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Managing Groups

Overview: Why do Group Work?

Group work is a form of active learning that provides many individual and collective benefits. It promotes metacognition by challenging students to express their ideas more clearly, answer questions, and provide evidence for their assertions. Many students feel increased safety of engagement when they are with a small number of people compared to the whole class and many fields in which students will ultimately work prize the ability to function in teams. In addition to these soft-skills, group work provides an opportunity for students to apply, and therefore increase their understanding, of course content.

The sections here outline some of the main features associated with groupwork as well as a FAQ guide and a step-by-step quick implementation guide with activities you can directly import into your course. Enjoy!

Don't want to read everything and deliberate? Just want something ready-made to implement? This resource is for you! 

View the resources below for a preview, or select "Import Canvas Assignments" for a link to a Canvas cartridge that has pre-formatted assignments that allows for direct use in your course!

Group Work Implementation Guide by Shannon Newman

Examples (click here to view) 🖱
  • Ask students to critique a writing sample using a rubric that you provide; or, ask them to create a rubric for an upcoming assignment
  • Using case studies, real-life scenarios, or news stories; everyday life can often provide a wealth of adaptable examples that allow students to work with content in more authentic situations
  • Ask students to create something new: a written piece, a song, a computer program or piece of code, a pamphlet, an infographic, or even sample test questions
  • Students can investigate a question and report their findings back to the class
  • Students formulate a critique along with potential causes and how to fix them
  • Five additional example projects can be found here!
  • Highly structured. Provide written instructions to your students that list 1) the task 2) the expected product 3) method of reporting out or debriefing.
  • Require positive interdependence. Choose tasks that foster positive interdependence of group members such as discussion and encourage interaction. Activities should require input from all group members and group agreement. Avoid activities that can be accomplished individually or subdivided and parceled out to individuals.
  • Promote higher-order cognitive skills. The best questions for engaging groups are open-ended and have no single correct answer, or are controversial and have a variety of perspectives/viewpoints.

  • Instructors rather than students should form groups. While students express greater enthusiasm, communication, and conflict resolution in self-selected teams compared to random group assignment, they are also more likely to be given as examples of students’ worst group experiences, are more linked to negative student opinions of the course, instructors, projects, classmates, and are more likely to lead to clique behavior.
    • Consider factors such as: student availability, ethnicity, gender, problem-solving styles, prior knowledge/experiences, motivation, individual student strengths/weaknesses
    • Try to create compatible but diverse groups. Ethnically homogenous groups tend to produce lower quality ideas (less effective and feasible). (McLeod, Lobel, & Cox, 1996)
  • Limit the size of groups to 3-5 students. Small teams have less difficulty coordinating effort and experience less social loafing. The smaller the group, the more likely all students are to participate in the group work and engage in meaningful interaction.

Good managers are effective because they can lead teams to harmoniously complete projects in an innovative and successful way. They do it by being there, being involved, by encouraging, answering questions, and guiding thought processes. Your role is to inspire and curate a safe an innovative environment for your students to be successful. How do you do this?

  • Lead teams in creating team rules. In the first week of the group project, have teams submit a plan that includes team goals, task allocation, a timeline, rules and conflict-resolution strategies, and the team decision on communication channels. Oftentimes, this is referred to a group charter or contract. Consider doing this during class-time so as to see how it is going and guide them through the process. Make sure to explain to them what the group contract is and why they should create one.
  • Facilitate icebreaker activities. Icebreakers are the first step toward team-building. A few examples you could consider are below:
Topical Code Names

In this game, students give clues as singular words to prompt their teammates to guess all the associated terms, without guessing incorrect choices. This game can be played for fun online, or, the instructor can tailor it to the subject by curating their own list of words related to the course topic.

Share a Meme

As students to share their favorite meme about teamwork on a group discussion board. Students should comment on each other’s meme and what it means to them. Students then vote for their favorite within the group and decide what that meme will mean to their teamwork.

Build teamwork skills.

Ask students to consider their favorite sports teams or a part-time job they have. Ask them to brainstorm a favorite player or coworker on those teams and discuss why they chose those. Use these to create a list of criteria for best practice in teamwork. Ask them to reflect on how they reached a consensus and what skills they think they should take forward into the teamwork after the activity.

