Assessing Collaborative Efforts

In my opinion, participants in a collaborative learning community should be assessed on both their individual contributions and their contribution to the group. These two scores should be added together to get a final grade. Of course, this depends on if the project shows individual contributions along with the group contributions. If it is only a combined effort that shows up on the final project, peer evaluations would be a key factor in determining the grade.

As Siemens (2008) pointed out, a "balanced diet" is a focus for collaborative work. There needs to be a balance between individual work and group work. It ties back to learning styles. Some participants will prefer individual work where as others will prefer group work. However, it is important to grow student's week areas as well, so it it is a balanced approach, then not only will the individuals strenghts show, but their area of weakness will grow.

If students do not want ot work in a learning community, then the members in that community should first try to break things down into assignments and build a relationship with that student. They may just need encouragment. If that does not work, then the instructor should become involved. Ultimately, if a student does not participate in the project and this is varified, then it should hurt only the individuals grade and not the groups. Expectations and how grading will be handled in all situations should be set at the very beginning. Contracts and group goals should be set before the project begins (Palloff & Pratt, 2005).

Laureate Education, Inc. (2008). Principles of Distance Education. Baltimore: Siemens

Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating online: Learning together in community. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.