in the face of a global pandemic

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SINGAPORE - Donning virtual reality headsets and hand-held controls, medical undergraduates in Singapore enter a simulated hospital environment to learn about patient care - digitally. Even though the setting resembles a virtual game, the experience is designed to teach future doctors the procedures required for surgery, from anesthesia and safety protocols to patient management.

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We invest our time and effort into making the next generation successful as well.

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Why is it important for Singaporeans to collaborate well?

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Why is it important for Singaporeans to collaborate well?

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Working in teams enables employees to share knowledge, work more efficiently and effectively

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Looking to the future, President Joko Widodo (centre) voiced a strong intention for Australia and Indonesia to become partners in developing the Pacific region. Lukas Koch/AAP

Can Australia and Indonesia collaborate like the Avengers? On Monday, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said:

When the forces of good unite, the Avengers assemble, then the common enemy can be defeated. When Indonesia and Australia continue to collaborate then intolerance, protectionism, the fear of poverty and the threat of climate change can be overcome.

While the last item might not get much traction in Australia, both national leaders seem confident about the collaboration between both countries and see a bright future ahead.

Partnership and collaboration are becoming more common approaches to some of our most pressing challenges; from cancer research, to large infrastructure projects, even to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

However, you could say that in many instances collaboration itself turns out to be one of these big challenges. Even though Australians and Indonesians are both friendly and easy-going, systemic boundaries - lack of resources, institutional underpinnings, and inequitable collaborative processes - can slow down the process.

Through our work for the Australia-Indonesia Centre, we helped to link hundreds of researchers, government departments, business partners and other stakeholders in a variety of collaborative partnerships across both nations.

Through extensive evaluation of our work, we learned many valuable lessons on the key requirements to set up successful collaborative endeavours.

Here are some starting points that are often overlooked in dealing with systemic boundaries.

Establish a level playing field

Innovative partnerships and new collaborations typically generate a lot of energy and enthusiasm.

But systemic barriers can result in projects and ventures being delayed and people becoming demotivated and disengaged. For example, when there is a delay in data exchange between the countries people tend to blame their counterparts and get annoyed, rather than noticing the absence of an agreement that allows for the exchange of data.

This response relies on the " fundamental attribution error " by which we attribute things that don't go well to people's personality, rather than considering the situational constraints.

That is a shame, as most people are very willing to collaborate and give it their best.

Contributions in terms of money, effort, time or ideas require careful consideration. They do not have to be equal in absolute terms but have to be equitable to fully engage everyone once they start collaborating.

This sounds simple in theory. But differences in legal and bureaucratic environments can affect partners' autonomy and timing of projects.

Both Indonesia and Australia are on different bureaucratic cycles. This means, for example, that budget decisions and allocations do often not align.

Because of the differences in bureaucratic decision-making, extra time might be required to get the desired result. The contracts and agreements that underpin the collaboration, therefore, require careful planning and consideration to prevent later misunderstandings and delays.

AAP Image/Rick Rycroft

Ensure equitable participation

Once the playing field is established we should work on systemic barriers between people on the same team.

To get Australians and Indonesians on the same page and to ensure equitable participation, it is essential to have everyone participate straight from the very early stages. Shaping projects collaboratively drives equal representation of ideas and ownership, as well as achieving team commitment to outcomes.

Stimulating a "shared mental model" about who is on the team (and who is not), what the team will do, why, and how they will go about it can support collaboration.

Having a shared understanding of these aspects of teamwork can overcome differences in national culture and create a culture that is unique to a team. A shared goal can anchor the collaboration and guide energy.

Skilful facilitation at these early stages can unite people who speak different languages (including jargon) and come from different cultures and fields of expertise.

For example, at first instance, Indonesians often tend to talk less and listen more in meetings. Australians are happy to fill the gaps. As a result, the Australian voice can overpower the Indonesian. A facilitator can help here to accommodate these cultural differences and ensure equal input and influence.

Avengers, assemble!

Australia and Indonesia have had a working relationship since the early days of Indonesian independence. This relationship has had its fair share of challenges, as most strong relationships have.

President Jokowi voiced a strong intention for Australia and Indonesia to become partners in the development of the Pacific region. This vision would be a departure from the current strong bilateral relationship into multilateral collaboration.

As challenges become more complex, collaboration becomes more complex, but potentially also more interesting and rewarding. Whether it is combating bushfires, stimulating equality through trade, or supporting development of the Pacific region, we'll need an epic team-up that ensures results.

The Australia-Indonesia Centre supports The Conversation Indonesia as strategic partner.

