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First published in Polish by Noemi Gryczko

Online meetings and digital assistants are a part of our everyday reality. But are we realising their full potential?

^{Photo geng zhang na Unsplash}

If you're wondering how to enhance the way your international team collaborates, we have some good news for you. Recently, platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams have expanded their capabilities. New players are also entering the market. Some of the AI-based features include automatic captioning, transcriptions of recordings and meeting notes. However, before we explore these new features, let's examine how technology can support the day-to-day work of an international team coordinator.

The coordinator’s job

If you have ever had the pleasure of coordinating the work of an international team, you know how difficult it can be. You have to deal with communication challenges, cultural differences and the need to organise meetings with participants staying in different time zones. You try to keep track of arrangements and the status of tasks. You conduct a lot of correspondence and sometimes need to conduct research in a foreign language. How can technology help you to do this on a day-to-day basis?

Like in (Polish) cinema

In Poland, the Netherlands and Scandinavia, foreign productions are presented in cinemas with their original soundtracks. This way, viewers can hear the voice of Mads Mikkelsen or Scarlett Johansson while the subtitles appear on the screen. On the other hand, if you go to a cinema in Barcelona, Nice or Turin, foreign films will be dubbed.

Similarly, on the Zoom platform, subtitles for the ongoing conversation are displayed in real time in the language of your choice. You can also find similar functionality in Microsoft Teams, which is part of Microsoft 365. What's more, if you record a meeting, you can later download the transcript as a Word or PDF file. Each participant's statement will include their name, as provided when they signed in to the meeting.

Another innovative solution is Grain, a software programme designed to automate team collaboration. It makes it easier and faster than ever to take notes and automatically create summaries, which are sent to participants' emails. This reduces the coordinator's workload and speeds up the work.

Make life easier by using ChatGPT as your personal assistant

Writing correspondence and keeping everyone informed is a key task for any coordinator. But why not make this task easier with the help of ChatGPT? By precisely phrasing a command (known as a prompt), you can save hours of searching dictionaries or correcting Google Translate translations.

If you've ever struggled to get an important document from a colleague, ChatGPT can be your lifesaver. Give it a precise prompt, and it will generate the content of the email, whether in a friendly yet assertive tone or a formal and impersonal one.

Here's an example:

You need to write an important email in English, a partner is late with timesheets, and you are responsible for submitting interim reports and closing the project on time.

Using ChatGPT, you can quickly get a professionally written message that gets to the heart of the matter while maintaining the appropriate tone. Please don't waste time making difficult language decisions, and get reliable support when you need it.

Step 1: Create a free account on the OpenAI website https://chat.openai.com/auth/login.

Step 2. Work out the prompt. 

Step 3. Paste the text of your request into the dialogue box in ChatGPT. 

Step 4. Refine your prompt and ask Chat GPT to modify it.

Step 5. Copy the reply and send the email to the addressee.

Two of a kind

You know how important it is to investigate potential partners thoroughly - that is, to do research - if you want to build an international partnership of institutions and jointly apply for a grant. You will easily form a first impression if you are familiar with the history, track record, and publications of potential collaborators. To make the process easier, you can use the Google Translate extension for the Chrome browser. This allows you to translate the contents of websites in foreign languages freely.

Step 1: Download Google Chrome.

Step 2. Download and install the Google Translate extension.

Here is a guide to installing and automatically translating web pages into any language: Adding the Google Translate Extension to Chrome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgzPQSvsQyU

Like a calendar: effective meeting management

Setting up meetings in an international team can sometimes take more time than the meeting itself. Anyone who has ever exchanged dozens of emails to organise a partnership meeting will know what we are talking about. Yet, the process of scheduling meetings can be streamlined in several ways. A shared electronic calendar accessible to all project members is a simple and effective solution. As long as all members add the project calendar to their calendar applications, it minimises misunderstandings and makes it easier to schedule recurring meetings. Google Calendar works well for this.

In addition to regular meetings, some situations require a meeting to be held on short notice. In these cases, a service that allows you to book a meeting in your calendar can be an invaluable tool. One example is the Calendly app, which enables you to check availability, limit meeting times, and book breaks before meetings. Calendly integrates with various teleconferencing platforms, including Zoom and Microsoft Teams, to automatically invite participants with a generated meeting link.

Autopilot: avoid confusion and save time!

When it comes to coordinating the work of an international team, it's worth introducing various automated solutions. These can help avoid misunderstandings, save time and streamline the work of a partnership.

What kind of automation tools would you implement?

Noemi Gryczko - Designs online and offline learning experiences. She teaches how to utilise technology to engage staff, students, and conference participants more effectively. She has supported over 400 lecturers and PhD students at the University of Warsaw in their digital transformation. She implements digital competence development projects. Co-author of the book ‘Business in the mobile world’ (published by Poltex, Warsaw, 2018). Former EPALE Ambassador.

Polish version: https://epale.ec.europa.eu/pl/blog/cyfrowe-mosty