the experience

Like Cheryl, I am also happy we had this opportunity to work with students on the opposite side of the globe. This was an experience that I enjoyed, despite the frustrations and the challenges that we faced. Besides the obvious time and distance factor, I think one of the biggest challenges was developing rapport with one another, especially considering the time constraints we were working under. While we had enough time to do the model itself, lamenting back to my experiences, it would have been beneficial to have more opportunities for open discussion about topics not related to the actual assignment. I am grateful for the times I had to talk with Anisa, Etie and Lili outside of the group meetings. It was wonderful connecting with them and discussing their own interests and personal stories, however, I would have liked to have had more time to do this. Perhaps setting up the wetpaint site earlier in the quarter, would have been better.

As a group, I think we worked well under the conditions, however, I felt we sometimes spent too much time coming to a consensus about things which shouldn't have been as time consuming. Perhaps our efforts were hampered by the time and distance factor, or perhaps we weren't as organized as well as we could have been. Additionally, there was some confusion at times about specific project guidelines, and this hindered our progress. Also, it was overwhelming meeting together online with multiple people - sometimes it felt everyone was talking at once, and member's comments or contributions to the chat weren't always acknowledged. Thus, I learned the importance of recognizing everyone's contributions. While this seems elementary, I feel that its important for developing rapport and realizing synergy within a group.

Despite all the challenges, I feel that we did as well as we could, and I am extremely happy to have been given the opportunity to participate in a project like this! Thank you!