This group assignment was different than any other
I've ever done for a class at Montclair State University thus far. Although I
did see 3 of my 4 group members in classes we share, this assignment was completed
using only online communication. Like most group assignments, it required for
someone to take initiative and start planning. I decided to not wait and sent
out a mass e-mail to my group members, explaining what I thought needed to be
done and by when, so that everyone was on the same page. After most of the
group members inputted their technologies, I came up with the idea of
color-coding the different categories, and lastly, organized them by grouping
the colors together. We communicated via e-mail about any questions or concerns
we had about the assignment, and kept each other in the loop on almost a daily
basis on changes we made to the spreadsheet.
While this assignment seemed
to have gone pretty smoothly, its efficiency had a lot to do with the fact that
all of my group members held their own and completed their portion of the
assignment by the deadline. We agreed to set the deadline to Monday night, so
that all of us had enough time to write our Blogger entry before the Wednesday
deadline.
I also really liked that we
could view when changes to the document were made, and by which of the group
member(s). It created a sense of accountability for each and every group
member, wiping out any opportunities for any of the group members to “coast”
their way through the project. All in all, this group assignment surprisingly turned
out to be a very positive experience.
Justyna, can you help me understand further what components helped to create authentic collaboration?
ReplyDeleteWhile all of us worked individually, we did have to come up with a concrete plan and layout for the spreadsheet. For example, we had to agree on color-coding our GoogleDoc, creating the necessary categories for our pieces of technology to fit into, etc.
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