Conversely, not all collaborative assignments work out for the best...

In 2009, an assignment to review distance technology technologies in a developing part of the world  was to be completed as part of two or three person team. A key aspect of the assignment was to work cooperatively host an on-line discussion forum on the results of our research.

Team selection proceeded without incident but once work was to proceed, I had difficulty in reaching my partner. I had attempted to contact him several times over the month leading up to when the first part of the assignment was due. So I contacted my instructor for help and the instructor attempted to reach my partner. 

After another two weeks of unsuccessful communications, the instructor stepped into provided me some options: (1) Postpone the presentation in the hopes that he will still come on board. (2) Go ahead with the presentation on your own with what you have; if your partner wishes to contribute he can provide his own piece, and forget about the collaboration component of the grading.

I decided that I would at least give him one more chance. I sent a draft of project scope and draft list of activities to my partner. The draft was ignored, not commented upon and then he began work going off on some other tangent not discussed between the two of us. 

Before I knew it, my "partner" had posted a document without consultation and proceeded to host the discussion forum. It was unbelievable, was this person that dense? Even my instructor was at a loss. It was evident that there were some serious issues and related to the definition of what "team work" means to some people. Likely, there were some serious language and cultural differences between the two of us.

I scrambled to get my material done (selecting option 2 after discussion with my instructor) and I was able to post my MDE 614 assignment Sub-Saharan Africa – Perspectives on Distance Education and hosted a very successful discussion forum http://cde.lms.athabascau.ca/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=14554

But I missed the benefit of a collaborative work experience and certainly affected my perspective on how you can get burned by a partner that is ineffectual, self-centred and uncooperative.

Whew... this was definitely the collaborative team assignment from "HELL".

Competency Categories Exhibited - 

1. Problem Solving, Analysis, & Decision Making

2. Instructional Design & Development

3. Communication Technologies & Networking

4. Communication & Interpersonal Skills

5. Research