"Can Absence Make a Team Grow Stronger?"

As I think about the pitfalls of running a course online, the main sticking point to me is the problem of building a community of learners. Face to face, we have much to learn from each other. A class is like a team. You success often hinges on your ability to interact with others doing the same work. What if you never met your colleages, or in this case, fellow students? What if you never met the instructor? Will your learning experience suffer? I just came across this intriguing study today titled "Can Absence Make a Team Grow Stronger?" This article published in The Harvard Business Review offers the possibility that... "it isn't necessary to bring team members together to get their best work. In fact, they can be even more productive if they stay separated and do all their collaborating virtually." The article goes on to discuss " Team members felt freer to contribute--especially outside their established areas of expertise. The fact that such groups could not assemble easily actually made their projects go faster, as people did not wait for meetings to make decisions, and individuals, in the comfort of their own offices, had full access to their files and the complementary knowledge of their local colleagues." To read the full text go to:

http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b02/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=R0405J

What are your thoughts?

Jerry