The beginning

Last Thursday, we started class. We listened to different potential clients who presented their proposals of instructional design projects. After selecting our team members, we decided on our projects. I was on the team that was assigned to develop an instructional unit on leadership for Autozone. My teammates and I met the very next day to initiate our work. We named our team “Launching Learning Solutions”, based on the initials of our first names. We assigned our different roles. My role is “Instructional Team Lead”. In spite of the lead role assigned to each one of us, we agreed that we will all be involved in all the stages of the instructional design process. We then turned to the color themes of our team’s website. We brainstormed a little bit on that and then decided that we will work on it some more individually and then communicate about it through email. We ended the meeting having chosen the team manager, the team's name, the weekly meeting time, and the assigned roles. Over the weekend, I spent a considerable time experimenting with different color schemes for the website and shared it with my teammates through email. In addition, I developed my individual website which also took a considerable amount of time deciding on the layout and color schemes. For this week, decisions on the team’s name and meeting time were 100% accomplished, whereas, and up to the time of writing this blog, the team’s website is 50% accomplished. My individual website is 100% accomplished.
This first week seemed to be a bit unorganized. I realized that, in a team, members have different working schedules through which the tempo of work may vary. Therefore, communication of ideas will take time. In order to meet the weekly deadlines, I will suggest to my teammates to communicate on a daily basis when work is pending. In addition, I realized that the initiation of a project may me a bit slow. This is more true for our team who did not get the chance to listen to our client’s proposal and establish first contact yet. I believe that the dynamics of interaction among the team members will become more established in the weeks to come and the flow of work will become smoother once we meet our client and get a clear understanding of the instructional need. As for my challenge of the week, I would say it was deciding on color schemes. I had to compromise between my preference for vibrant colors and the professional look that should be given to the websites (team or individual). I am glad to have my teammates to discuss the themes with. I find it fascinating to compare our likes and dislikes. On that issue one may say that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.