Module 3: There's no I in team...or is there?

In distance education or online learning it is essential that instructors foster collaboration among students. They must help build a sense of community and help encourage trust among students (Palloff and Pratt, 2007). It is vital that fair and clear expectations are set for students at the beginning of a course. When students are aware of the expectations and requirements of the course from the beginning there will be no excuses later.



Siemens states that collaborative learning can be assessed through participative pedagogy, where students are working in collaborative teams on assignments from the curriculum (2008). In this assessment model students have the opportunity to assess their peers, have the opportunity to receive feedback from the online community, and are assessed by instructors based on contribution to the online community (Laureate Education, 2008). Instructors must set clear guidelines as to what is considered active participation and contribution to the online community. Rubrics are a great way to assess learning and participation, because they are fair and equitable assessments they have clearly defined expectations for each grade so students can self assess themselves and have a pretty good idea of what their grade on each assignment will be based on the rubric. In the post by Mark Sample he discusses the benefits of using student blogs as a starting point for discussions, but the main idea of the blog post is establishing a rubric for evaluating the students blogs. He provided examples of the rubric he set forth and the expectations and how they were outlined for the students in the beginning so that there was no confusion about what was expected of them in their blog postings.



I am quite guilty of being one of those students who abhors group work and collaborative efforts. It is not that I do not participate but I always feel as though it's my grade why should someone else have to help me with it, or why should someone get credit for some of the work that I have done. However I may have felt about collaborative efforts, I have always participated and tried to help my team in whatever assignments we were required to complete. When there are members of the collaborative community who do not participate I think it is important for members of the community to try to reach out to them first through email, chat, or a phone call to determine what has happened. It is important not to jump to conclusions or assume that someone is just not participating when in reality there may be a valid reason as to why they have not been participating. On the other hand, if this is a recurring problem or the community member does not have a reason or response to the efforts of the team, then it is important to notify the instructor so that other members are not penalized. However the team should have pre-established the protocol for what to do when group members are not participating so everyone will be aware of the action steps that will be taken before the instructor is called to intervene.





References:
Mark Sample's Blog http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/a-rubric-for-evaluating-student-blogs/27196


Hurst, D & Thomas, J. (2004). Developing Team Skills and Accomplishing Team Projects Online. In T. Anderson and F. Alloumi (Eds.), Theory and practice of online learning (pp. 195-225). Alberta, Canada: Athabasca University.



Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008a). Principles of distance education: Assessment of Collaborative Learning featuring George Siemens [DVD]. United States: Walden University.



Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008b). Principles of distance education: Learning communities featuring George Siemens [DVD]. United States: Walden University.