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Designing Group Work

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Lesson Delivery

Designing productive group work

Instructors must be aware of the considerations of designing group work to ensure a proper collaborative environment for students. Instructors must take the initiative to inform students of how to go about working in groups. [2]

Designing

Designing the group work 

  1. Incorporate interdependence, collaboration and equal workload among students
    Example: Assign different resources to different students to ensure proper collaboration [17]. Students must then come together and discuss to obtain the whole picture. Distinct group roles also help students to rely on one another and ensure fair workload distribution.
  2. Encourage inter-groups sharing
    Example: Allow some time for groups to exchange feedback and review with other group [18]. This may help students with getting more inspiration or extra comments to improve the current group work.
  3. Allow groups to work in different settings 
    Example: Expose students to different types of collaboration [17] such as working together simultaneously (e.g. timed classroom exercises) and at different times (e.g. take-home assignments). Groups can be further broken into pairs or merged with other groups during class activities to increase exposure.

Introducing the group work 

  1. Learning Objectives
    Provide the value of the group work through mentioning the skills (e.g. communication, team building etc.) that students will achieve upon group work completion and how it will help in their academic growth [18].
  2. Breakdown of Assessment
    Inform students of the weightage of the group work and how each student will be assessed [18]. Give students an idea or an example of how an ideal group work should look like.
  3. Expected Final Product 
    Clearly explain what students need do in the group work and the desired work product that the group needs to produce [17]. Inform students of any online communication tools and/or materials that are required for the group work [18].

Additional Tips

  1. Promote team bonding activities
    Introduce icebreaker sessions to help students understand and know their teammates better [18]. Students are able to work efficiently with one another if there is mutual understanding and trust [17].
  2. Set milestones in group work 
    Group work can be further divided into different stages and milestones with specific goals [18]. Ensure that students are well-informed of the different deadlines of each submission and the platform to submit the tasks to.
  3. Plan a reasonable group work timeline
    Ensure that the workload of the group can be achieved in the stipulated time frame [17]. Providing estimation of how long the tasks would take may also help students in planning their schedule.

 

Forming Student Groups

Group Allocation 

Instructors may allow students to form their own groups or to assign students into groups. The advantage of student self-formed groups is reducing time to get to know one another as students are already acquainted [1]. Some instructors may prefer allocating students to groups to ensure heterogeneity. Assignment of students can be done randomly [2], or based on certain considerations, such as learning outcomes, qualities of students such as their academic background, race, gender etc. [9]. This will help instructors to maintain the heterogeneity and form balanced groups.

Group Sizes 

Having only 2 students to a group may limit ideas and insights due to the lack of people being involved [7]. On the other hand, having a large group makes it difficult for every member to constantly contribute due to the lack of participation opportunities [2]. It is suggested assigning 4-5 students to the group as the most ideal group size [8]. On the other hand, having 3-4 students to the group might be more suitable [7]. Ultimately, it is up to the instructor to select an appropriate group size depending on the demands of the group work.

Group Roles

Designated group roles can be instructor-determined or established by students. Having group roles ensures smooth and effective group processes and help to reduce problems that may arise in a group setting e.g., uncooperative students, assertive students and misunderstanding of workload distribution among students [2]. Research has shown that assigning roles in group work have mitigated distraction, allowed more opportunities for student to participate, lesser occurrence of “social loafing” and propel students to learn more [10]. Here are some possible group roles designations [15][3]:

Group RoleDescription
FacilitatorSetting the agenda and objectives of group meetings, reiterating decisions and discussions made and ensure ground rules are adhered to.
Note takerKeeping track of all the discussions and task delegations.
TimekeeperEnsuring that the group spend the right amount of time on a particular task.
Progress trackerChecking in with all the group members on their progress and sort any potential problems should the task needs more time to be worked on.
EditorCompiling all the works together and ensure coherence and consistency in the overall group work.
PresenterCollating the main points discussed in group meetings to present it to the class or instructors.
Devil’s advocateProducing questions/opinions/views that differs with the group to promote thorough discussions/ debate.
Priority DelegatorEnsuring the group spend an appropriate amount of time for each task.
WildcardStanding in any missing role due to unavailability of other group members.

 

References
  1. Bacon. D. R., Stewart, K.A., & Silver, W.S. (1999). Lessons from the best and worst student team experiences: How a teacher can make the difference. Journal of Management Education, 23(5), 4670488. doi: 10.1177/105256299912300503
  2. Burke, A. (2011). Group Work: How to Use Groups Effectively. The Journal of Effective Teaching, 11(2), 87-95. https://uncw.edu/jet/articles/vol11_2/burke.pdf
  3. California State University San Marcos (n.d.). Group Work and Roles. https://www.csusm.edu/iits/services/ats/idesign/cougarcourses/guides/groups-best-practices/index.html
  4. Carnegie Mellon University (n.d. a) What are the challenges of group work and how can I address them? https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/design/instructionalstrategies/groupprojects/challenges.html
  5. Carnegie Mellon University (n.d. b) How can I assess group work? https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/design/instructionalstrategies/groupprojects/assess.html
  6. Carnegie Mellon University (n.d. c) How can I monitor groups? https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/design/instructionalstrategies/groupprojects/monitor.html
  7. Csernica, J., Hanyka, M., Hyde, D., Shooter, S., Toole, M., & Vigeant, M. (2002). Practical guide to teamwork, version 1.1. College of Engineering, Bucknell University
  8. Davis, B. G. (1993). Tools for Teaching. Jossey-Bass Inc., San Francisco: California.
  9. Connery, B. A. (1988) Group Work and Collaborative Writing. Teaching at Davis, 14(1), p. 2-4. (Publication of the Teaching Resources Center, University of California at Davis)
  10. De Meyst, K., Grenier, J. (2021). Assigning Roles to Increase the Effectiveness of Group Work https://www.scholarlyteacher.com/post/assigning-roles-to-increase-the-effectiveness-of-group-work
  11. Iowa State University (n.d.) Common Group Work Challenges and Solutions https://www.celt.iastate.edu/teaching/effective-teaching-practices/group-work/common-group-work-challenges-and-solutions/
  12. The University of Queensland (n.d.) Resolving group work issues https://my.uq.edu.au/information-and-services/student-support/study-skills/group-work/resolving-group-work-issues#0
  13. University of Birmingham. (n.d.) Why work in Groups? https://birmingham.ac.uk/schools/metallurgy-materials/about/cases/group-work/why.aspx
  14. University of Greenwich (n.d.) Assessing Group Work https://www.gre.ac.uk/learning-teaching/assessment/assessment/practice/assessing-group-work
  15. UNSW Sydney (n.d. a). Guide to Group Work. https://www.student.unsw.edu.au/groupwork
  16. UNSW Sydney (n.d. b). Facilitating and Monitoring Group Work. https://www.teaching.unsw.edu.au/facilitating-and-monitoring-group-work
  17. University of Waterloo (n.d.) Implementing Group Work in the Classroom https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/alternatives-lecturing/group-work/implementing-group-work-classroom
  18. University of Massachusetts Amherst (n.d.) How Do I Design Successful Group Work and Collaborative Assignments https://www.umass.edu/ctl/resources/how-do-i/how-do-i-design-successful-group-work-and-collaborative-assignments