Although this is my first semester towards my Masters degree in Management, I believe that the group I was assigned for this course was wonderful. At the beginning of the semester, I must admit that I was very anxious to see how an online course would affect my learning ability. I also was curious how projects would get done as a group in an online environment. My goal is, of course, to do well in all my classes. However, I didn't want to be assigned to a group that would prevent me from achieving my goal.
Once our first group assignment approached, I was eager to meet the rest of my group members and get started. Appropriately, the first assignment was an "Ice-Breaker" assignment. This assignment really helped us to get through the forming stage of our group development. It was at that time I knew that each member of our group: Alan, Carole, Donna, Greg, and myself were all committed to doing well as a group in this course.
Many times throughout our chat sessions, we used the words group and team to describe us as a whole. Although we selected to act together as a group, many felt as though we were more of a team. I agree that we were acting as a team. There is a fine difference in definition between these two terms. Both terms mean that two or more people get together for a common goal. In this case our common goal was to produce three assignments from our instructor. However, the way we functioned was more of a group because we were dependant on each other to get the assignments done. For most of our assignments we each took various pieces of the assignment to complete and then presented it to the group for comments. Then once approved, a volunteer would compile these inputs and post them in our conference area. For example, in order for us to submit assignment number three, we couldn't have done so without my input on avoiding. And the same example follows for everyone else.
