Educational Conundrum of the Week – How would you respond to criticism?

As a participant in a recent FDO workshop provided by BC Campus, I was asked to respond to a comment in an actual post. This comment was from an online student who was not happy with the synchronous Collaborate Ultra sessions in his course.

The blog comment was, “Whenever I find myself being asked to ‘collaborate’ in a group, I zone out. Have you noticed how quickly the table-talk goes off-subject? What a waste of my time, as a learner.” (BCCampus, 2018)

With your course designer hat on, what is one way you can help avoid this criticism in synchronous online sessions? Or, with your instructor hat on, how would you respond to this student?