Palloff and Pratt in the book Building Online Learning Communities, discuss the roles and participation for the the facilitator and students in an online learning community. The thought is that there is always the "cheerleader" of the group who tries to continue a discuss and keep things moving. This helps those who are are not used to working in a community build that sense of belonging and wanting to learn too. Palloff and Pratt in Collaborting Online, also discuss that students should have a reflective component to their online work. Another aspect is having a group project that also has an individual component to it. Students can then show off their individual work while still collaborating with a group.
If students do not want to work on a collaborative project then I feel the group should try every effort to include him or her, but if that fails let the instructor know. The group should not be assessed on this person's lack of effort. If the attempts were made then the group would carry on minus that member. At this point it would then be up to the instructor on what type of grade or assignment that person is given.
Kellie,
ReplyDeleteWe definitely need a cheerleader type around to keep us going sometimes. Having individual as well as group responsibilities I think makes a project more dynamic and can help the strong person project their individual strength while assisting a weaker student to learn a challenging subject.
I agree every effort should be made to include a reluctant member in the collaborative efforts of the group and if they are not interested then the instructor should be notified. If every effort is made and someone does not wish to participate then the participants of the group need to move forward in their collaborative effort to build their learning community and enhance each other’s unique skill sets.
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