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Australia and Indonesia: how to collaborate like the Avengers

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Can Australia and Indonesia collaborate like the Avengers? On Monday, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said: When the forces of good unite, the Avengers assemble, then the common enemy can be defeated. When Indonesia and Australia continue to collaborate then intolerance, protectionism, the fear of poverty and the threat of climate change can be overcome.

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Why is it important for Singaporeans to collaborate well?

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Why is it important for Singaporeans to collaborate well?

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Personally, I think it's not only beneficial for all Singaporeans. But it is also essential for all Singaporeans to work together and use all means of collaborating, be it online tools or even in person. That is what makes Singapore one of the most competitive economic country.

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Sharing Knowledge and Expertise to Drive Innovation

Imagine that you're in charge of customer service at a technology firm. Fortunately, your company enjoys a high customer satisfaction rating. Until one day, it plummets.

It turns out you've had a surge of complaints about a new software update. This is the first you've heard of any such update. So, you investigate and discover that different departments just aren't talking to each other.

The IT department failed to notify you and the marketing department about it, so customers weren't informed or warned. Worse, they failed to ask for feedback about what the update should include, and now customers can't access some of the features that they most enjoyed.

Your initial instinct might be to put the blame on your IT department. But, the problem isn't really the update. The problem is a lack of collaboration.

When you collaborate, you work together with people from different teams who have different skills and perspectives, in order to accomplish goals that benefit the wider organization. So, in this article, we'll discuss how collaboration can benefit you and explore a five-step approach that can help you to use it successfully.

What Is Collaboration?

Collaboration means working together with people from across the business to achieve a shared goal. Although similar to teamwork, a collaborative partnership is not hierarchical - everyone has equal status, no matter their seniority (though you may elect one person to organize the collaborative project).

You can collaborate with members of your own team or from other departments, as well as contractors, clients, or even other organizations.

Why Collaborate?

Nowadays, many employers cite collaboration as a key employee skill. But why is it so important?

First, it's a great way to encourage people to share knowledge and resources. You can use it to pool your negotiating power, to coordinate strategies, or to create new products, for instance.

Second, it can provide great opportunities for cross-skilling and networking, and can even improve employee engagement levels. One study shows that people who work collaboratively stick to their tasks 64 percent longer than colleagues who work alone.

Collaboration benefits organizations, too. It can help them to be more cost effective, creative and competitive. The same study reveals that organizations that promote collaborative working are five times more likely to perform well. They also tend to have lower staff turnover levels and higher profitability than businesses that don't collaborate.

Different Types of Collaboration

There are a two main types of collaboration that you can use, depending on what you hope to achieve. These are:

1. Open collaboration. You invite people from inside or outside the business to generate ideas or to solve a problem. Open collaborations work best for big, wide-ranging challenges as they allow anyone to respond. This enables you to access a diverse spectrum of opinion and expertise.

2. Closed collaboration. Closed modes work best when you have a specific problem to solve which requires specialist skills or knowledge. As a result, closed collaborative groups tend to be much smaller than open ones.

Other types of collaboration include:

Cross-functional collaboration. This involves working with people who have different job functions (marketing, technology, or customer service, for instance) to achieve a common goal.

Cross-cultural collaboration. Here, you work with people from other countries or cultures to learn more about different markets and encourage innovation.

Virtual collaboration. Apps like Skype™, Slack™, Asana™ and Google Docs™ have made it easier than ever for people to come together and collaborate, even if they work in different offices or countries.

Five Steps for Successful Collaboration

While good collaboration can result in new and creative ideas and discoveries, poor collaboration can be more damaging than no collaboration at all - it can waste time, energy, money, and resources. Use this five-step approach to make sure your collaborations are successful:

1. Define Your Purpose

First and foremost, you need to have a strong shared purpose. Only when you know what you're working toward can productive collaboration begin.

So, before you set up a collaborative project, take some time to identify and clarify what you want the group to achieve. This will give people focus and direction.

2. Choose Open or Closed Collaboration

Your choice will depend on the problem that you need to solve. If you want to get ideas for a new product, for instance, you might want to invite responses from people across the business, as well as your customers. If this is the case, open collaboration will likely be the most suitable.

A great example of successful open collaboration is Lego's Create and Share website. It allows Lego community members to share their designs with each other and the company. When support for an idea reaches 10,000, the company then evaluates it and produces it under its Lego Ideas label.

In contrast, if your purpose is to perfect a product or process that requires specialist knowledge, closed collaboration will likely work best. This is because you'll need to limit the number of collaborators to only those who have specialist knowledge of the topic.

