Not everyone is participating
It can be annoying if there are some people in your tutor group who don't participate in the discussions. You may feel that this is unfair, or that you are doing more than your fair share of the work.
There is often a minority of people who don't join in at all, for a variety of reasons - pressure of personal circumstances, illness, shyness, or deliberate decision. And different people may be at different stages in the course - a benefit of studying online is that you can fit your studying around other commitments in your life, such as holidays.
If you are supposed to be doing a group activity, faster people can feel frustrated waiting for the rest of the group. Here are some suggestions for handling these issues.
- Do what you can to encourage your other group members to join in, for example by private email, and find out when they expect to participate, or whether they have decided not to. Accept their reasons and apologies with good grace. It's best not to use guilt, "You are letting us down", as it rarely works!
- Try discussing the activity in such an exciting way that the others will be drawn in to participating anyway - the chances are that they are reading the discussions.
- Is there anything you can be getting on with while you are waiting for a response?
- Consider whether you can arrange the group work so that people who are behind can do some of the later tasks.
- If some group members don't participate and don't respond to enquiries, accept that you'll have to manage without them, and don't waste time or emotional energy worrying or waiting for them. You shouldn't compromise your ability to keep to your schedule and complete your work on time.
- Try to be sensitive to others who may be trying to catch up with an activity that is already half-completed - it's not easy for them to join in an established group, so offer what support you can.
The good side of this is that by participating you will learn a lot more and probably do better in your course assessment than people who don't.
If you are someone who can't join in with the forum, for whatever reason (you don't have to say), let other people know so they don't wait for you. Fellow students are generally very understanding and supportive, provided you keep them informed.
Next: I got behind and there's too much to read
