Hello students,

I certainly hope that you've heard back from some of your group members by now.  Although I cannot see who has been Moodle messaging one another, I can see that some have begun to communicate on their wiki pages.  

Unfortunately, I have some problematic news to share with you.  As in life, the universal truth is that some will work hard, and others will not.  While I cannot share confidential student-teacher information about one student with another, I feel it would unfair of me not to share SOME information with you.

There are a significant number of students, officially enrolled in this class, who are not participating in this course at all.  Some have failed to do ANY of the required assignments up to this point.  I would be kidding myself if I thought they might start to participate now.

What you should know is that I took this into consideration as I created your current groups.  Each and every group has at least one member who is not engaged in the work of this class.  But as in life, the rest of us need to adapt and move on.

I would say that if you have not been in some sort of communication with one or more of your group members by the end of the day, Tuesday, that you simply move forward and plan to complete the assignment without them.

As your instruction, having experienced this situation before, might I offer a suggestion?  Each group should consider STARTING with each member writing one question from each chapter by a certain date.  You set the date... say Friday at 5pm.  Then spend the next two days removing duplicates, making changes/fixes, and paring the list down to the 33 "keepers".

As an optimist, I can see a possible "silver lining" to this situation.  Each student produces something from each chapter, which better reflects the knowledge required for the exam.  It also results in each group having MORE than the minimum.  Personally, I'd rather have more than I need, not less.  I CAN guarantee that each group is comprised of AT LEAST 3 active students in the class.  Whatever you decide to do, good luck to you.

VERY IMPORTANT

#1

Even with this disappointing news about non-participating group members, to earn a good grade for this assignment, each group must STILL produce the 33 questions from the 11 chapters.  While you may not consider this "fair", I'm sure you've heard the phrase, "well, life is not fair".  More important, since all OTHER groups will be expecting to see, read, and answer 33 questions next week, it would not be fair to them for me to allow some groups to produce less than the minimum required for this assignment.

#2

Also remember, as I stated in the instructions, each of you will have a private opportunity to share with me which of your group members did, and did not, participate and do their portion of the work.  This feedback will not excuse an incomplete production by the group, but it will certainly let me know who put in the effort (or did much more than their share).  I will take this into consideration as I tabulate group and individual scores.

By the way, anonymously, in a survey at the end of the term, you will also be encouraged to share your input and suggestions about this assignment, as well as all other aspects about this course.