For instance, if you wanted to improve the efficiency of your production line, you might choose to collaborate with an external machinery designer. This will ensure that you get exactly what you want and may even result in a new innovation that gives you an edge on your competition.

3. Involve the Right People

Once you've set your goals, you need to identify the people who are best placed to achieve them. This is particularly important when you use closed collaboration.

Think about people who have relevant expertise, experience and skills, or who are good at challenging assumptions and can contribute different perspectives.

Although collaboration is about equal participation, it can be useful to elect someone to organize and lead the project so that it stays on track. Assign roles within the group, too. Research has shown that this encourages people to take responsibility, and avoids time being wasted on negotiating responsibilities or "protecting turf."

4. Achieve "Buy-In"

While some people will jump at the chance to collaborate, others may not be so keen. They might see it as an imposition on their time, and be worried about the extra work or stress that it could bring.

So, before you ask someone to collaborate think about how it can benefit him or her. Identifying the wider strategic goal, like fine-tuning a process to increase income, can be persuasive. But so can outlining the personal benefits to individual collaborators, such as recognition, the opportunity to learn new skills, career progression, or the chance of a bonus.

5. Encourage Collaborative Behaviour

Collaboration can demand a lot from people. It means being open-minded, listening to other people's opinions and putting personal agendas to one side. So, it's essential that you try to encourage collaboration across your organization. You can do this by:

Leading by example. People watch how you act. If you aren't afraid to listen to new ideas and offer solutions - even when it makes you vulnerable - you'll encourage others to do the same.

Building trust. Collaboration can stall when people don't feel able to open up. Combat this by setting up team-building activities, and encouraging people to give honest and constructive feedback. This will help to strengthen team bonds, to create a sense of shared responsibility and to give people the confidence to speak up.

Harnessing different spaces. Set up fun, relaxed spaces in your workplace that invite creativity and collaboration. For instance, meeting pods or "chill out" areas. This will help to instigate "random collisions" or casual encounters between colleagues. Alternatively, book conference rooms, arrange walking meetings, or allow people to head off-site.

Fostering a creative culture. Creative thinking underpins good collaboration. It can help to drive innovation and allows you to avoid groupthink. Encourage this behavior by making use of creativity tools and processes.

The Pitfalls of Poor Collaboration

You might find that collaborative efforts come from the same people, time and time again. In fact, research suggests that 20 percent to 35 percent of value-added collaborations come from only 3 percent to 5 percent of employees.

Be careful not to rely too heavily on these " extra milers" - people who go that "extra mile" to help out others and consistently work to make improvements. If you do this, it can lead to people taking on too much and becoming overwhelmed. This is known " collaborative overload" or " generosity burnout."

To avoid this, break down barriers that prevent more people from collaborating - silos, for example, or " that's-not-how-we-do-it-here" attitudes. Also, allow people to say "no" to your collaboration requests, and recognize and reward people when they make positive contributions.

Key Points

Collaboration allows businesses to bring together people with different experiences, knowledge and skills, in order to accomplish common goals. It has a number of benefits: pooling talent, coordinating large projects, or creating new products, for instance.

It can be "open," which involves inviting responses from people across the business to solve big, wide-ranging problems, or "closed," where a smaller group of people with specialist expertise collaborate to achieve a defined objective.

There are five steps you can follow to achieve successful collaboration:

1. Define your purpose.

2. Choose open or closed collaboration.

3. Involve the right people.

4. Achieve "buy-in."

5. Encourage collaborative behavior.

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How to Collaborate Successfully: Sharing Knowledge and Expertise to Drive Innovation

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Sharing Knowledge and Expertise to Drive Innovation Imagine that you're in charge of customer service at a technology firm. Fortunately, your company enjoys a high customer satisfaction rating. Until one day, it plummets. It turns out you've had a surge of complaints about a new software update.

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We invest our time to train each other for our upcoming ippt.

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Its a new and innovative way to keep work going with the on going pandemic. 

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Its a new and innovative way to keep work going with the on going pandemic. 

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Why is it important for Singaporeans to collaborate well?

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Why is it important for Singaporeans to collaborate well?

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In my opinion, i think it's something that's vital to a company's success to the point where i can even say it's directly proportional. Now that times are changing, we need to collectively improve ourselves and keep up with the technology to be able to access the online tools and use them effectively to aid us in our everyday lives.

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What is workplace collaboration

Collaboration is the act of individuals working together to make unified decisions. When we talk about collaboration in the workplace, this definition extends to team members or colleagues working together and setting processes to make choices that all members agree on for a greater purpose. Collaboration happens in all types of settings whether teams are remote or stationed at headquarters. Ultimately, the goal of workplace collaboration is to maximize the chances of success by administering an open, communicative, and collaborative experience among all members of an organization.

