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Collaboration and Groups

Groups.

One of the ways that you can encourage collaboration in a distance course is to make sure students understand that you value collaboration. Language emphasizing the value and importance of collaboration helps establish the culture of the distance classroom. The types of assignments designed by you also show that collaboration is valued. Talking about collaboration but only giving individual assignments will be detected by students. If you value participation and collaboration, provide assignments that require these skills. One of the tools in Blackboard that is useful for collaborative activities is the ability to establish groups. The group tool allows students within a group to exchange files and communicate by email, chat, and discussion board. This tool allows a semi-private (you have access but other students do not) space and easy communication tools that groups can use for communication and collaboration.

Groups.pdf

Cooperation and Collaboration.

It is important to realize that distance courses can be an isolating experience for certain learners. Early distance learning courses tended to favor individual learning over group learning due to the tools available to the instructor. Rapidily, tools were invented to allow some social interaction. Contemporary tools allow you to design a range of activities that favor a wide variety of collaborative learning activities. Collaboration can serve to build the social context absent in distance courses and supports a more active approach to learning. Collaborative activities may also foster creativity and critical thinking processes. Social interaction may expand the student's view of the topic and allow students to question previously held beliefs and explore new ones, advancing the social construction on knowledge. Palloff and Pratt, in discussing the online environment, suggest individual learners interact with the environment and then develop knowledge through social interaction rather than individual exploration (2005). Cooperation and collaboration implies that students work together on common tasks and communicate to complete the tasks.

Students must understand that you value and favor collaboration. You will do this by the language and activities you select for your course. Students must know and understand that you value groups as one way for them to discuss ideas and learn from each other. Develop language to communicate to students that expressing an opinion, advancing an idea, or defending a postion are all highly encouraged forms of learning. Make sure all students understand, in no uncertain terms, that you believe that all students have something useful to say. When you are setting the environment to encourage collaboration, we encourage you to suggest and encourage ways of learning often shunned in courses where individual work is the norm.

• Encourage students to study and prepare for exams and tests together.

• Encourage students to explain difficult and hard-to-understand concepts to each other.

• Encourage students to evaluate each other's work.

• Encourage students to praise and positively affirm each other.

• Encourage students to peer edit.

   

Interaction is key to successful distance courses. You want students interacting with you, with other students, and with the content. However, from our experiences, students must learn how to interact with other students for successful collaborative efforts. Everyone believes they know how to work in a group but we often see group work viewed mostly as a way to spread the pain of the assignment across several people.

You must make students understand that groups have a definite academic focus. You do this by carefully developing instructions for assignments that clearly outline that collaboration is the process of sharing meaning and information to develop a product clearly superior to one developed by an individual.

Group Work.

For collaboration and cooperation to become a strong learning tool, rules must be established for the group. Language and illustrations around the central theme of reciprocity helps students clearly understand that the success of the individual is tied to the success of the group. The expectation must be created that individuals will assist others to reach group goals. Norms supporting this concept include shared goals, specific roles, cooperation, accountability, and division of labor - with the understanding that individual work is important but that it is the group effort and product that is valued. For groups to actually collaborate, care must be taken to create appropriate tasks for the group. The tendency is to list too many tasks or tasks that are too easy. This makes it easy to take turns doing tasks but does little to require collaboration. Tasks requiring high level thinking skills require students to collaborate to understand the material and to create the product according to specifications. 

Creating Ground Rules for Groups.

1. Provide a starting point for group rules but require students to amend these to fit the needs of their group.

   1. Insert specific language into your course discussing honesty and truthfulness as a desirable trait for the group. For group members to accept something that they actually disagree with or does not meet their standards is a form of dishonesty. It is important to insert language that helps students realize that groups operate most effectively with open and honest communication. It is also important that you remind students that honesty does not need to be brutal. Stating your opinion can be done tactfully. 

   2. Remind the group members that it is more important to establish working relationships for the group than friendships. If group members become friends, that is a bonus. It is far more important to work with the group members in such a way that personal conflicts are minimized. Personal conflicts should never impede the progress of the group.

   3. Collective responsibility is important and group decisions should be supported. In the right atmosphere, objections are expressed, compromises are made, and this leads to decisions. Once the decision is made, emphasize that individual sniping and comments should be minimized. 

   4. Full participation is a requirement. Groups can deliver a better product because of the diverse experiences and knowledge of the members. Insert language into your course that all voices need to be heard and that students should not be afraid of expressing their opinion. A few words about valuing the opinion of others and valuing the person (not the statement) are also important.

   5. Determining workload is important but emphasize that the load does not have to be equal. Share the work by encouraging the group to use the strengths of the group members. Share expertise by encouraging group members to teach skills or share information to others in the group. 

   6. Some sort of documentation and recordkeeping is a necessity.

   7. Clearly state that group deadlines must be met and are non-negotiable.

   8. Insert language to encourage students to value creativity and thinking outside-of-the-box. Task orientation is fine but not at the expense of a great idea that was not heard.

   9. Encourage students to establish a routine for meetings and communication. It is often helpful to require some type of reporting on individual progress in some way as well.

       

       

      Adapted from: Race, P. (2000). 500 tips on group learning. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.

       

Group Rules in Practice.

1. Groups should demonstrate that there are limits to the dysfunctional behavior the group will accept and must act consistently on these limits. Set your limits early and set them high.
2. If work is turned into the group that is poorly done or if work is not done at all, the group needs to give the person the chance to correct their work or behavior. Document both the behavior, the product, and the group's interventions. This is the time to notify the instructor. If the revised work is still not up to standards, the group needs to tell the person that their name will not go on the final product.
   1. It is a good practice to save the unacceptable work and/or to document lack of work and show it to the instructor (provides documentation).
3. If a group member will not answer emails, phone messages, etc. - document the first few tries, share the documentation with your instructor, and then discontinue contact.
4. The group needs to communicate to the instructor when a problem emerges but must also take care that the problem is not something that the group can solve. Communicating both documentation and a plan or intervention to involve the group member is a good way to keep the instructor in the loop and to have evidence if the intervention does not work.

Links for More Ideas. Note: This may take you to another section in this set of resources or to other TWU resources. 

See Manage Groups

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