Last week's forum exercise for MAIS 606 requested a partner activity that included collaboration and discussion on -ing clauses and writing cause/effect essays. Next to our critical review swap, it was the first time we were assigned a specific partnership in the course. 

To be completely candid, I was dreading the assignment.  I don't typically enjoy group work in online, distance delivery courses. Unfortunately, past experience has shown me that it can be difficult to rely on people you've never actually met, processes can slow due to schedule conflicts, and some participants may exert less effort than others. 

Thankfully, this time, the experience was both beneficial and enjoyable. There were numerous factors that I feel contributed to the success of our work and I figured that sharing this as a blog may be helpful to others who find themselves in the same situation. 

The first point worth mentioning is that our instructor prompted us to find our own partner, rather than assigning one for us. This allowed me to match up with someone who worked along the same timeline as me, since our forum allowed partnerships to form as requests were posted (first person to respond to a "call out", for example). 

Secondly, a successful partnership usually requires strong leadership and commitment; our group appeared to have both of the attributes. Furthermore, our leadership was somewhat balanced, which was interesting to me. My partner Jessie initiated the contact and scheduling part of the process, while I initiated the collaboration of work. We were both completely dedicated to getting the work done as quickly as possible, which ultimately might have been the most influential factor of our success. The frustration that stems from waiting on someone else to contribute was totally avoided this way.

Finally, our shared level of motivation and enthusiasm allowed us to post our work quickly and confidently. I think we both sensed a willingness to cooperate with one another, along with a desire to do well on the project. In fact, our communication on the work at hand later led to discussions about the course in general, the MAIS program as a whole and our personal journeys to graduate success. 

I have a newfound respect for group writing and partner collaboration, and I look forward to expanding on these thoughts in an upcoming blog post on peer reviews.