Will pairs work?

The essay is in. I really enjoyed comparing the language in the trials of the Dike of Norfolk (1571) and Shipman, but I've really got tired of them both and I'm glad to move on.

Its TSH's birthday tomorrow and we are out for dinner. No idea what to wear yet. How smart? How warm? Its barely above freezing day or night at the moment. We couldn't even do our daily walk today because the ground is so icy and slippery.

The tutor for critical discourse analysis wants us to work in pairs for our tasks- every two weeks, we have an audio lecture, do some reading and then submit a task to our forum. No marking, but we are supposed to contribute to about half of them. Now, we are a group who are working part-time and distance and have busy lives, so this is going to be interesting. Several of us have said it won't work but they want us to try.

One of the other students has suggested we work together and I have no problems with that - we always have a good chat when we meet at the face-to-face days. But the current one is due in next Monday and I can't work this weekend. So I have Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday afternoons to complete this. I thought that would be OK, as many tasks are not too difficult. But this one is quite time-consuming - I spent all Tuesday afternoon on it and have done barely half. I am sure my 'pair' has similar constraints, as she also has a job. We have no time that I can see to work on anything jointly.

So how is this to work?