- University Libraries
- Research Guides
- Course Guides
- BCHM 5784
- Collaborative Project Tools
BCHM 5784: Collaborative Project Tools
Collaborative Project Tools
Doodle
Doodle is a calendaring tool to help you schedule in-person and virtual meetings. It can also act as a sort of virtual day planner, allowing you to schedule your day with chunks set aside for work, rest, and play!
To learn more:
- You can read more about Doodle on its home page and via this further information page.
- Watch this video: http://vimeo.com/doodletv/doodle-intro-en
Google Drive
Google Drive will allow you to collaboratively create all sorts of documents, including word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and forms. You can control sharing options for each specific folder in your Drive account.
To learn more:
- The "get started" page (also their help) has more information about what is available through this service
- This CNET article also has some great information about Google Drive.
- Watch this video: http://youtu.be/i125gM-UAoY
Open Science Framework
The Open Science Framework (or OSF) combines a variety of options one environment for managing individual or collaborative projects. You can have multiple projects and invite collaobrators into parts or all of any one project or several. Each project can be private or public (and that setting can be changed as needed). Each project has a discussion wiki (a collaborative website with WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editing, the option to create 'components' - piecs of projects where you can write text, add files, etc.; the option to add files to the project as a whole, and several options to integrate tools such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Figshare, and GitHub.
To learn more:
- The OSF home page highlights key features and connects to the Getting Started page where you can find out more
- Watch this 2 minute YouTube video, "Getting Started with Open Science Framework": https://youtu.be/2TV21gOzfhw
- Explore the 'Parts of a Project' video playlist from the Center for Open Science: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLChfyH8TVDGl-1hbQGecjsSPkTBxkxT9l
- Browse open VT OSF projects
- *No new account needed!
- Use your VT sign on to start an account with OSF by selecting "Log in with your institution" on the OSF Sign In page to play around with a draft project and see what you think
Overleaf
Overleaf is an online platform providing real-time collaborative writing, editing, and publishing tools that includes templates for many journal publishers and that can integrate with some citation manager tools, such as Mendeley. It provides LaTeX and Rich Text collaborative writing and publishing to make the whole process of writing, editing, and publishing scientific documents much quicker and easier.
To learn more:
- Review the Overleaf website home page
- Investigate the Features & Benefits for writers
- Try out a free account to play around and see what you think.
Zoho
Zoho is often compared to Google collaborative products, but is slightly different. Zoho, for example, includes a project management/task tracker feature, and has a very different look.
To learn more:
- Read "what is Zoho all about" and
- "how do I get started" for more information about how this tool can help you.
- Watch this video: http://youtu.be/JAEsgDz3nKM
