My attempt at weaving and summarizing (Week 2 exercise)

Collection of contributions

Cristina Neesham

Comment: Both acknowledging Andy's contribution and expectations as reasonable, and asking him to consider possible extenuating circumstances around the others' quiet behaviour, are important to overcome the impasse and giving the conversation a positive turn.

what you take out of the process is fairly balanced and proportional, at the end of the day, with what you have put in

Contribution: pay to invest a bit more patience into your colleagues, just in case they are being too shy or overwhelmed to contribute. […] bringing in an interesting comment towards the end of the week, when everything appears to have already been said and done, may be harder than promptly responding on the first day. I guess this is a gentle nudge to all discussion participants to get involved early…

Asking open questions is also an effective way to encourage online conversation

Stuart McLoughlin

Comment: a silent participant is still learning, becoming familiar with processes, threads etc.

John Hopkins

Comment: I completely support your approaches to this kind of situation. I would be keen to establish why Andy feels that others are not doing their share of the work. discuss the fact that non-participation can occur for a number of reasons

I would take a calm and open approach, in order to establish as many facts as I can, whilst offering Andy a 'sounding board' where he can offload his frustrations.

Daniel Dunne

Comment: Seems like keeping an open dialoge is the key thing in these circumstances

Bronwyn Eager

Comment: I'd be a little wary of responding directly to Andy (1:1) in a public forum, but rather include his 'concerns' in a post directed at the whole group - a 'weave' perhaps :)

John Hopkins

Comment: I like the idea.

Stuart McLoughlin

Comment: Agreed. Opening a sensible dialogue and ensuring different points of view are articulated will go a long way in preventing assumptions around participation.

Daniel Dunne

!!! Comment: I think in involving Andy in promoting discussion means that Andy feels more involved in his education, but also as an added bonus will get more people to contribute.

Michael Wilmore

Contribution: Hi Andy,

I appreciate the confident and direct way that you've alerted us to this issue in your latest post. It made me reflect on how it can sometimes be a bit daunting to post - maybe because of uncertainty about the technology we're using or because we're unsure about some of the subject matter. I sometimes do a bit of 'lurking' before I pluck up the courage to post!

My guess is that might be happening here, Andy, and I know from looking at the responses to some of your other posts that you've often helped get others involved in our discussions.

Siobhan James

I think it's really important for Andy to see he is being listened to, and that his comments are taken on board. [!!!]Also, for the other students to see how we are responding to Andy.

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My attempt based on the collection of text above...

Hi everyone

There are some really good suggestions in this thread, discussing how to best approach Andy with his issue. We almost seem to have a consensus in trying to encourage Andy to keep on keeping on. I also think that all of us are making some very valuable points in emphasising on those who actually don’t contribute, discussing what the issue could be.

Daniel made a great point by suggesting to encourage Andy in promoting discussions to make him feel more involved in his education, while adding bonus in getting more people to contribute.

Siobhan remarked that it would be important for the lecturer to respond to his frustration in a public environment to make sure that other students see how the lecturer thinks about the situation. In doing so, there is another opportunity for those who kept quiet to respond, too.

As a group, do you think we could find a response that would trigger onlookers to oopen up and contribute? If so, would you take a provocative approach? What would you write?

Cheers


Volker