Group Work

This afternoon Ed, Van and I attended a workshop on Group Work (Let’s Collaborate! Create a User-Friendly Online Group) organized by Tanja Hodges from ATLAS.  It was actually a fun hour - I think we met some great people who we will probably run into again either on campus or online during our SIB Online Learning Endeavors.  Here are my notes from the workshop:

A. Why do learners dislike group work? (the following points were generated by attendees)

• Social loafing
• Activity is not appropriate for group work
• Loners
• Coordination takes time
• Instructor intimidated
• Instruction not clear
• Biased because of previous bad experience
• Aversion to group grading
• Do not have the right social skills
• Do not possess the right technology skills

B. Why assign group work? (the following points were generated by attendees)

• Peer teaching/learning, access to more perspectives, increases diverse learning experience
• Deeper level of thinking, engagement.
• More reflective of real-life/professional experience/environment
• Accountability
• Minimize grading? (those with experience in group work did not think it would be less work on the instructor's part)

Our goal is to balance the concerns listed in A, while reaping the benefits listed in B.

Provide context of why students need to do an assignment.  Why you think it is important that they learn this content in a collaborative fashion!!

How to make group work successful…

1. Develop a firm foundation

• Build a learning community (connection, trust, honest communication, explicitly stating expectations)

2. Provide clear instructions

• State your learning objectives (provide direction for both facilitators and the learners) – give meaning – communicate expectations – help motivate learners – provide a path toward evaluation.
• Meticulously compose project guidelines and activities.  Not just on end product, but also about the group process.  How often will the group members need to log in?  What roles will learners need to assume?  Will learners be able to ‘fire’ a group member who is under-performing?  Provide access to exemplary examples.

3. Enact effective communication procedures

•  In online environment communication is perhaps the largest challenge.
• Asynchronous: examples are discussion boards – email – wiki – blogs – google docs – twitter
• Synchronous : examples are Elluminate – skype – telephone – chats -

4. Offer frequent feedback

• Provide detailed project rubrics
• Long-term group effort is composed of several smaller group efforts along the way.
• Guide-post activities (formative feedback)
• Use assessments to:
• Address group accountability
• Address Individual accountability - CMS is your friend!  Journaling Activities (How did I contribute to my group this week? Personal between instructor and student or open?)

Something to think about: is it important that you be able to monitor most of your student’s communication?

By the way, Tanja mentioned that ATLAS will be organizing a 4 week Group Work course during the Spring semester.  I took a course like that from ION, might be good for somebody from our team to take the online version.

M