One discourse community from my list that I picked is the course IND-2313. I found two problems that central to this DC.
1. All assignments and projects are graded by presentation.
“Nevertheless, fear of public speaking is very common; approximately 25 percent of people report experiencing it.” Based on this data, we find that many people have speech phobia. When you face to fear, some people will be willing to overcome it. However if it is an insurmountable fear for some people, then others can’t force them. I have a Chinese friend who took this course with me together, and he is extremely afraid of speaking in the public. But, the grading policy of this course is mainly based on the students’ presentations, which is unavoidable in this class. It made my friend struggled. He contacted with the professor and hoped to get credits through his PowerPoint without giving speeches. The professor understood his situation and decided to give him a certain grade. Public speaking can be easy for some people, but not for everyone. My friend finally passed the course through communication. “A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members;” So when a problem occurs in a DC, communication is the best way to solve the problem.
https://journals.openedition.org/asp/4774?lang=en
2. If the teamwork does not work on some of the students, will it be another option for them?
There will be two to three group tasks during the semester of this course. The advantage of group works is that we can exchange our ideas with group members to improve efficiency and quality in our design products. However, there are also many disadvantages in team cooperation. First, the more members of the team, the more difficult is to have the same schedule to work on the products together. Second, some students spend tons of time on their projects, while some students don’t. Yet, they have the same grade which is unfair. “Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an incorrect or deviant decision-making outcome.” This also shows the downside of the group work. In my opinion, I think professor could give students the opportunity to choose their group members, also leave an option for students who want to work individually.
Hey Zhouxing, I agree with you that fear of public speaking is very common because it is a fear for most students, even people in general. When I had to take public speaking, I was afraid of going to class because I was scared if the professor would make us present out of nowhere and especially giving speeches through Power point. What I did just like you have done is communicating with the professor so that I won’t have a hard time presenting in front of the class and making sure that I can get over my fear of public speaking. I’ve taken public speaking already here at City Tech but I’m still somewhat afraid of presenting in front of others. I’m guessing it’ s when people overestimate the stakes of communicating their ideas in front of others, viewing it as a potential threat. That is exactly why I’m afraid of presenting in front of others but after taking that class, I’ve became less afraid than I was in the past for sure.
Hello Zhouxing, Groupwork definitely a great thing, when everyone reaches synergy magically. There is the same effect in my DC – Crossfit classwork. People outperform themselves x-times! On the other hand yeah, this is probably not the best time to group up, offline teamwork works and feels much better than online.