Ideas, guidance and practical considerations for facilitating and designing group work projects
It’s 4:55pm. You’ve been teaching and marking all day. You have deadlines due at the end of the week and you still need to pick up the dog from the vet on the way home. Before you leave work, you see an email from one of your students in a current group assessment project, complaining that they’re doing “all the work alone” and asking if the group could please be marked on individual effort. The assignment is due tomorrow and this is the first contact you’ve had from this student. Sound familiar?
If so, our new collection on group work and assessment is for you.
What’s inside the resource collection?
The collection provides ideas, guidance and practical considerations for facilitating and designing group work projects and the associated assessment. Here’s a sneak peek at some of the topics you will find:
- assessment design tips that discourage a “divide and conquer” approach, and foster collaboration and motivation
- considerations for how you respond to and manage student conflict
- pros and cons of different methods for allocating student groups
- strategies to scaffold the development of teamwork skills and support students throughout semester
- advice on incorporating peer or self-assessment strategies
- and much more!
How the collection was created
The first prototype of this resource collection, along with an accompanying workshop, was made in collaboration with the School of Engineering Education Support Team. To help CLT iterate and translate the guide to other disciplines, we spoke with educators from across the University to hear about their experience and expertise in how to facilitate and design effective group work assessments. The current collection represents a synthesis of this process and evidence-based good practice, intended to support all educators.
Why to consider group work projects and assessment
Employers consistently rank the ability to work in teams as one of their most valued skills when recruiting (e.g. Baird & Parayitam, 2019).
“Students tend to think that when they go out in the real world everyone is going to collaborate and work beautifully together – but that’s not the reality, there are always difficult people to work with. Group work at university is a great way to prepare students for what it might actually be like and to experience conflict in a safe environment.”
Dr Naomi Hay (CASS, ANU)
As well as providing an authentic learning experience, group work is one of the strongest ways to create a renewed sense of belonging for students and a post-COVID society (Pei et al., 2023)
Further support on offer
We are keen to support you, whether you are iterating on existing or inherited group work assessments or designing one from scratch. For additional support:
- Sign up to the upcoming workshop on July 25th to get a hands-on experience.
- Request a consultation with an education designer to discuss your ideas or challenges and receive tailored advice for your context by emailing clt@anu.edu.au.
Call for case studies
We are hoping to build a repository of examples of group work assessment in action at ANU which highlights different strategies and approaches, in particular, how they went, and how others might use these ideas and learnings. If you have a story to tell, we are keen to hear from you!
Marianne Mettes, Education Designer, CLT and Ange Stoddard, Senior Education Designer, CLT
