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You will be asked to work with other students
on group tasks in this course. This approach is taken so that you
can learn from the ideas and experiences of other students, and
also learn to communicate with and to work with other people in
order to complete a complex task. (This is a highly valued skill
in most professional environments and particularly in risk management
where consultation and communication is a key part of the process).
Here are some guidelines for working in groups
in an online study environment.
-
Read the section on Learning
in Groups. It is important for you to learn to manage group
work.
- Take time to get to know the other members
of your group. This is important to the group working so don't
try to miss it out to save time
- Use the online discussion. A discussion
area will be set up for your group. Use this to get to know the
other members of your group, and to share ideas on how the task
should be done. As time will be limited, regular contact with
the group will help the accomplishment of the task.
- Contribute frequently (even if you feel
you have not got much to say). The rest of the group need to know
you are there or conversation flags and the task does not get
completed. The biggest problem with getting on line groups started
is silence all round.
- Express your views on the task. The assignment
should be the work of all group members. Allowing yourself to
think that other members of the group know more than you do and
that you should leave them to do the work will not lead to a satisfactory
outcome.
You may need to be more formal in the way in
which the group runs to start with. Read the section on working
in groups which applies to all group work and allocate group roles
explicitly. It doesn't matter who is the group facilitator to
start with. You will take turns so someone who feels they have
the time available at the start of the course volunteer yourself
and if you prefer to delay your turn then say so
- Don�t be afraid to disagree with other members.
You can be constructive if you make it clear that you disagree
with an opinion or a view, without being offensive to the person
who suggests the opinion. Use language such as "I think there
could be a problem with that idea because � . Perhaps we should
consider � ". By doing this you show respect for the other
person (remember they took a risk by expressing their opinion)
while still being able to express a different viewpoint.
- Negotiate! You may think you have all of the
answers, but the other group members have equally valid and important
views. Try to find an approach to the task that everybody in the
group can agree upon finally. This may take time, but it is time
well spent.
- Find a way for all members to contribute
to the assignment or task. To ensure that this happens the group
needs to find a way for every member to contribute to and to review
material that has been contributed by others.
Eg everybody could contribute to a Word file
for the assignment. After discussing the topic and deciding
how to approach it, one member of the group starts a Word file
with an outline of the assignment (bullet points are fine for
this). The person then posts a message to the group discussion
and attached the Word file. The next member downloaded the Word
file, added to it, then posted a message to the discussion with
the modified file attached. (Please make sure that your virus
checker is up to date or you may spread a virus). Each member
took a turn at adding to the assignment, using a different text
colour. In this way the whole group could see how the assignment
was going, and the material each person had added.
Clearly, there are many other ways to accomplish
a group task. Your group will have to plan how to organize the
task so that everybody can contribute.
- Don't forget that you can use the phone and
chat rooms as well as the discussion forum if you feel you need
real time communication
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