MAT-SE Courses
Workgroup(s)
To facilitate the exchange of ideas and to support the development of project-based activities, most of your courses will require or strongly encourage collaborative workgroups. These teams are designated by the lead instructor. How you work within your group is usually up to you and your group members.
Clicking on the 'Workgroup(s)' link in the Course Menu will display the group(s) to which you are assigned currently!
You may see more than one group named. Specific instructions on what you are to do within your assigned team will be explained within the course content at the appropriate places. Clicking on a workgroup name will take you to your respective workgroup area:
You'll have to explore these options on your own to get a sense of what they can enable your team to accomplish. Generally, all of the functions available from Workgroup pages, with the exception of the File Exchange, act in the same way in the course web site - except that access is restricted to the current workgroup members only. You can't see what the other Workgroups are doing within their assigned teams any more than they can see what your team is doing! Additional features of the Collaboration Tools are also available when accessed through Workgroup(s). In this sample workgroup, team members have full access to all Workgroup tools:
| Group Discussion Board | Group members can enter discussions within various Workgroup forums. (This is different from the 'Discussions' area which involves the entire class.) |
| Collaboration | Group members can meet their teammates for real-time discussion or class lessons. All Group members are granted an Instructor role when they access Group Collaboration Sessions. Therefore, all Group members can manage sessions and access all of the available tools. New Group Collaboration Sessions using the Virtual Classroom or the Chat are created on the Create Collaboration Session page. Groups can schedule sessions for specific dates and times and choose how long the sessions will be. |
| File Exchange | Group members can exchange files without having to send them as separate email attachments. (That's one reason we require standard software!) The File Exchange page displays the current files available for use by the Group members and the option to add files. |
| Send Email | Group members can send email to one or all of their group members conveniently from within the Workgroup area. |
| Group Members | Also, the names of all members assigned to the Workgroup will appear as hyperlinks to their email address. |
Keep in mind that your instructor(s) do have access to all Workgroups at all times...
