Effective collaboration and communication among doctoral learners is critical to their success.

Learners are part of a larger community, and share values, experiences and ambitions almost as a family drawn together in the pursuit of common goals (Bentley, Zhao, Reames & Reed, 2004).

In other words, the cohort or group of students who travel together are not just a class. They are enjoined in a relationship with each other.

The key of course is to maintain your individuality and continue to move ahead towards the attainment of your goals while balancing the need to be supportive of your "family" of learners.

My question to the class is that seeing how all of you are new to the university and each other, is it possible to begin to form these types of relationships over the next two weeks? If not, why? If so, how?