CONTEXT
Perhaps my experience of this virtual group assignment may be familiar to some students, and hopefully the tips collated will support others on a similar path to me. I know I'll be even more mindful in my own teaching now, of what learners are going through and dealing with.
EMOTIONS I FELT BEFORE IT EVEN STARTED
So, overall, I can relate how anxiety could easily take a hold over someone involved in group work - and interesting to note, for me a lot of this occurred before the work actually commenced! I still had all the work and deadline driven anxiety to manage yet :-)
REFLECTING ON THE EXPERIENCE & WHAT I LEARNED
Technology assisted us also. For example, we used WhatsApp for regular updates and communications, Zoom for online catch ups and to review various documents together via screen share, Microsoft OneDrive as a shared space with folders for the various aspects of documents etc., Microsoft word’s track changes/comments functionality to indicate suggestions/potential edits and of course the Moodle virtual learning environment to access course materials and to ultimately, submit.
Both of us had acquired a lot of various experience over the years, so our approach would indeed be quite different to someone starting their first group work assignment. Other elements could really support learners in this instance, for example, there is a lot of evidence both anecdotally and in the literature of groups agreeing contracts at the outset, assigning roles which rotate, taking minutes and developing actions etc. These, along with educator supports, mentoring and monitoring, can really support the groups succeed. Overall, a very worthwhile experience for me to undertake, for several reasons. Personally, I learned a lot from it, and being part of a team really focused me. Through reflecting, several aspects come to mind as having truly supported our overall success, and I detail some of those below in text and Infograph format for your consideration (click Infograph for full sizes, or download PDF/SVG versions). The high grade we received at the end justified the collective efforts we both put in to this assignment, and the pride and high-quality output generated too. In the ever-present motivational words of Dr. Terry Maguire (former Director of the National Forum)....
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Ronan BreeEducation Developer,Science Lecturer, Archives
March 2023
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Any opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer.
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