Assignment 1 was my first group project at UBC and although we didn’t get a perfect score, it was the best I’ve ever felt about a school team. For written assignments, we would have an initial meeting, divvy up the work and then work through the assignment together via Skype and Google Docs. I’d never used either tool for school before but I’m now a total convert. Typically, I find with group projects either everyone does their own piece and then the final product is patched together, or one person ends up writing the whole thing to put in one voice and ends up doing an inordinate amount of work. Skyping and using Google docs really helped ensure the work was one piece and that everyone had an equal input into the assignment. I found it more effective than an in-person meeting because everyone was relaxed and we were all working on the exact same document. It also allowed for much more flexibility than more traditional group meeting methods. When I contrast this to how a group project in another class this semester was handled, I feel confident in pushing the Skype and Google Docs method.

The video assignment was different (and I’m honestly very glad I didn’t have to do another presentation!), and I especially enjoyed the peer review aspect–not really for the feedback we got but so that I could see other examples. Viewing others’ work really helped me gain a better vision and sense of where I’d want to go in the future with a video project. I think video-making is as important a skill as traditional presentation and we get little chance to practice it. In the future I would love to see a single class devoted to video editing much like we had a class on research. Something that covers what makes a good video, how to edit, filming techniques etc.