[Uw-ruby] UW Ext Rails Course: Opinion on group projects

[Dan McHarness]

I see your points and have experienced myself in a
school setting some of what you've noted. However, I
don't think this has to be an automatic train wreck.

I think everyone should be required to deliver their
own, complete work for grading. However, I think it'd
be pretty cool to also see projects comprised of the
best components taken from individual work. 

Not everyone will be equally experienced in every
layer of what makes up the rails software stack, so I
could envision time taken during a class session for a
group to figure out what piece from individual work to
incorporate into the group app.

No doubt, playing nice with others to get work done
will take more time, but who knows - maybe I'll get
teamed up with a ui presentation pro (hint, hint)!

Dan

Message: 6
Date: Sat, 1 Dec 2007 15:01:40 -0800
From: "Richard Leickly" <Richard at iphc.washington.edu>
Subject: [Uw-ruby] UW Ext Rails Course: Opinion on
group projects
To: <Uw-ruby at zenspider.com>
Message-ID:

<40F0CA56251F1445A08B6019E34798B17885D7 at everglade.iphc.washington.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Philip was nice enough to send out his syllabus for
the Rails class
 this
winter.  It is unlikely that I would enroll in it
based on what I can
tell about the format.  The reason is that I am very
pessimistic about
group projects.  I think a lot can be gained from
working together, so
I'm not opposed to sharing ideas. But if the groups
that Philip has in
mind will need to meet outside of class, then I'm not
going to be able
to do it.  And if there is going to be a division of
labor within the
groups, then we are faced with the obvious problem of
attrition.  What
will the group do if someone drops the class?  I've
been taking UW
Extension courses for 3 years, and there is always
attrition.  My other
qualms are based on my personal experiences in
college. The only good
group academic experience I ever had was when I was
teamed up with a
 guy
who was extremely motivated (as was I).  All other
experiences involved
colleagues not showing up, not doing anything,
preferring to talk about
other things, ...well... you know how it goes. I don't
know how
generalizable my experiences are.

I may be jumping the gun a bit here because of the
lack of details
 about
what Philip has in mind. (I have not rec'd replies to
my emails to him
yet.)  But if many of you feel the same way as me then
it would be good
now to get these ideas out in the open. And if you
don't feel that way
 ,
then I could use some encouraging words about why I
should worry.
 Philip
may very well have considered these issues and come up
with a workable
structure.  

Regards,
Richard Leickly


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