Group Activities Online

I find it interesting how far group activities have come. 

As anyone who reads this blog can tell, I have worked with are with synchronous classes for the most part and the majority were from back in 2012 or so. Seeing how Zoom has incorporated "breakout rooms" is truly a remarkable and useful tool. Having the ability as an instructor to create groups, segregate those groups into smaller zoom rooms, then allow them the autonomy to pursue work on their own then report back would have been extremely helpful when I was teaching, and is extremely helpful now when I teach online. 

I look forward not just to classes designed specifically with this technology in mind, curricula that have breakout rooms integrated in as a major part of the learning, using buzz groups, peer consulting groups, and controversy but also, I look forward to what other technology is to come, integrated polling and chat features, a testing or quiz feature, or discussion and chat boards that are integrated into the zoom classroom experience that stays on and allows people to come and go, as if entering and leaving classrooms at different times. We have used peer consulting quite a bit in our work in my organization and have dabbled in something similar to controversy groups. Still a work in progress when online. 

I find it interesting that you are also creating groups incidentally, or by chance. I know one of the things we do in our organization is our producer identifies who might fit best in each group before she breaks them up. She tries to get a healthy mix of leader and follower in some instances, and in others tries to group like with like. 

The hard part we have found is managing all of these aspects without a producer. One thing we have identified as a necessity is a producer for the training to ensure that the trainer is not overwhelmed. That being overwhelmed can lead to poor outcomes. It might cost us a bit more for a producer to be involved in a synchronous environment like that, but it's worth it in the long run.