There is sun at the end of the winding road. Today I had my last meeting with my PBL5 group. We talked a lot about our experiences during the ONL171 course. It was good. I am aware that we often need to hear about what went well. However, to receive constructive criticism is also important. In our group we were very honest with each other and we spent quite some time trying to work together in a way that satisfied everybody. It was difficult and demanding…but guess what? It was extremely rewarding to come today to our meeting and realize that we could finally grasp the concept of collaboration and understand each other. Watch our final production that Susan put so kindly together for us! I am very proud, PBL5, of being your co-facilitator together with Kenneth Johansson, the facilitator of the group. Thanks for this trip!

These are my take-home messages

• Take the time during the first week to know the people you are going to work with. Mingle and figure out what they need, expect, fear, how they interact and their learning style.
• Introduce collaboration as an intended learning outcome and work with this concept earlier in the course
• Introduce each topic with a Webinar or introductory video. To create more structure.
• Be clear with setting the group ground rules from the beginning (rules can translate as norms or values for the group). What is accepted and what is not.
• Talk about netiquette or social behaviour online. How to communicate with each other.
• Agree with the group about how to use the meeting time.
• Work more asynchronously with group members not attending meeting or not contributing enough to group presentations. Dropouts affect group dynamic a lot.
• Be clear about the workload of this course. Yes, it is intense and demanding but also rewarding and amazing.
• Introduce Problem Based Learning. What is it? Why so much confusion and frustration? Is it unavoidable?

As Alastair Creelman commented in a previous blog post. We often think about education from a consumer perspective and maybe it is time to think about education from a producer perspective. I liked that and it is something I am taking with me.