This course in particular gave me an opportunity to reflect on the frustrating and rewarding aspects of collaboration and mentoring and remind me to:

1. Let go of expectations about what ‘successful’ collaboration looks like. One might be able to control one's contribution to the group but the overall result of group work is beyond one's influence. Kurt Lewin (as cited in Smith, 2008) refers to this as 'interdependence of fate.' This is something I experienced in the first collaborative assignment when hosting our live virtual session and with managing the Moodle forum on self-mentoring.
2. Embrace informal mentoring or self-mentoring rather than finding the 'one' with 'the answer.' Self-mentoring, where one takes responsibility for one's growth and success, is another option. However, the effectiveness of self-mentoring depends on motivation, having access to resources, and being able to assess and evaluate one's skills, and identify the needed competencies to progress.

What I gained from this learning was the opportunity to ... be surprised. As outlined in Artefact 3, I view learning as essentially an internal cognitive process regulated and steered by the individual but shaped by other influences, such as a mentor, group or society. By the end of my coursework, I came to appreciate the group work, perhaps as a result of practice in planning, monitoring and evaluating our work as groups. This made me shift my position along the adult education theory continuum to also consider regulation of learning not just as an individual process but as a group-level process.