It was interesting to work on the group project. It gave me an opportunity to get to know John, Cesar, and Pat a little better. I can see the value of group projects in fostering a sense of community that otherwise could be missing in an online course. Of course, it forced us to look closely at another online course, which gives us another role model for our own courses (now or down the road).
To make it genuinely collaborative is a challenge, though. We divided up the material, which made sense, but the collaboration was then limited to communication and reviewing the conclusions our colleagues reached. It may be tough to get more collaborative than that while maintaining efficiency and timeliness. The project was time well spent, I think.
Jeff, I'm glad you saw the value in doing the group project. I have seen this work very well in actual online courses where students are really held accountable for their contributions.
ReplyDeleteJeff, I appreciate your point about the difference between group division of labor and collaboration. There can be value in both, but they accomplish different outcomes--in terms of the task as well as in terms of community building.
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