Small-Group Cooperative Activity Design:
The Reluctant Collaborator
Source: Class Project: EME6403 Designing for Online Collaborative Learning (Spring 2021)
Skills Demonstrated:
- Collaborate effectively with others.
- Give and receive constructive feedback.
- Build positive relationships with team members, clients, and other stakeholders
- Recognize and accommodate individual and cultural differences.
Description: This group project involved the development and implementation of a small-group activity focused on identifying the causes some learners are reluctant to collaborate in group projects. For this project, our team practiced the core processes and activities of Cooperative Learning including positive interdependence, promotive interaction, individual accountability, and group processing. We also used interpersonal skills such as leadership, decision-making, constructive feedback, trust-building, and conflict management. As team leader for this project, I organized meeting schedules and agendas, tracked progress and deliverables, led the decision-making process, and helped resolve group differences.
Deliverables:
Examples:
Example 1: Getting Started with Miro Activity:
Constructive feedback from team members suggested that learners using a tool for the first time might need skill development and support. The consensus was to create a practice activity for new users.
Example 2: The Reluctant Collaborator Activity
In collaborative planning and design sessions, our team brainstormed ideas for creating a series of tasks that would help learners connect behaviors with root causes and to collaborate on possible solutions.
Tim Ries 