Students collaborate online to relieve stress

Image: www.freedigitalphotos.net

"The best way to make a piece of string stronger is to add more strands," said Liezl Hesketh, the founder of TheRoomLink.co.za and who also started the Student Collaboration Group. "This is a collaborative event - young people and those new in business, it is a way that we could collaborate using shared resources, knowledge, and expertise."

TheRoomLink.co.za is South Africa's first online property matching website, which connects renters and rooms.

Hesketh discovered several online groups with students as a target audience but which were not competitive, preferring to work alongside each other and not in competition.

Sharing resources is not new: collaboration consumption, or the organised idea that every single person has something to share from time, space, and skills to actually merchandise, is a rapidly growing trend overseas.

Two organisations utilising the same resources

"This is collaboration in the workplace, two organisations utilising the same resources. The idea is to improve Twitter engagement, get students to join in the chat, ask questions, and they can get answers. We are moving into a world where things are shared we have to work together," said Hesketh.

The Student Collaboration Group is a weekly tweetchat that is promoted amongst the groups' followers about all topics of interest to secondary and tertiary students. All posts use the hashtag #StudentSA to link the virtual conversation.

Discussion of the day

The group discusses the topic for the day and answers questions from followers who join the conversation.

"Success is not something that is achieved by yourself, for yourself. Those who are successful and have knowledge need to share that, to help others. That is why we have formed this collaborative group," said Hesketh.

The collaborative group "meets" virtually on Twitter on Wednesday evenings at 9pm. Past topics have included: exam prep, exam tips, and dealing with nerves before exams.

The collaborative group includes the following members: TheRoomLink.co.za (@TheRoomLink), Study Techniques (@StudyTechniques), Together We Pass (@TogetherWePass), JHB Students (@JHBSTUDENTS), Student Village (@SVillage), Stuvia SA (@StuviaSA), and Student View (@studentviewSA).

For more, follow @TheRoomLink on Twitter and look for #StudentSA.