FIT Project and Team Process

I have been fortunate enough to not have or remember having a bad group experience in undergraduate or graduate studies. Staying focused on the goal and wanting to be on time has carried significant momentum in getting the work done. I also appreciate sharing the burden with others. It makes the work more palatable and easier to do. BlackBoard has made group work even more manageable since we can share files that allow us to edit documents without having to physically meet one another. Having to manage individual schedules was the biggest difficulty in getting group work done in the past. I think the assignments have a fuller perspective when others are involved. An additional benefit in this FIT assignment was support from like-minded colleagues.

Common themes in the FIT assignment were students not completing the assignments in a timely fashion, not being able to do our assignments because of student delays, and technical glitches that impede progress. When the FIT assignment began, it took a couple attempts to gain full access. I believe I had difficulty with IT 7130 access in addition to IT 6140. Once in the IT 6140 course, we still did not have full viewing capacity. For whatever reason, when it came to accessing the assignments, we needed to go back to the instructor for some behind the scenes magic to grant access.

I realized that I experienced a time/task delay with what happened in class versus following up with FIT instructor as well as follow up with evaluations. Early on I had to remember to follow up. Sometimes I forgot. I see a definite advantage with having connectivity (wireless) wherever I go. I am not however, convinced that I need to bring laptop/PDA to class regularly. I am appreciating a new symbiotic relationship to my computers, advanced organization and technology. Connectivity is a must for this type of coursework.

Communication a different kind of connectivity is a critical component and integral to things working properly online. The first few weeks were spent clarifying assignments and duties as our group changed membership. There seemed to be a ton of email each week. Better to know than not to know. I did not fully appreciate the amount of communication needed to establish and maintain the course. Thus connectivity to the Internet is very important.

We were assigned specific students to monitor blog assignments as well as grade a few assignments. I found that I graded harder than the instructor in both assignments. I tend to grade hard or err on the conservative side. I need to see the entire class’s body of work to judge top projects versus substandard ones.

Some of my assumptions of online education have changed. Unfortunately, just like other things, online education is a fallible and vulnerable system. What hasn’t changed is the element of babysitting students. I still appreciate real time, human face-to-face from a student perspective as well as a teaching perspective.