Online Learning Teams

I'm currently taking classes at the University of Phoenix online. They require participation in "learning teams" in their bachelor's program.
In my opininon learning teams suck! I have not yet had a positive experience with them and I resent having to depend on the work of others for my grade.
Has anyone had any positive experiences with online learning teams? If so, what steps did you take to insure that your experience was positive.
I find that I end up in a team of four or five people, one usually drops the class, two are clueless or just do not participate and one other one tries really hard but has no idea what is going on in the class enough to be any kind of real contributor to projects. I have ended up doing most of the work every time just to ensure a decent grade for myself.
Overall, I think learning teams are a waste of time and unfair.

Thoughts anyone?

 

Sorry to hear that your experience has been poor. Have you reached out to your professor with specific issues?

In my MBA program learning teams (or groups) are leveraged for at least half of the classes. My own experience is that they have been valuable and that the team members have been almost without exception extremely motivated and hardworking.

 

A couple of thoughts from my experience:

1) During my unergrad work and my MBA, I had team assignments in several classes. In most cases, the first people to respond to the discussion boards were the type-A's in the class. When we had the option of forming our own teams, I went after them. We even hooked up in later classes to ensure our successes. Try to work the system if you can.

2) Many times in my career, I have had to be a part of teams that fit your description above. In those cases, I had to perform or perish. Consider bad team members now as preparation for the future. Life is not fair, and sometimes we just have to deal with that harsh reality.

 

I couldn't agree with you more! This is what prompted me to leave U of P after just two courses. Out of the three other people in my group, two were completely useless. So, the third person and I did all of the work. It was complete and utter nonsense. I will never attend a school again that has learning teams.


Best of luck to you.