Unit 3 Notes

Unit 3 Overview

This week we will be led by our colleagues through a real-life inspired case about working in teams!

• Case: Team in Trouble (Class forum)

If you are NOT listed as one of the facilitators for the activities this week (see the course schedule), then you are a "student" in that activity and will be getting direction from the facilitators on how to proceed.

Since we don't yet know what tools or processes the facilitators will use to support our learning, the best thing you can do to prepare is...

1. read the case: Team in Trouble - it is very short and presented mostly as email exchanges among this fictional team.
2. review the Unit Notes and videos for this unit
3. read the readings for this unit

As always, toward the end of the week, "students" will give facilitators feedback on how they did in the Mini-session Feedback Forum. So have a good look at the learning outcomes for this unit and prepare to give feedback on how their facilitation did/not support your achieving those outcomes. And if not, what would have helped you?

Learning Outcomes

Unit 3 Learning Outcomes

This unit focuses on the following course learning outcome and self assessment criteria:

Doug Hamilton (3:02)

Doug Hamilton (1:01)

Facilitating Online Teams

Jen Walinga (1:58)

Cooperative or team-based learning is widely hailed as an effective learning strategy in both online and face-to-face learning environments.

Glover’s article (2000) looks closely at the value of group work in online environments and applies Tuckman’s Five Stages of Community Development to online group processes.

In teaching in an online MBA program, Lam et al (2005) share their observations of virtual team dynamics, articulating in particular the patterns of collaborative behaviour that help distinguish between poor and high team performance.

Team learning or online group projects present their own set of challenges. In the online course, group dynamics, communication, and conflict can be difficult to discern. Generally, people are quite polite in online teamwork; however, there can be sub-currents that can impair the group's effectiveness to work cohesively. All the same dynamics that are at play in Tuckman's Five Stages of Group Development are still at play, but they are just more challenging to track in the online environment. These five stages might not happen linearly or in every group situation but understanding the dynamics involved in these different stages helps online instructors anticipate and plan for issues that might arise when students are engaged in team learning.

What happens when conflict occurs between online participants? How does an instructor diagnose, manage, and help to resolve the situation? The case study presented in this unit is intended to give you an opportunity to immerse yourself in a typical situation that may occur in one of your courses and to help you stand in the shoes of a student.

Jen Walinga (:34)

Advice on Working with Teams

Alicia Wilkes (1:48)

Doug Hamilton (2:05)