Technology has enabled many collaborations across the globe, allowing people to
work together in entirely new ways. Some industries have embraced remote interaction
whether they are conducting day to day business or teaching courses online. Since 1999 library
and information science programs have offered online distance learning courses
and now entire graduate programs. With the increase in remote, interactive, and collaborative
learning, more graduate students have had a chance for online graduate assistantships. In 2019
three MLIS graduate students located in different states began work on a remote research project on health and wellness headed by several professors also located in various states. Each are pursuing their degrees online and have not
worked in a professional capacity in a library setting. This study summarizes the
preliminary experiences these students encountered while managing remote course and
grant work. The preliminary findings highlight challenges including: asynchronous
correspondence, analyzing second hand collected data, finding adequate collaborative
software, and synchronizing data coding. What the graduate students learned from this
experience suggests that regardless of where students plan to work after graduation,
they have transferable skills they can take away from graduate assistantships that compliment
their coursework and offer invaluable field experience
