Internet Exercises

Activity 1: Facilitating Group Relationships

Introduction:

In group work, members must be concerned with their relationships as well as the task at hand. Although the goal of all universities is to educate students in various content areas, campuses also attend to students' socioemotional needs. Universities use various strategies to maintain productive relationships among students.

Instructions:

Choose the websites of two universities to examine: yours and one other. For example, if you attend the University of Arkansas, you would analyze that website and a second one, such as the University of Louisville. In reviewing the websites, you want to find areas in which the universities promote productive student relationships. For the University of Arkansas, you might want to start with the Registered Student Organizations page. University of Louisville focuses on student relationships in the Student Life section of the website. Answer the questions below for each website.

1. What does the university do to try to develop and maintain productive relationships among students? Provide examples.

2. What specific maintenance roles can you identify that the university fulfills? For example, how does the university draw in students who might otherwise not participate in campus events (gatekeeping function)? Provide examples.

3. As a student, which strategies are the most effective? Why do you find those strategies effective?

Now that you've examined each website separately, compare what the universities do to encourage productive relationships among students.

1. How do the universities differ in the strategies they use? How are they similar?

2. Overall, which university do you think is most effective in facilitating positive relationships among students? Provide evidence (examples) to support your evaluation.

3. What have you learned from this activity that you can apply in future group work?

Activity 2: Roles In Online Groups

Introduction:

Just as with face-to-face groups, roles emerge in online groups. Unlike the activity for Chapter 2 in which you simply lurked or observed a group, in this activity you'll join and participate.

Instructions:

Go to a site such as Yahoo! Groups or Lycos Clubs and join a group that discusses a topic in which you're interested. These groups do not communicate in real time, but use discussion or bulletin boards on which members post messages.

Before participating, lurk or review previous postings so you can get a sense of group norms and the roles others play. After you feel at least somewhat comfortable with how the group interacts, join the discussion. Remember that you need to be both a participant and an observer.

1. How do others initially respond to you? Examine Bormann's model of role emergence. Is the response positive? Ambiguous? Negative? Provide examples.

2. How does your role in the group change or become modified over time? What contributes to these changes?

3. What role(s) do you fulfill in the group? How do you fulfill those roles? How do others respond?

4. What roles do others in the group fulfill? Provide examples.

5. Do any group members fulfill self-centered roles? How do these roles influence the group? How do others respond?

6. What have you learned about role development from this activity?