Chapter 4, Additional Case 2: Learning To Collaborate
Chapter 4, Additional Case 2: Learning To Collaborate
This case is best for groups.
As stated in Chapter 4 of the text, collaboration is an essential skill for students and professionals alike. You probably work collaboratively with other students in several of your classes right now, and you will almost certainly collaborate with fellow professionals on the job. This case is intended to help you study and improve your skills in working with others. For this project, you will work with a group to prepare a document or presentation, but your real focus will be the collaboration itself.
To complete this case, perform the following tasks:
- Study Chapter 4 of the text, focusing on collaboration.
- Meet with your group to select a subject, audience, and purpose for a project. The subject can range from a campus problem to a public controversy, such as gene mapping. The audience can range from schoolchildren to fellow college students to professionals. The purpose can be to inform or to persuade. The project itself can take any form, including a Q&A sheet, an extended definition (see Chapter 20), an informational website (see Chapter 11), or an oral presentation (see Chapter 21).
- With the group, discuss the issues raised in Chapter 4 on collaboration. Start with the question of which pattern of collaboration would seem to be most effective for your project. Also discuss policies you will use in conducting meetings, in communicating diplomatically, in commenting on group members' drafts, and in using groupware for communicating. After the meeting, take notes on the decisions you reached, as well as on your own thoughts about how well you think the collaboration will work and about what your role in the process will be.
- As you participate in the project, keep a log of the activities you perform and of your ideas about the nature and success of the collaboration.
- At the end of the project, write a 1,000-word memo to your instructor about the collaboration. (See Chapter 14 for a discussion of memos.) What surprised you during the collaboration? What worked especially well? Especially poorly? What steps can you take in the future to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your own participation in the collaboration and in the overall functioning of the group?