For the history of workplace collaboration, read this article from SmartSheet.

Why collaboration in the workplace is important

If you think about collaboration in general, the goal is to maximize the success of a business. A group of individuals has more power and impact than a single person. Working in teams enables employees to share knowledge, work more efficiently and effectively. Each member of the team is like another resource or tool that team members can leverage to make better and smarter decisions. In addition, working together in teams promotes healthy employee relationships. Healthy employee relationships lead to better team performance and overall productivity.

Collaboration in the workplace improves:

Optimized workflow processes

Improved employee and team relationships

Maximized productivity

Increased efficiency

Benefits of collaboration in the workplace

Now that we've outlined why collaboration in the workplace is important, let's talk about some of the benefits. What are the outcomes to expect when employees engage in team collaboration? We mentioned the theme of increasing business success. Let's examine the contributing factors that lead to maximized project success.

Collaboration in the workplace:

Promotes problem-solving

Generally speaking, when diverse knowledge and skillsets are in the mix, it increases competence and experience. Individuals with different skill sets are able to solve problems more creatively and effectively because they are able to cover blind spots.

Spurs innovation

The diverse expertise and perspectives of your team will foster problem-solving. When people are constantly updated with new information, it continues the momentum and creates a continuous cycle of ideation that can expedite new and creative solutions.

Connects teams to the bigger picture

Many times the bigger picture gets buried when an individual is focused on a problem. Collaboration in the workplace brings together people with different backgrounds that can be leveraged to identify and see the bigger picture. In addition, it enables employees to make connections between various ideas and departments that break down siloes. This is valuable because it lends a higher purpose to employees.

Boosts learning and skills-sharing

When you have people working together, there is a tremendous opportunity for individuals to learn from each other. Because collaboration in the workplace requires feedback and viewpoints from various teams and team members, you're effectively connecting cross-functional teams. Because no two people have the same ideas, knowledge, and experience are transferred between individuals, enabling employees to expand their skills faster.

Increases employee satisfaction

Collaboration in the workplace helps create an open environment where people feel valued and heard. Employees who are happy positively contributes to a good company culture. In addition, employees who are excited to go to work every day tend to be more accountable and are less likely to leave the company.

Aligns distributed or remote teams

The workforce is more distributed than ever. Some organizations have multiple offices spread across the globe, some companies employ only remote workers, and some organizations have a hybrid of the latter two. It's even more critical to promote collaboration and include remote teams so that everyone stays updated, aligned, and connected. What happens is, remote employees start to feel siloed and lonely, which negatively impacts productivity and employee retention.

Tips to improve workplace collaboration

There are more than enough reasons that prove collaboration in the workplace is beneficial not only to your employees but to your entire company. Here are some tips to better collaboration:

1. Listen first, talk later. A large part of collaborating successfully between employees and teams is listening to one another and making sure that everyone feels acknowledged and heard. When you prioritize listening, you'll learn much quicker and be able to identify more gaps. Also, it builds trust, leading to better relationships.

2. Set ground rules and goals. When you have a large group of people collaborating in the workplace, it can become chaotic. Setting goals along with rules are necessary to keep everyone on track and focused on what's at hand. Goals should be iterated at the beginning of every collaboration meeting so that everyone is aligned. Rules will create a structure for the process. For example, to make sure that collaboration is efficient, you can set rules to limit time.

3. Lead by example. To encourage your team members to collaborate, you must lead by example. This means being respectful and open to new ideas, feedback, and opinions. This also means that you should take them constructively. Leaders should be transparent about processes and information and recognize that mistakes will be made.

4. Be flexible. Because there are various personalities and experiences in the mix, it's critical to continuously adapt to different practices and needs of team members. You should not expect everyone to follow a single process. Instead, recognize that there will be differences in the way others execute things and find different ways to approach those differences without being judgemental.

A successful business requires team collaboration

Collaboration in the workplace takes into account employees' ideas, skills, experiences, and opinions. When individuals work together openly, processes and goals become more aligned, leading the group towards a higher success rate of achieving a common goal. With increasing competition in the market, it's become increasingly important to encourage collaboration in the workplace. Collaboration spurs creativity, improves productivity, and increases employee satisfaction. With the right mindset and practices, collaboration can be a unique differentiator for your company. The outcomes mentioned above prove that collaboration in the workplace is a critical contributor to overall business success.

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Collaboration in the Workplace: Importance, Benefits and More

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Simpplr answers what workplace collaboration is and explains the benefits of collaboration in the workplace. Discover tips to improve team performance.