Collaborate

I recently started working on a collaborative project with my brothers. We all live in different states: IA, CO, GA, WI, and OR. Communication has been initially email, but soon we will move toward Skype for more immediate discussion.

Already, in the course of the emails, we have chosen the roles we are willing to assume to potentially bring the project to life.

I never had much luck with group projects as a student. As an instructor, I used them all the time. I found them to be exhausting, but fruitful when I managed them well. I also found most students reacted with grunts and whines when I announced a group activity. With my brothers, I seem to have loads of fun working as a group. So what gives?!

The participants comfort with strangers is an obvious place to start. Our learners are likely not very familiar with each other and when you ask them to do even the simplest tasks together there are nervous feelings to overcome. There is pressure to appear intelligent and cool.

As the instructor you can model interactive behavior. Help your students appear intelligent and cool. Try responding to simple questions with more questions and "Your question got me thinking..." Try incorporating more collaboration with special attention to the roles each student will play and their ability to comfortably share in the process.