It has been more than three years since I graduated from Florida State's Library and Information Science degree which I completed 98% through online courses. That experience was very educational for me as a student and it has given me many ideas of good and bad things that instructors do or don't do for their online class.
Group work was very common and I became accustomed to the idea of working online with classmates. It can be very scary at times. You have to put alot of faith in your fellow classmates that they will be responsible for their part. Luckily I have had mostly good experiences with online group work, and this project was very good.
The most nerve-wracking thing has to be creating your group. That was somewhat difficult as two groups had already started to form and I immediately jumped in with starting a third group. There was some confusion as to who was confirming with which group, very difficult to determine through discussion boards and email. In past experiences, my groups that were mandatory were formed by the instructor or TA so this was a new adventure!
Our group was very active on the discussion board once everyone knew which group they were assigned to and learned how to navigate to the group pages (Blackboard doesn't make this very intuitive of course.) As the deadline approached, more threads and responses were being left. We muddled through the project and I think we came up with a valid list of issues. We agreed to focus on the concept of student retention in online programs.
If I could compare the online experience of group work with face-to-face group work, I would have to say that I feel that face-to-face group work would be more productive. The asynchronous atmosphere can be quiet daunting. What if I need an answer NOW!
I continue to be impressed by the caliber of my classmates. They seem like a great group of people to embark upon this journey with. I am looking forward to the rest of the course and working with my classmates in upcoming courses.
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