group work vs individual work
In a traditional classroom setting students have trouble meeting to work in groups, or the usual one person does all the work and another person does nothing, but expects credit. I have never taught an online course yet, but looks to me as though an online course would force the students to somehow interact with each other since they never met, and need to know what others in their group are doing.
I feel that it is difficult to have groups in the online classroom. It seems that the majority of the students submit their individual work within hours of the deadline and others don't seem to have a problem turning in late assignments for a point deduction. Even if students are randomly assigned to a group there will be one or two students who do all of the work while others do little to nothing. There are conscientious students who would rather do everything than risk losing points on an assignment. My college did away with group projects for some of these reasons. The only probable way to make it work would be for the instructor to assign each student a section, even then it is tough to grade the project as a whole if some sections are far superior to others.
Online group projects should be offered in an online classroom. The online universities offer degrees and courses that are geared toward real world experiences and applications. In the real world job market, individuals will have to work on assigned group projects i.e. presentations and portfolios. If the instructor takes into consideration student time zones, schedules, and assignment content and deadlines, online group projects can be assigned. If the instructor offers guidelines, examples, and a rubric for the group project, he or she can be successful in assigning the group project to promote online learning.
I discussed this in the previous forum on group projects and will repeat it here.
The method I use in the online environment is individual grading on student participation and work submitted. I tell the students this up front. True it may not guarantee participation but it gives students a clear choice. What could cause issues with this method is those instructors that give all students in the group the same grade regardless of participation.
Re: Group Projects
by Gardner Hussey - December 04, 2009 - 10:20 AM (EST)
Satrohan,
I also don't allow 11th hour participation in the online environment. I tell students that group participation must take place two days before the project is due.
The group participation is in the discussion board. There are two parts to my group projects, a group part and an individual part. In the group part you can grade participation. In the individual part, each student has to submit their own paper. There are no group papers, that is one paper from the whole group, in my group projects.
Some instructors allow group papers. It is wrong because this is where the slackers are and other group members will protect them.
I agree that the individual really drives how effective this could be. - Jon
Students who do well in an on-ground class within a group setting, will, most likely, put the effort into a group project; students who do not participate in class or even in a group setting may not do as well in a group within an online environment. However, there may be the exceptions where some students do not feel comfortable with the one-on-one interaction and being accessed by their peers face to face and they may actually do better in an online group setting. I think it all depends upon the individual.
This is a very interesting concept. I never thought to break it down into parts but I like the concept and will try this when it is applicable in my classes. Very good idea.
Bernie Sarra
Donald,
I agree and interesting point system.
Jon
The only equitable solution I found for group projects is to combine two grades; 1 for individual contribution 90%, and 2. group outcome 10%. This way those hard chargers cannot be pulled down by more than a letter grade by those that refuse to participate on time or at all. It also allows the group to succeed and the individual to fail. You mention just like in business; in business everyone generally knows who contributes and who doesn’t. Somehow it just makes it to the surface.
Thank you for sharing your frank opinion on the subject of group projects with us, corrine. I also prefer individual projects, however, in graduate school, I could not dictate what the Professor must do. I could choose to drop the course; and I am gald I didn't. Introducing myself to an environment in which there are inevitably "slackers" has helped me to welcome the "team environment" of the corporate world.
I made a diligent and successful effort to take as many courses I can in my area of concentration as one-on-one courses with Faculty who are specialists in my area fo concentration; hereby avoiding as many instances within my power to avoid in which my grade depended on others.
Satrohan
I don't enroll in classes for college with a whole group.
If I understand what you are saying, why am I stating my position as it should remain an "indiual's" work and not a "group," then, again, why do I have to take a lower grade because of one student who doesn't "Pull his/her on weight," because my grade point average doesn't say, "Oh, that was based on "group; work and not what Corinne really learned."
I still get whatever grade the "group" got.
Yes, the others miss out on the benefit of my knowledge.
I don't "carry" people who are not meeting their optimal level -- slackers. I am not one who does it so I don't like those students.
Corrine:
Quite true. The behavoir is likely to be transferred and become more predominant and pronounced because the student knows he or she does not have to meet any one face-to face.
Do you think the remainder of the class should be deprived of the opportunity because of a few?
Satrohan
Unfortunately, that is not going to solve the problem. In fact, it has been worse through my personal experience that the student who was lazy in class with me was even lazier when we had to do it to do an online class. Why was I surprised?
Carl:
Adequate time to compose an intelligent response or ask an intelligent question does, in my opinion, have a positive impact on online participation. And you are quite right, that time is not available in the classroom situation. Moreover some students "day-dream" or "drift away" as a result of which they lose track of the trend of the class; ands would not want to say anything as it would reflectthat they are not keeping pace with the progression of events in the class------not a likely condition in the classsroom where the online lecture is always available and the Discussion thread is always there to analyze.
A word of caution about pareticipation will be greater because they are "required to participate". We have found that if no points are awarded for participation-----points that count towards the final grade, students are likely not to participate or the level of participation is low; not unless, they are convinced that participation will influence how they perform on any activity that contributes to their final grade.
Satrohan
I am just beginning to become seriously involved in on-line instruction. One thing I am sure of. In on-site instruction, normal discussions occur between the instructor and approximately 25% of the class (on a good day). The remaining 75% remain mute.
It seems to me that on-line two factors will promote greater participation on the part of all students: first, because they are "required" to participate - and second, because in an asynchronous environment, the individual can carefully compose his or her thoughts, submitting their post only when they are completely ready - and not in a competitive situation as might occur in a live classroom [much like I have just done.]
Nandan:
Some students, even brilliant ones, do not engage in face-to-face discussions as much as we would like them to; however, they seem to participate more in asynchronous discussion forums.
Satrohan
Farida,
Basically the same things can happen with students in an online group as in a traditional class-room setting. To some extent, in fact, the anonmity and impersonality of the online group makes it more difficult for individuals to communicate with each other. In a traditional classroom, when a person is in front of you and asking a question, you are almost compelled to interact with him/her, regardless of whether you know/like the person.
Janice:
We ensure that the Content Experts with whom we work to create their courses include these kinds of information in their courses. We know these kinds of information are mandatory. They are provided in a traditional classroom environment for a reason. The same reason applies to the online setting. And yes; we seek students feedback on these aspects of instruction in the course evaluation survey. The feedback has been positive.
Satrohan
