Playing nice with online classmates

Posted by Jen Zeman on March 20th, 2009

The students in all my classes at UMUC were respectful and friendly while participating in classroom discussions and each person added fresh perspectives to the topics discussed each week. There was a feeling of camaraderie amongst us because the majority of the students were working adults who were struggling with balancing school, work, and family, just like me. All interactions were via the online discussion boards, although a few times I interacted with fellow classmates via email.

For every class I had at UMUC, group projects were a mandatory part of the curriculum. For me, this was probably the most difficult part of my classes because I tend to be solitary, preferring to work on my own. However, working in these groups was good practice for real-life workplace scenarios where group projects can be common. With nearly every group, there was always one to two people who failed to participate which made the process frustrating at times (this is when I was usually emailing other students, as a way to communicate “off-line”). However, I learned to ease my frustrations early on. If you end up in such a situation, here are some suggestions in dealing with group members who end up MIA:

• Immediately volunteer to be the group leader. Many people shy away from the leadership role, but by being the leader, you can leverage how the project will move along as well as choosing the portion of the project you would like to work on versus having someone else choose it for you.
• Post frequent notices to the MIA students that their participation is needed. This documents you made attempts to include them and to reach out to them.
• Notify the instructor as soon as possible of the non-participation. This shouldn’t be viewed as tattle-telling, but more of a heads-up to the instructor that the participating students are completing extra work to make up for the non-participation.

Following these tips should alleviate the stress of dealing with group projects. By keeping a level head and acting professionally, group projects are a valuable lesson for academic and career success.

Who do you know?: Online Classmates

Posted by Jennifer Buchholz on March 19th, 2009

One of the best parts about being an online student is getting to know students from all around the world. Students can choose to really get to know their classmates or just be an independent learner.

I found that in a class of 20-30 students, it was easier for me to select 5 students to really interact with and get to know. I picked people who had qualities or characteristics that I was looking for, whether it be the industry or company they worked for, other experience, proximity to where I live, etc.

Once I identified those folks, I really worked to learn more about them through reading their posts and interacting with them in class. Additionally I would contact those folks offline and chat about the class and other topics to build those relationships.

Finding ways to connect with classmates really helped sustain me through the classes. I found students that I was in several courses with and we continued to connect with each other during and after courses.