Lost at Sea

In this activity, which can be done online or F2F, students individually complete a “Lost at Sea” ranking chart to decide what 10 items from a shipwreck would be most valuable to you for survival. In groups, students compare answers and agree on a collaborative list. The instructor then shares the correct answers as explained by the US Coastguard. Students score their individual answers and group answers against the expert answers, hopefully finding that they scored better as a team than as individuals.

Straw-Building Challenge

Ask students to design and construct the world’s tallest free-standing straw structure (you must provide straws, scissors, and tape) in 10 minutes. After this time, each group will choose a spokesperson to explain the features of their construction with the rest of the class. Have the groups (or whole class) discuss: what did your group do immediately after receiving the challenge? Did your group organize the task? If so, how? Describe the specific roles (e.g. tape cutter, builder, etc.) that each member took and how these roles were decided. Which aspects of the construction project did your team complete most successfully? Which aspects might they change next time? (Adapted from R.F. Stein and S.N. Hurd (eds) (2000), Using Student Teams in the Classroom: A Faculty Guide, Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing Company, Inc., pp.48–49.)

Models for Group Work Evaluation

Equal Marks Assessment Model

The team is given an overall grade for the project. Each team member receives the same mark despite individual contributions

*Redistribution Model

A team grade is awarded to all members but is adjusted for individual contributions. For example, 90% of a student’s grade is the overall team grade, 10% is an individual grade as formulated through peer evaluations, for example. There is no perfect breakdown of the grade, but make sure it reflects your goals for student learning and motivates the kind of work you want to see.

*Individual + Team Assessment Model

A team grade is given for components of the project. Students submit individual components as well (e.g., a short essay, journal entries, individual quiz) and receive grades for their individual contribution as well.

Individual Performance Model

Each team member writes and submits an individual report based on the team’s work.

No matter how you assess team work, whether it is the final project, their group process, or both, make clear to the students how they will be assessed and opportunities for appeals/challenges. There are four models for how to evaluate group projects (see right).

The Redistribution Model and Individual+Team Assessment Model are most effective at reducing conflict and encouraging team participation as well as accommodating learning processes.

If teamwork skills are one of your learning objectives for the course or the assignment, it’s important to assess students’ progress toward that goal. This can be difficult for instructors to directly assess, so you may do this by having team evaluations (each member evaluates the dynamics of the team as a whole), peer evaluations (each team member evaluates the contributions of their teammates), and self-evaluations (each team member documents their own contributions). This assessment may be quantitative or qualitative, as a reflective writing assignment, or as a questionnaire.

 

Read

Listen

  • Teaching in Higher Ed: Demystifying Online Group Projects – This 36-minute episode discusses how group projects should be structured, how to form groups, and how to best evaluate them! Led by a conversation of two instructional designers.
  • Cult of Pedagogy: Making Cooperative Learning Work Better – This podcast episode discusses the four biggest issues related to groupwork and specifically suggests intervention strategies to circumvent these problems.

