Lessons learnt from an action research project running groupwork activities on the Internet: lecturers' experiences

Abstract

Group activities are important for students in order to develop the skills they will need for working with other people when they get into industry. The Internet offers an exciting environment for students to practise these activities over a distance with people that they do not know. There are, however, many difficulties involved in running this type of project. This paper describes four cycles of an action research project undertaken to study the use of the Internet in group activities. Data was collected from both the students and the lecturers, but this particular paper concentrates on the experiences of the lecturers concerned. The mistakes that were made during the project are highlighted in the paper so that the reader may learn from those mistakes. Conclusions are drawn and recommendations made in the paper for people who are considering using the Internet for group activities.