Group work organisation
Groups of students can coordinate their work via a group weblog. The posts document the work in progress, open questions can be published and commented on by other team. Moreover, a weblog can help to introduce the members of the team, to assign responsibilities, to announce meetings, and to attach minutes and results of discussions.members.
Why coordinate group work via weblog?
Group work is a process which can easily be documented by the chronological nature of a weblog. All team members see online who did what and which points have to be clarified. In a weblog moreover, important files can be attached. You as a teacher overview the groups and their progress and are able to support them where needed.
What else is important?
Do not make the groups too big. It is very difficult to coordinate work with more than five team members.
Why should I use a weblog?
A weblog is particularly suitable for group work coordination if the progress of work is important and part of the learning. With the chronological order of the posts, it becomes transparent whether the decision making process or the assignment of tasks could have been more efficient.
Of course you can also facilitate group work coordination via a discussion board or a wiki. Both allow for attachments. However, if the discussion is less important than the actual document exchange, an EVA workspace might be the tool of choice for you.