Explore

  • There are many groupwork tools that you may try to implement in your course to streamline the process and improve accountability. Take a look!
    • Trello: Trello is a highly visual organization platform that facilitates collaboration and project management
    • CatME: This is a widely-used web-based tool that can be used to create more effective teams. It includes a Team-Maker Survey that will automatically assign students to teams based on instructor-identified characteristics (such as availability, major, age, leadership style, ethnicity, etc.). It also has a Peer Evaluation Survey that students can complete at the end of the project to evaluate themselves and each-other.
  • Explore these research-based collaboration-rubrics
  • Share these resources with your students:
Problem Suggestions to Overcome
Students don’t understand the reason they are undertaking teamwork or see the value in it
  • It is imperative that you explain the reasons for doing group work, that you are preparing them for industry
  • It is a good idea to also point this out in your assessment brief for any that miss class. In fact, it is also good practice to align your chosen assessment with the course or program outcomes.
  • Consider offering students choice in assessment style.
  • Make your assessments authentic and aligned with workplace practices as this will also increase motivation.
Students are unsure of the task, the task is ill-fitting for teamwork, or isn’t reflective of real-world processes
  • Clearly write your assessment with full details on exactly what you want from the students; clarity of expectations will ensure you get better quality work from them.
  • Ensure you design authentic assessments so students are motivated by the task and understand how it relates in the real world context. Relevance and contextualization is most important to maintaining student interest.
  • Reflect on your task and ensure it is suited to teamwork. Consider how you might make it more team relevant.
Students do not have the relevant skills to work in teams effectively and haven't been fully supported through the process
  • You must provide students with guidance to working in a team and remain vigilant in checking on their progress and problems along the way. 
  • Scaffold the learning in effective group work, if they are first year students they will need more assistance than those in later years who may have had more experience in group work, however check this with them before assuming.
  • Provide some regular class time for groups to meet and work on their projects with you as facilitator.
Students prefer to work alone as they prefer to work in an isolated fashion, or can self-manage their own work and deadlines more easily alone
  • Certainly many students will want to work on their own so it is imperative that you explain why they need to work in groups. Point them to readings from industry who continually ask applicants with soft skills. Remind them that is their preparation for industry that is most important to you.
  • Explain how they will be able to use stories from their group work in the inevitable questions around working in a team and workplace communication that will be in  job interviews they attend.
  • Enthuse them to share their management skills with their team colleagues and to take a leadership role.
Students feel their grades are adversely impacted during teamwork as they are assessed on a team effort rather than individually
  • Encourage students to use online tools like Trello . This will encourage careful planning and sharing of tasks and if they share the Trello board with you, you can watch the project and intervene if you see someone not contributing. 
A group member is not contributing
  • Meet with the group and/or individual group member to address this problem
  • Consider allowing a group to dismiss a member who is not contributing and then provide other options for the student who has been dismissed from the group (e.g., completing the project individually, joining another group, forming a group with other students who have been dismissed).
A group is not making adequate progress – they have missed several deadlines or the work produced is not meeting expectations
  • One or more group members may be freeloading, a group may not have sufficient scaffolding to perform some of the tasks related to the project, or the expectations for performance may be unclear. Although meeting with the group leader or the entire group about their progress may seem like the most logical solution, it is possible that students may not feel comfortable asking for additional support or clarification from you. In addition to reiterating or clarifying your expectations for progress, consider other ways of monitoring the group, such as observing a group meeting or asking group members to submit individual reports on group dynamics.

Instructor Presence

This is a great place to share your experience, why the course excites you, and a bit about your personal life or interests to help students feel more comfortable with you and recognize you as a “real” person. If you do this as a Canvas page, consider including some photos of yourself, your hobbies, your pets, etc. To level-up, create a brief video introduction to better let students see your personality and communication style.

               Example: A course introduction video

Don’t just leave the discussion forums for students to engage with each other. Use discussion forums to model proper discussion, add your perspective to student comments, and respond to student questions.

  • Pose guiding questions related to the course subject
  • Propose counter points of view students may not be considering
  • Establish connections among student’s ideas
  • Provide encouragement
  • Consider posting a summary of key points or trends from the discussion boards in a weekly announcement
  • Review all these suggestions for how to engage with students in discussion boards

Create an “Ask a Question” forum that you regularly check and respond to.

In face-to-face classes, students can get responses to their questions right in class or after class. Online, students quickly become frustrated if they are not receiving a prompt response or feedback to assessments. Be transparent with students about the time-frame within which they can expect a response.

  • Use rubrics and written comment areas to communicate to students their accomplishments and areas for improvement with concrete suggestions for action
    • Note: While auto-graded multiple-choice questions can be used regularly in a course, they should not be the ONLY assessment for students, as they should be getting personalized feedback in the course as well.
  • Include a statement in your syllabus or in an introductory page noting the anticipated turn-around time for feedback, including information on whether or not you plan to check e-mail on evenings and weekends.

Several studies have indicated that synchronous sessions in an online course improve students’ sense of community and social presence. Regular Zoom office hours may serve to this effect in an asynchronous course. Include this information in the syllabus.

