I discussed this in the previous forum on group projects and will repeat it here.
The method I use in the online environment is individual grading on student participation and work submitted. I tell the students this up front. True it may not guarantee participation but it gives students a clear choice. What could cause issues with this method is those instructors that give all students in the group the same grade regardless of participation.
Re: Group Projects
by Gardner Hussey - December 04, 2009 - 10:20 AM (EST)
Satrohan,
I also don't allow 11th hour participation in the online environment. I tell students that group participation must take place two days before the project is due.
The group participation is in the discussion board. There are two parts to my group projects, a group part and an individual part. In the group part you can grade participation. In the individual part, each student has to submit their own paper. There are no group papers, that is one paper from the whole group, in my group projects.
Some instructors allow group papers. It is wrong because this is where the slackers are and other group members will protect them.
Online group projects should be offered in an online classroom. The online universities offer degrees and courses that are geared toward real world experiences and applications. In the real world job market, individuals will have to work on assigned group projects i.e. presentations and portfolios. If the instructor takes into consideration student time zones, schedules, and assignment content and deadlines, online group projects can be assigned. If the instructor offers guidelines, examples, and a rubric for the group project, he or she can be successful in assigning the group project to promote online learning.
I feel that it is difficult to have groups in the online classroom. It seems that the majority of the students submit their individual work within hours of the deadline and others don't seem to have a problem turning in late assignments for a point deduction. Even if students are randomly assigned to a group there will be one or two students who do all of the work while others do little to nothing. There are conscientious students who would rather do everything than risk losing points on an assignment. My college did away with group projects for some of these reasons. The only probable way to make it work would be for the instructor to assign each student a section, even then it is tough to grade the project as a whole if some sections are far superior to others.
