The Value of Discussions

Working in a group has helped me through the courses surprisingly a lot. I’ve always hated group work in school; my personal experiences haven’t been the best. In the past, I’ve experienced group members who were disengaged from the assignment or disengaged from the group doing the assignment on their own. Having been out of college for over 14 years and working in the real world, gaining actual collaboration experiences helped me prepare for the discussions within the courses.  

I’m used to the method when assigned readings there's a quiz at the end to test your knowledge over what was presented.  I’m not the best test taker and have always struggled with that aspect of school.  This was a concern when I started the master’s courses, I wasn’t sure how testing one’s knowledge would be implemented.  I was surprised by the discussion method and scared at the same time because I don’t want to be the one who brings the group down.  Once I learned about the individual grades, the weight of that uncertainty was lifted from my shoulders.  

Having discussions over the topic, instead of a physical test over the readings, is a better way to test one’s actual knowledge.  This method allows you to dive deeper into your thinking while hearing the point of view of others.  As mentioned in Collaborative Learning: Center for Teaching Innovation (2024) peer learning, or peer instruction, is a type of collaborative learning that involves students working in pairs or small groups to discuss concepts or find solutions to problems. 

It’s strange to pick team members virtually when you haven’t met before while being on a fast timeline.  So many questions were going through my mind, such as: Will we get along, have the same interests, will they like me, and are they good workers?  These questions were answered at the very beginning.  Before our first discussion, we decided to have a Zoom meeting just to get to know each other.  It was a lot of fun!  Asking questions, finding common interests, learning each other’s differences, and learning each other’s strengths from the get-go was the best method we could have chosen for the discussions.  

Learning how to do the discussions appropriately was a learning curve.  We learned from each other and shared the comments left on each of our profiles to get a true understanding of what was being required of us.  We struggled at first but steadily gained improvement along the way.  Learning how to do the discussions was more complicated than being in the group.  Check out the discussion board here: discussion board. For an introvert, this is saying a lot.  I’m usually the shy one who completes all tasks but let others take the lead.  For the discussions, there wasn’t a leader; however, we all contributed as leaders, being experts in our fields.  

I couldn’t have asked for a better team.  From the beginning, we formed a group chat and talked about everything from ePortfolio to disruptive innovation.  Anytime we questioned something on the assignments or how to do something, reaching out to them first and vice versa was really helpful.  They really filled the gaps in navigating the courses.  Those texts turned into friendships, sharing information not related to the courses or discussions and building a stronger foundation between us by becoming a support system for this adventure through the master’s program.  

I think the biggest takeaway from the discussions was how we motivated each other.  There were days when it seemed like the river was taking us downstream to the unknown, but reaching out and hearing similar struggles and ideas from the group helped me get out of that river and not drown in all the work.  We’ve already compared classes for the next rotation and can’t wait to work with each other again!

Reference 

Collaborative learning: Center for teaching innovation. (2024). Collaborative Learning | Center for

Teaching Innovation. (n.d.). https://teaching.cornell.edu/teaching-resources/active-collaborative-learning/collaborative-learning