  • Regularly post announcements to support instruction
    • Example: Synthesize and comment on questions from the previous week
    • Example: Note trends observed in assignments and quizzes
    • Example: Summarize discussion boards
  • Use the "Delay Posting" feature in Canvas Announcements to schedule an announcement for a future date; you can arrange to have one sent every Monday, for example, before the course even begins
  • Create a midterm student survey to receive feedback as to the content of the course, issues with concepts or assignments, need for additional resources, and generally what is helping or hindering them, etc.
    • Make adjustments to the instruction and conduct edits as necessary; communicate to students the survey results and the adjustments you are making as a result
    • Example: Mid-Term Student Survey
  • The Four Connections is a program that has demonstrated to increase student connections and inclusion in courses. Elements of this include addressing students by name, checking-in and supporting students (all the time), and schedule one-on-one meetings with students.
  • Even in asynchronous courses, it is useful to monitor students’ engagement. You can do this by using the “People” tab in Canvas and identifying the last time a student accessed your course. Reach out to students individually via e-mail in response to their course engagement (or lack thereof).
  • Additionally, use the gradebook to reach out to students who have not yet completed assignments or score below a certain level. You can do this in bulk, or better yet, reach out to students individually via e-mail in response to their performance.
  • Make sure to include contact information with instructor name, email, and preferred phone number somewhere in the syllabus
  • Recorded lectures are accompanied by discussion forums, wikis, or other activities that allow for student-instructor engagement
    • Instructor should participate in these by providing additional instruction and clear-up misconceptions
  • Keep your materials current: while there are oftentimes good pedagogical reasons to use previous classroom recordings of lectures or older articles/course resources, a course largely made up of older materials can be less engaging to students and make them feel more distanced from you

Read

Watch

Teaching Ideas

Overview

Whether you choose to teach with them or solicit student creations, incorporating comic books or graphic novels into your classroom can be an excellent way to add depth and dimension to the student learning experience while enhancing engagement.

Listen

Explore

Interested but don't know where to get started? Explore some of these 

  • Larry Gonick has a series of educational comics related to both history and science
  • Check out these Manga Guides that feature math content!
  • A well-reviewed graphic novel related to Climate Change
  • These Graphic Guides explore a range of topics from English Literature, Politics, Math/Econ, Science, Psychology, and more!
  • Bird & Moon are a series of science and nature cartoons

Read

Getting Started

  1. Review the book "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud - this introductory text is accessible while also fairly detailed in its consideration of the medium and how comic texts and readers interact (highly recommended if you have not read a lot of comics or haven't read them for some time)
    1. Follow-up reads: Comics and Sequential Art and Graphic Story Telling and the visual narrative

Overview

James Lang has written a number of books that highlight teaching practices that are founded in learning science and have demonstrated a positive impact in real-world educational settings. His books Small Teaching and Small Teaching Online provide suggestions that require minimal preparation and grading. These suggestions are summarized below.

Explore

Knowledge acquisition is the foundation of building higher level skills in Bloom's taxonomy. Provide students with opportunities to practice retrieving knowledge from their memory.

  1. Give regular quizzes (ungraded). These should be similar in format to summative assessments. Aim for 3-5 minutes. go over the answers in class to avoid added grading.
  2. Ask opening questions such as the following:
    • Before we start, without referring to your notes, write 3-5 sentences about what we discussed in our last class section.
    • Can someone provide me with the highlights of the reading or work that was assigned for class today?
  3. Ask closing questions:
    • Please spend 3-5 minutes writing the key concepts from today's class.
    • Refine your answers to your opening question. How have your learnings from class today changed what you wrote?

Key Tips: 

  • Remind students frequently not to look at their notebooks or textbooks for the answers during these activities.
  • Explain to your students the purpose of opening and closing questions and how it will help them learn the material more deeply.
  • Create opportunities to follow-up on their answers. To avoid additional grading, this might be discussing answers after students have written about them or posting the answers in your online course medium.
  • Align practice question types with assessment question types. For example, opening and closing questions as multiple-choice questions may make more sense of an exam is multiple-choice. Create short-answer questions if students will be required to complete short-answer questions on an exam. 
  • Frequency matters - give low-stakes quizzes at least weekly to help your students seal up foundational course content.

Article 2: details of Accordion 2

Article 3: details of Accordion 3