Background: According to the constructivist and social learning theory, collaborative learning is one of the most effective ways to advance a learner’s understanding on a subject. However, many students, even some that excel individually, dislike group work or find it difficult.
Collaborating with groups to achieve project goals can be difficult for a number of reasons. The challenge increases even more when that group is communicating online and at a distance. The group can suffer from a lack of communication and coordination, or some groups, feeling a lack of leadership may feel that it is “the blind leading the blind.” Some members complain about the relative lack of participation of some of the learners within the group, and so on.
Prompt: Recall an experience you had with an online group activity, and consider the following questions:
• What was effective about the group and worked well?
• What tools and methods did you use to communicate, and how well did they work for the group?
• What were some of the challenges that you or the group encountered?
• What could the instructor or course designer have done to make improvements to the course or enhance the group experience?
• What could you or other members of your group have done to improve the group experience? What will you do differently in the future?
Post a response by Friday in response to the questions above, and cite one of the following resources below for your post.
Return Saturday to see if anyone has responded to your comments.
The rubric for this discussion post is located here:
[Link Coming Soon—will have to upload via Google Drive as Blogger.com does not have a file manager].
References/Resources:
Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). Assessing interaction and collaboration in online environments [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
Oosterhof, A., Conrad, R.-M., & Ely, D. P. (2008). Assessing learners online. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Palloff, R., & Pratt, K. (2007). Building online communities: Effective strategies for the virtual classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
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What was effective about the group and worked well? I have been a part of several online groups and luckily most of them have been positive experiences. Communication is certainly a huge part of whether or not the group will be successful. It would also important for all of us to know our role in terms of who was in charge of doing what.
ReplyDeleteWhat tools and methods did you use to communicate, and how well did they work for the group? In most of my online groups we used email in order to communication but there have been a few occasions in which it was necessary to talk on the phone or skype. The email was not as effective as phone communication or skype especially with the time difference amongst members of the group.
What were some of the challenges that you or the group encountered? The biggest challenge for me was overcoming the time difference as some of us where asleep while others were working on their part of the assignment. It was also difficult if we didn’t hear from group members for days and we were not sure if they were still working on the assignments.
What could the instructor or course designer have done to make improvements to the course or enhance the group experience? For the most part, the instructors have done a great job in regards to creating the learning groups. There have been occasions, however, in which there was some conflict and lack of participation from some of the group members. The instructor should have had offered peer evaluations so that we were able to make note of members who were not contributing.
What could you or other members of your group have done to improve the group experience? In most occasions, group members took it upon themselves to take over the work that was not being completed by the members who were not contributing. This worked to our advantage in terms of the grade but made for a very negative experience. We did reach out to the members who were not participating and eventually notified the instructor. I feel this worked well.
Krista
Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). Assessing interaction and collaboration in online environments [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
Krista,
DeleteThank you for your post and sharing your experiences with group work online.
I found myself nodding in agreement to a lot of points that you cited. Specifically, the problem of waiting other group members to get back to you or return emails due to time differences or other unknown reasons. If you don't hear from them in a few days, you begin to wonder if they are still working on the project or what is going to happen. Did you have a strategy for handling this waiting game?
I also think you have a point with the Skype and/or phone calling. This can help eliminate the waiting, but how do you know when to Skype or call versus email? I was reading one blog that cautioned against using synchronous technology like Skype? What are your thoughts on that?
I also hear you on the problem with other group members not participating or "pulling their own weight." You made a great suggestion about the individual peer reviews to help with this issue. Are there any other suggestions you can think of for dealing with this issue? It seems to be a very common problem.
Thank you for posting!
~Nathaniel
Recall an experience you had with an online group activity, and consider the following questions:
ReplyDeleteWhat was effective about the group and worked well?
My first and most memorable group experience, in an online environment, was my MBA program at the University of Phoenix. I was in my 5th or 6th course in the program when this specific group assignment occurred. It was a great experience for me because the group we were all very supportive of one another. Before we began, we completed a team charter that noted our team captain, strengths, challenges, preferred communication, and availability. The Instructor did a great job with the grouping because we complimented each other very well. We were all on different time zones but it worked well. For example, one team member lived in Germany so he would always submit his part of the assignment first and the rest of the team would build on to it as if he were laying the foundation. In addition, every team member had specific skill sets that helped us excel. For example, I was the writer and editor so I would always edit and proof all assignments before submission. "A synergistic community will only be formed when learners have had the opportunity to incorporate life experiences into the course and to develop the perception that their individual success is intertwined with the success of others" (Oosterhof, Conrad, & Ely, 2008). Balance is important in group assignments to avoid conflict and overload.
What tools and methods did you use to communicate, and how well did they work for the group?
This experience took place in 2008 so our preferred communication method was e-mail. There were a few instances where we had a conference call to engage in deeper discussion. E-mail was a little shaky because of the different time zones so there were times where a team member took hours to respond. Luckily, we had already taken a vote that on the evening an assignment was due, the majority would handle everything and send a copy to the absent member afterwards. However, there trust must exist within the group framework for this to be effective.
Oosterhof, A., Conrad, R.-M., & Ely, D. P.(2008). Assessing learners online. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Jenea,
DeleteIt sounds like you were able to find a way to successfully navigate some common challenges with distance learning--such as the differences in time zone--and work that into your group process. It also seems that each of you found your own roles given your strengths in order to accomplish group goals. This is definitely a good example of synergy. It sounds like there was some last minute decision making towards the end. Would there have been a way to prevent this if you had to do it over again?
Thanks for sharing.
Janea,
ReplyDeleteIt's wonderful to read about such a positive online group assignment. I love how you all did a charter and assigned roles. There are been so many instances in which this would have really been a time saver for groups I have been in as we spent too much time deciding who was going to take on which task.
Krista