Setting the scene for group work

Many students may feel anxious when they hear the term ‘group work’. This section suggests approaches designed to get students motivated about group work and provide some structure to help kick off projects with a positive start.

Highlighting the value of group work

A thorough and clear introduction can go a long way to alleviate students’ initial concerns about group work and get their buy-in. The more they can see the value and purpose of the opportunity, the more likely they are to feel invested and motivated to contribute.

Ask yourself

Select a question to reveal possible elements to cover with students.

Have I explained why group work is a component of the course?

Have I emphasised the value of this opportunity for students?

Development of transferable skills that employers are looking for (e.g. working effectively in diverse teams, communication skills, collaboration)
The challenges that might emerge during collaborative work are themselves learning opportunities (e.g. conflict resolution, negotiation, providing feedback)
Development of skills that are important for certain disciplines or careers (e.g. collaborative problem-solving, co-design, project management, running meetings)
There is evidence that we learn better with others than in isolation – e.g. (Crouch & Mazur, 2001; Smith et al., 2009).

Have I clearly articulated my expectations of students?

Explicitly articulate your expectations around student behavior and commitment, including their contributions to work, participation in activities, and responses to minor or major issues that arise
Suggest how many hours a “successful” group may spend on the project outside of class. This may help students balance their study/work/life balance better from the start of a project

Note: Provide more direct guidance for a cohort with less experience in group work.

Have I provided a detailed description of the work and how it will be assessed (if relevant)?

The nature of the work itself and the collaboration involved, including the fact that group work is imprecise and messy both at University and in the real world.
How groups will be assigned
The expected outputs and outcomes of the work, which you might reiterate using indicators of success or exemplars of previous work
How the work will be assessed, e.g. how will their individual efforts be recognised?
Opportunities for students to practice working together without grading

There is evidence that we learn better with others than in isolation.

Crouch & Mazur, 2001; Smith et al., 2009

The group’s first meeting

In the class where student groups form for the first time, explicitly focus on supporting groups to identify and discuss their different experiences and expectations surrounding group work.

1. Use ice breakers

Use an ice breaker to help students build rapport and connection; this is important because trust is fundamental to effective group work (Fransen et al., 2011). When choosing an activity from the thousands of options you can find online, consider:

Opportunities for students to share their name and at least something about themselves
How vulnerable you are asking students to be; a small amount helps build trust, but too much is generally not a good idea for the first meeting.
Providing multiple options for how students can engage so all can participate regardless of their access needs.
Building camaraderie and a sense of “being a team” within the group.

Considerations

Ensure students are allocated in their groups before providing important information, as this will be at the forefront of their mind.
Providing nametags can help you and the students learn each other’s names.

2. Create team charters

Team charters or group charters help students collaboratively discuss, define and commit to shared values and expectations for their group.

The process of creating the charter provides a structure for groups to have these important discussions before the project kicks off, and the document itself serves to keep team members accountable to what they agreed if conflict may arise (Aaron et al., 2014).

Considerations for creating charters

Complete the charter as a class activity and facilitate groups to explore and communicate their expectations of one another in a respectful and constructive way.
Go through examples of charters to help set expectations.
Create activities for students to reflect on their personal experiences with group work, preferred communication/working styles, and strengths and weaknesses in the context of collaborative work.
Encourage students to share any relevant personal constraints (e.g. work rosters, living off-campus etc.) and consider whether they are comfortable disclosing access needs that might inform project planning (e.g. public speaking anxiety or dyslexia)
Foster a sense of community and positive team culture by providing safe opportunities to build connection and be vulnerable.

3. Start project planning

Skills audit

Ask groups to create an inventory of skills that they have access to in their groups. Each student ranks their skills in specific areas that relate to the group project.

In project planning, encourage students to balance working to their strengths with taking opportunities to learn new skills, and to identify peer learning and mentoring opportunities in their group. For example, a student with the most knowledge in one area commits to supporting another student to develop a new skill.

This kind of practice can be emphasised through grading by making learning with and from each other an indicator of effective teamwork.

Division of tasks

Ask groups to identify what tasks need to be done in the project, who will do each task, and when they will complete it by.

You might also ask groups to consider how their chosen way of dividing the work fosters genuine collaboration and avoids only some group members gaining specific experiences or skills. To encourage this, you might provide a suggested division of tasks for the project that structurally embeds collaboration and avoids a divide-and-conquer approach.

Importantly, highlight that task division is something that groups should revisit frequently and adjust as needed throughout the project.

Communication and collaboration

Ask groups to decide how and when completed tasks will be shared back to the group. They should also decide on a digital collaboration tool (e.g. One Drive, Google Drive, Canva, Miro) and a way to communicate outside of class or meetings (e.g. Microsoft teams, WhatsApp).

Establishing a shared digital repository for work in progress is a great way to promote transparency and accountability that can also act as a backup for unexpected events.

Project timeline

Ask groups to establish a project timeline that they will regularly revise and revisit so that students don’t end up working on the entire project right before it is due. Encourage students to create a contingency plan for when things don’t go according to plan, as well as stretch goals for the project.

You could also demonstrate to groups how to create effective timelines and Gantt charts.

4. Plan for group meetings

Roles

Groups should discuss how they are going to distribute responsibility for tasks relating to meetings. As groups are non-hierarchical, rotating roles is an important and valuable practice to ensure students have equal opportunity to learn associated skills and to encourage fair division of different types of work.

Common roles include facilitator, note taker, and timekeeper, but you might introduce additional or alternative roles to your students to best suit your project or discipline.

It is important to introduce these roles as project management roles and not skill-based roles to prevent the siloing of project tasks by students.

Guidelines

Ask groups to establish guidelines for meetings, which might include:

Creating an agenda in advance. Particularly for less experienced students, you might provide an agenda template or structure.
Recording the meeting
Completing action items between meetings and the expectations of any non-completed tasks
A process for reaching out for help between meetings if needed, like agreeing on a buddy for a particular delegated action item
How and when to decide on the roles for the next meeting (e.g. facilitator, note-taker etc.)

References

Aaron, J. R., McDowell, W. C., & Herdman, A. O. (2014). The Effects of a Team Charter on Student Team Behaviors. Journal of Education for Business, 89(2), 90–97. https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2013.763753

Crouch, C. H., & Mazur, E. (2001). Peer Instruction: Ten years of experience and results. American Journal of Physics, 69(9), 970–977. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.1374249

Fransen, J., Kirschner, P. A., & Erkens, G. (2011). Mediating team effectiveness in the context of collaborative learning: The importance of team and task awareness. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(3), 1103–1113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2010.05.017

In this collection

Highlighting the value of group work

Ask yourself

The group’s first meeting

References