Dr. Sandy Braxton - Motivating Groups in the virtual campus classroom
Currently, I am having some difficulties in keeping learners motivated in a team project. The main problem is communication. One of team members currently is stationed in another country. The remaining members are living on the west coast and the east coast.
In keeping the discussions active, I am using Skype. Do you have any suggestions in keeping the team motivated?
Dr. Sandy Braxton
Jeff,
Thanks for the pointer on evaluations. I just ran across a helpful evaluation for groups to use in evaluating the contributions of each other in a group project that I think I will add into the next online group project I use.
I think your approach to grading and encouraging students to participate is very helpful. I have had some success in trying to create group projects that have distinct roles for each individual and are engaging.
The best response I've had was to a group project for a Business Communication class in which students were to plan a fictional class trip to France where we would study business in France. Students decided what part of the trip planning they would be responsible for, had to share information that would enable fellow travelers' success and cite the sources they used. Students covered exchange of currency, transportation, hotels, weather/appropriate clothing, etc.
I was pleased at the depth and seriousness with which they took this assignment on and the unrequested, but added interaction that occurred between them.
Hi Jeff,
Thank you for sharing the evaluation strategy for team projects. The value of this method is high for the online environment as you say. By knowing you will be rated by other team members the level of your accountability increases significantly.
Gary
Stressing team project evaluations may be a way to motivate. If it is clear that a learning team evaluation, where they rate the performance of each team member, is expected from each team member at the end of the class. Addtionally, if it is clear that this feedback will figure promeniently in thier grade, then the should be motivated to pull their own weight.
In online environments, it is easy to ride the coat tails of others. If it is well known that the team members will be rating you, then it will be less likely that you will try to slack off.
I have found this effective in the past.
It is very important to set the stage in terms of your requirements in the virtual team, especially from a "participation" point of view.
I tell my teams that participation represents one half of their grade and needs to be "active and ongoing" and to use the course platform to document their activities.
I also tell them to avoid the use of email since the school or myself have no record of its occurrence.
I then monitor their efforts and post encouraging comments inside their threads along with private emails to the non participating members.
Truth is, virtual groups are difficult to manage and take extra work on the part of the instructor to make them successful. Hope this helps!
One of the activities that I have added to the group projects are additional elements that not only help to improve the group interaction but also improve their presentation skills. For example, I ask them to use the speaker notes as if the final presentation were being given live. The text in the speaker notes represents their voice and what they would say. That includes introductions, transitions from one subject to the next, an introduction and overview of the entire presentation, and finally a summary of the high points in each of the individual presentations. This requires them to not just submit slides for one person to combine into a single presentation, but to have a dialog about what is being presented. Location should not be a factor but a regular dialog should be.
