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Group Activity This is your instructor's pep talk on participation in group activity. As a student in the course, you will be a member of the whole-class group and a six-member group. You can meet the minimal requirements for your group participation by completing your group assignments on time. You also can earn bonus points toward your grade through group participation. (You can review the information on bonus points by going to the grading page for working with moral frameworks or analyzing case studies.) My pep talk (plea, harangue, salutatory dissertation) here though does not deal directly with minimal requirements or grades. Rather I want to promote group activity as a source of motivation and enthusiasm in the course. If you can raise your group activity to a higher level than simply doing your group assignments, you probably will enjoy the course more and will have a greater sense of solidarity in working cooperatively with others. What do I mean by "a higher level"? Well, you can post messages that offer general comments on the course that may interest other students. Or you can read over other group members' submissions even when this is unnecessary to complete your own weekly assignment and then post appropriate comments. If there is a point you especially agree with, let your fellow group member know. If someone else expresses uncertainty about the appropriateness of a submitted assignment, you may offer some helpful suggestions. If you read over a submitted assignment and you notice clearly that it goes off track with respect to the instructions, you may want to pass on this information--in a tactful way, of course. If you are unclear about assignment instructions or do not understand some of the background information, post a message about the problem (being as specific as possible) to see if another group member can help. Actively participating in a group can make up for some features of the usual classroom experience that are absent in an internet course--such as being able to note facial expressions or hearing voice inflections. And by interacting more with other class members, you get beyond the feeling that you are just interacting with a machine. I am well aware of the usual complaints about group activities: one or two people end up carrying most of the load, the quality of your own work suffers because some other group members have lesser interest or commitment, it takes more time. I think though that you should set out with your best effort to make group activities succeed. There is a lot to gain. And even if things do not work out, you have the satisfaction of knowing that you tried. Click on the Information icon below to return to the Basic Information page. |
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Questions or Comments? yezzi@mnsu.edu © 1999 by Ron Yezzi Think paragraphs, not sentences!
formerly Mankato State University
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