Do group (team) activities in online classes have any academic value?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Dave Wagner, Sep 24, 2010.

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Do group/team activities in online classes have any academic value?

Poll closed Oct 24, 2010.
  1. Highly valuable. Group/team activities are an integral part of a good online class.

    2 vote(s)
    6.3%
  2. Fairly valuable. Most of the time, group/team activities add value to a class.

    2 vote(s)
    6.3%
  3. Sometimes valuable, sometimes not. It depends on students, instructor, group/team activities.

    13 vote(s)
    40.6%
  4. Rarely valuable. Most of the time, group/team activities are of little benefit.

    7 vote(s)
    21.9%
  5. An absolute waste of time. Group/team activities have no conceivable value.

    8 vote(s)
    25.0%
  1. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

    Do group (team) activities in online classes have any academic value?

    This poll is an adaptation of Michael Oliver's previous poll on the value of threaded discussions. I've tried to retain the same scale for comparison purposes.
     
  2. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Psst. You forgot the poll ;)
     
  3. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

    Patience, Grasshopper... ;)
     
  4. soupbone

    soupbone Active Member

    ABSOLUTELY...well at least in my courses. A huge part of Homeland Security/Emergency Preparedness is learning to work with other agencies, people, etc. These people may be chiefs, deputies, EMS workers, etc. that have very different viewpoints from your own.

    Group activities help you interact with these different personalities.

    I LOVE group assignments, and I wish they had more at the grad level. ;)
     
  5. PatsGirl1

    PatsGirl1 New Member


    Speaking as someone who typically ends up doing the lion's share of work in group projects...no they're not.
     
  6. soupbone

    soupbone Active Member

    That's why you need to come to Penn State! :D

    No seriously I guess it depends on the class but so far my classes that have group projects here at PSU have been awesome. Every single person has contributed above and beyond on our group assignments. So far we have two A's to show for it...;)
     
  7. PatsGirl1

    PatsGirl1 New Member

    *sigh* I know, I know... One day ;) When I'm done doing the other (cheaper) degrees I have planned... :eek: I'll be in school til I'm 50!
     
  8. eilla05

    eilla05 New Member

    I have never had a positive group experience in almost 4 years of doing online classes. I am with Patsgirl1. I have even had members who did nothing in the group and left 1 or 2 people (myself and another ) to do everything!

    I HATE group assignments online because there is always a classmate who does nothing, is absent till the last few days and then decides to try and give input. If you contact the instructor they usually do nothing and say they will note it so it does not reflect your grade. To me group assignments are to hard to control in an online environment because you do not have to physically show up and there is no one who makes you participate.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 24, 2010
  9. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

    Hey, PG, I hear you...

    By the way, the question doesn't ask if team activities are fair but whether they have academic value.
     
  10. Team activities are awesome, particularly if they're competitive teams. I've had online teams where we were glued to the discussion board for weeks. And not even so much because it was required but because we wanted to make sure our project was of superior quality.
     
  11. PatsGirl1

    PatsGirl1 New Member

    I understand, but in theory only they have actual value, sure. It teaches collaboration, etc. However IRL no, the value is practically non-existant. It's one or two people doing most of the work, not a team of 5 or whatever each working on a portion.
     
  12. soupbone

    soupbone Active Member

    This has been my experience minus it being competitive.
     
  13. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

    May I ask what school you were attending where the "team activities are awesome"...? I ask because in over 10 years of online teaching, I've never had a student use the word "awesome" in the same sentence as the words "team activities." Oh, I've had students describe their team as awesome but never the activities.

    So please tell me where you are experiencing awesome team activities. I would like to fire my cv in there pronto, Tonto! Thanks!
     
  14. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

    What are the lessons of collaboration, anyway? Patience? Anything else?
     
  15. Looks like soupbone is having that experience at Penn State (I had it there too). I also had it at Drexel University for my undergrad. They just won the Sloan C award for excellence.

    I didn't realize my experience was so unique.
     
  16. PatsGirl1

    PatsGirl1 New Member


    I REALLY need to get in to PSU ;)
     
  17. soupbone

    soupbone Active Member

    I really wonder if PSU's courses are setup in a way that pushes student participation. I really don't want to come off as a PSU pusher but the experience has been great so far. The professors are very engaged and active in the course. They are constantly responding to forum posts and they are not canned responses like in the previous thread. The group projects are well thought out and really make the experience enjoyable.

    I really don't know what to point to but the group interaction and team assignments have been a blast so far. I don't have a single complaint yet.
     
  18. Dave Wagner

    Dave Wagner Active Member

    Amazing...
     
  19. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Thanks, DW. I'm honored that you would choose to use my format.

    Most of the 22 online classes I have completed have not contained a group project feature. The few that have required a group project have not been beneficial to me. Most of this is because my team members did poor work that damaged our collective grade. Collaboration is difficult in an online setting. For that reason I voted "Rarely beneficial".
     
  20. Ever heard of Wikipedia?

    Or Linux?

    ;)
     

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