Education Articles from College Matching Service

Most e-learners have mixed feelings about group work and the activities they’ve had to do with their classmates. Perhaps you’ve had the same experience: you loved going to the discussion board and sharing ideas and discussing the course readings. But, when you had to work with the same individuals on an online class group project, it was another issue altogether.

Admit it when there is friction between group members. Get it out in the open. Then, develop a productive solution. Potential problem: The way team friction manifests itself can be subtle. Group members disagree, express frustration, or stop communicating altogether. Some team members are deliberately obstructive, or criticize work, endlessly debate small points, or refuse to contribute at all. Instead of working on the problem, the energy of the group is spent in conflict resolution. Some may drop out. Others find they become passive when they believe that their input does not matter, and they let the dominant team members do the work. Solution: Define the roles as well as the tasks. Provide guidelines for team-member roles, and describe actions to be taken by each member of the group.

Continuously review the tasks and see where you are with the deadlines. Potential problem: Tasks are vague, poorly defined. Although the outcome may be defined and described well, the individual tasks are not clearly defined, nor are they delegated in an effective manner. Tasks are repeated needlessly, or done with contradictory results. Solution: Define and describe the tasks in terms of what needs to be done, how to do it, and how to present the results.

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