The third artefact I selected is a combination of two group projects in the core Instructional Design course.

I was part of a team who judged the debate on Constructivism as a “minimally guided instructional approach and a problematic doctrine that has proved to be of little benefit for practical pedagogy” (Kennedy & Sochowski, 2018). Two groups, the Pro & the Con teams, created their initial arguments using the course theory. The rebuttals were added later, and my team had to come up with a judgement, based on the arguments made by the opposing teams. Apart from the real-life application of the connectivist theory and learning from others, my team used a number of technological instruments for synchronous and asynchronous communication and data exchange (such as Google Docs, Hangouts, AU's Moodle forumes and private groups, etc). I also believe that this assignment elegantly combined the theory and its practical application.

The final MDDE 603 course assignment was a group review of systems theory and its application. The project we analysed the Women Building Futures (WBF): Journeywoman Start Foundations (JWSF) distance education program, which focuses on training and empowering women to enter in to and have successful careers in the skilled construction and maintenance trades (Turlacheva, Farkasdi & Gordon, 2018).

This team project definitely helped me hone my online collaboration and communication skills, through having to select a program I had not been familiar with. As it can be seen from my other artefacts, I always used my CPA programs for almost all of my other assignments. This choice made most sense to me, as I am very familiar with the CPA policies.

In this team project I had to step out of my comfort zone and rely on my team member and her expertise. Working on this assignment introduced me to the WBF program, its structure, issues and goals, and let me see a completely different area where distance education is applied.

Group projects are always very different compared to individual work. Being a proponent of the connectivist theory in adult education, I see the value of group work, which promotes peer learning. At the same time, as an introvert, I have to make conscious efforts of being more open and communicable during group work. As I mentioned in a previous artefact description, I strongly believe in the necessity of having the internal locus of control, self-reliance and being in charge of one's own progress. In the group projects, I had to learn how to shift towards working on the group goals, and accept that my success would depend on the others. It was the necessity of working in a group setting helped me learn to pass the controls to the group members, to be able to achieve group goals. I do not think I had a different choice, since, if I decided to work on my own and then present and impose my work to the team, that would not have been a successful strategy (4.4, 4.8). 

The two group activities that comprise this artefact were very different in nature, but had similar goals. The team members were different people as well, which determined the technology we used, as well as communication schedules. For the first project, the three of us spent 4-5 hours of non-stop chat conversation via Google Hangouts, coming up with the judgement we had to submit. That was preceded by individual work: we went through other groups’ postings and determined the most convincing arguments. We also came up with the individual conclusions, that we later edited collaboratively during the online Hangouts sessions (4.7).

This approach showed me how important collaboration is. I believe I was able to stop worrying about not being able to successfully complete the task because of someone else, and learnt how to rely on the others. The second part of the assignment was evaluating the peers, their involvement in the group's activities and their contributions to the project. Based on the feedback I received, I was an active participant, although I could have provided more contributions during the editing part. Being an ESL student, I am not always certain I use the grammatically correct constructions, so I was a bit hesitant to suggest my edits. This experience and the subsequent feedback taught me that I need to speak up more, even though I am not 100% certain I suggest the correct edit. The nature of group work ensures that the best options are chosen, so I realized that my peers could have potentially rejected my solutions if need be (4.1, 4.2).  I should also admit that this is still work in progress for me, and it has been extremely difficult to overcome my unwillingness to speak up, but at least I am aware of the issue now, and am able to make a conscious effort to change this attitude. This problem has also been coming up during my performance reviews at work for the last couple of years, so it is very important that I keep improving my communication skills in that regard. 

For the second part of this artefact, my team had to provide a review of an educational program one member is familiar with, so one of the teammates wrote an essay about the program she worked for. Then the rest of the group analysed the program using the three lenses proposed by Banathy, and through the procedures outlined by Cookson. The second part of the assignment provided the Checkland's Soft Systems Analysis process and discuss the Seven Stages as they are described by Naughton (2.2, 2.4).

As it can be seen from the description, the requirements are very concrete and hands-on, which demanded solid knowledge of the course theory (Cookson's procedures, Naughton's stages, CATWOE checklist, etc). Apart from the extended amount of reading sources we had to go through, it was a great learning experience, as the project involved me into the program I had not been familiar with before. The program that one of the teammates outlined was developed to empower women and help them get into trades. All of my earlier experience comes from academic distance programs, typically graduate level, and talking to a team member who works in a different field was eye-opening. She described her students as strong, liberated and self-reliant women who strive for independence. This combination of constant referring to the theoretical sources and learning about the practical application of the learning theories within the WBF program, created valuable experience. I am usually able to acquire more information when I connect theoretical knowledge with practice, and this assignment let me achieve this goal (2.3).

Overall, working in a group is always more challenging for me than working on my own. But I selected these two assignments because I wanted to use this opportunity to reflect on participating in group activities, and see what I learnt from that experience. 

Being part of two group projects in one course emphasized the importance of collaboration and effective team communication for me. In distance education, this gets achieved through a wide range of technological applications. I found out that even the choice of communication software depends on the team members and their personal traits, which also defines the team dynamics (4.1, 4.2).

The characters of these two groups were very different, with the first group members being goal achievers and perfectionists (some of our editing sessions lasted till midnight!), and the second group involving in the process and enjoying it rather than being competitive. Having to complete these two projects back to back was valuable experience, and I had to learn how to quickly convert from one type of team to the other (4.6). 

I believe that this training taught me to be a better team member, and to be more collaborative and adaptable. I also recognized that there is value in speaking up even though I am not certain that the idea I have is absolutely brilliant (4.5, 4.8).

Debate Forum. (2018, March 4). Re: Assignment 2A: Debate Participation. [Online discussion group]. Retrieved 2019, October 15 from https://cde.lms.athabascau.ca/mod/forum/view.php?id=51495

Kennedy, M., & Sochowski, R. (2018). Assignment 2A: Debate Participation. [MDDE 603 Course materials]. Athabasca University. Retrieved from https://cde.lms.athabascau.ca/mod/assign/view.php?id=51459

Turlacheva, K., Farkasdi, S., & Gordon, R. (2018). A review of systems theory and application to education settings. [Group assignment]. Athabasca University.

Women Building Futures (n.d.). Transforming the Lives of Women. [Photo]. Retrieved from https://www.womenbuildingfutures.com/about/who-we-are