Why Use Groupwork?
Welcome
Welcome to Collaborative Group Work! This module explores strategies and best practices needed to design, implement, and assess group work assignments, including preparing students for group work. This module is aligned to the core value of Empowering Student Learning from the Teaching Excellence Framework.
What does it mean to Empower Student Learning?
We foster inclusive and supportive learning environments where every student feels empowered, valued, engaged, and motivated. Our faculty cultivates a culture of empowerment by engaging respectfully and cooperatively with students, incorporating their feedback to motivate and support everyone. We prioritize mentoring, guiding students through academic and personal challenges, and fostering their growth through tailored support and encouragement. We create effective presentations tailored to the intended audience using various styles and organization to communicate with clarity and integrity. This approach not only enhances learning but also ensures that all messaging is delivered with the utmost respect for our student body.
Objectives
After you’ve completed this module, you will be able to:
- State the challenges and benefits of group work
- Design effective group work
- Apply strategies to prepare students for and support group work
- Assess group work using a variety of strategies and tools
Why use Group work?
Interactions are key in a course to build a community of learners. Using a variety of large group, small group, and individual strategies can engage students in your course (Boettcher & Conrad, 2016). Research has shown that students drop out of online courses when they feel isolated and lack opportunities to interact with their instructor and peers (Yuan & Kim, 2014). Group work presents one way to combat feelings of isolation, and can also provide opportunities for students to practice collaboration skills that are vital in today’s job market.
Community of Inquiry
As you will recall from the Student Engagement module, the connections and structure in a course are often based upon the Community of Inquiry framework. This framework identifies the social, cognitive, and teaching factors that shape how people learn in an online setting. Specifically, the framework looks at how learners actively engage with the instructor, other learners, and content to construct meaningful learning.
Moore (1989) described three types of interactions that would be necessary to include in online courses:
- learner to instructor
- learner to content
- learner to learner
Though these frameworks focus on online courses, they can be applied to any course.
Click on the plus signs in the hotspot graphic to review each type of presence and interaction and learn how it might be established and maintained through group work.
Benefits of Groupwork
In addition to helping establish the types of presence and providing opportunities for interactions, group work has many benefits that make it a worthwhile learning experience.
Benefits include providing students with the opportunities to:
• Challenge assumptions
• Address misconceptions about a topic
• Collaborate with others about a topic
• Develop critical thinking skills
• Refine understanding through discussion and providing explanations to peers
• Develop project management skills
• Enhance communication skills
• Divide and conquer complex tasks
• Design and implement new problem-solving approaches
(Eberly Center, 2020 and Koh & Hill 2009).
Challenges of and Considerations for Groupwork
Though group work has many benefits, it must be carefully designed, supported, and assessed so that it constitutes a worthwhile learning experience. Many students dislike group work because of previous negative experiences stemming from unclear assignments, a poorly formed group, a lack of support, or perceived unfair grading.
In this section, we’ll explore various considerations, strategies, and tools for group work that can help it act as an effective learning experience for both students and faculty.
(Eberly Center, 2020 and Koh & Hill 2009).
Reflect
Before proceeding to the next section of the module, take a few moments to reflect on your experience with group work. Write your response in your journal or online notebook.
What has been your experience with group work?
How have you used group work in your courses?
What are your goals for the next time you use group work in a course?
