Team Assignments in Online Class?

[marianne202]

I wouldn't be terrified of team projects since you know what to expect going in. I have only had one class where we got to choose our team all the others have been assigned teams. Just be up front and offer to take the lead, then assign specific tasks to each member. I find if the weaker ones have very specific tasks they will do at least something. Then I would give them a deadline far ahead of your real deadline so you can look at their work and fill it in if necessary. I have had some great teams and some not so great teams. Your school should have the ability to set you up with a chat room on the discussion board just for your team, so you can meet virtually and work on things as a team. Then you just use email for the in-between times. We used to meet on average of once a week in chat mode, or more if we needed it. This is good too because these sessions are recorded so the instructor can see which team members are showing up and participating in the work discussions. This helps you in the end with grading, since they will know who really did the work. Don't fret, you may get a great team and it might turn out to be fun. Either way you know you are capable of carrying it yourself, so you know you will get a good grade!

[MISin08]

:eek: ok... now I'm terrified.


I am usually the take-charge type A person (sound like you Jennifer!) I manage people and have for several years so I'm used to the leadership role. My team right now is virtual, so I'm even used to working with people in different locations. However... this is different and unknown. I don't have team assigned yet because I haven't actually enrolled.

I say take charge, but be smart about it. I was in the same boat in my Proj Mgt class at Chadron State, where we did a simulated project to open a new business. After a few weeks in the discussion forum, I was able to identify who on my team had experience and was likely to contribute and who would need to be managed. There was one other manager on my team, who was in the middle of a demanding real-job project. He agreed that if I would manage he would back me up on tasks if the others fell short. So good to go. I set the tone right away by scheduling a kick-off conference call, using Google Apps to set up calendars, document repository, all the stuff a real project would use, and doing all the people stuff a real project manager would do. Others on the team included a new mom, an experienced IT pro near the end of his degree and an inexperienced fellow out of his depth. And one who never showed up :ack:

So it's like real management, know what you've got to work with -- only you don't have to make long term plans to make them improve. New Mom gave us good work but needed a lot of support; IT Pro did good work up to the point (I suspect) where he was assured of a B; 4th Year Sophomore left me doing several of his deliverables, and Mr. Other Mgr came through and we got an A. The one thing I would do differently is explore with the Prof just how much formal power I could assume or if she would intervene on non-performers. Since PMs in theory lead mostly by influence I went with that.

Phillip

[ryoder]

This is why I love testing out. Just let me do my work in solitude because it's so hard to coordinate schedules. Even when i was eighteen at usf group projects sucked.

I would cynically get everyone on a confirm call and determine up front who was going to do the bulk of the work. Try to eliminate friction due to role conflict by having well defined roles. It could be as simple as this person researches and writes the content while another person edits and yet another builds all the charts and visio crap. I know the writer is doing most of the work but someone who cares will gladly accept this responsibility.