Group Work

A TEL Unit Guide

Background

There is a tacit assumption across the university sector that group working improves student learning – witness many small groups huddled in seminar rooms across the globe as well as emerging on-line groups.  However, poorly designed group work that doesn’t commit to collaborative working may be detrimental to student outcomes.

This advice is aimed at those who want to start using; have had problems using; or just can’t see the benefit of group work – illustrating the generic benefits and a specific design using an example from a LSTM module.

Much of the advice concurs with that from Carnegie Melon University (2015a, 2015b) – see the references for links to those online documents.

Introduction

Group work needs to be thoughtfully designed, communicated, facilitated, and assessed so that the benefits can be realised, such as:

• Knowledge construction through social interaction (social constructivism);
• Developing team working skills – communication, delegation, cooperation, accountability;
• See from various perspectives and challenge others’ perceptions;

(Carnegie Melon University, 2015a)

… so addressing each aspect, unpacking using our TROP938 to illustrate: In TROP938 there are a handful of group activities that split the cohort (around 20) into small groups (4-5), allocating the task of researching that week’s topic. Each group is given a shared presentation file that all groups can view.

Design

Addressing the key design aspects identified by Carnegie Mellon (2015b – in italics below), and identifying how TROP938 has addressed these:

• ‘Ensure projects are sufficiently complex that students must draw on one another’s knowledge and skills.’
  The presentation tasks require group members to research intensely and write up their findings in a format suitable for presentation.

• ‘Create shared goals that can only be met through collaboration.’
  The construction of a presentation on a variety of aspects of a topic in a few hours is beyond the scope of an individual.

• ‘Limit resources to compel students to share critical information and materials.’
  Group presentations take place before the main lectures.

• ‘Assign roles (.doc) within the group that will help facilitate collaboration.’
  This is not done explicitly in TROP938 – though you should consider the approach, especially for extended group work projects.

 

Communication

Group work is emphasised to the cohort on three ways:

Verbal – during the initial lecture – e.g., skills development and better learning;

Written – in the Module Specification which states that 24% of the hours are group work and espouses the approach and the benefits;

On line – with a Group Work folder on the main menu and explanatory text at the top of each groups folder – with each group having a different brief, for example:

TUBERCULOSIS

Instructions for tasks

Your group will be required to create a 10-minute PowerPoint Online presentation;
Elect one member of your group to deliver the presentation on Thursday morning;
All of you will be responsible for preparing the presentation;
You must consider the three guiding questions below when compiling your presentation;

Feel free to use other sources of literature to answer the question.

Overall concept:

What are the challenges in the management of Drug-Resistant (MDR and XDR) tuberculosis?

• MDR = Multi Drug Resistant
• XDR = Extremely Drug Resistant

Guidance Questions:

a) What are the major factors leading to in increased mortality in XDR-TB?
b) What rapid diagnostic methods exist for MDR-TB and XDR-TB?
c) What are the risks and benefits of introducing the 9 months’ regimen for MDR TB?

Please use the general learning resources for the topic and the papers provided in the reading list for your group.

Facilitation

For each of nine presentations, each group has an online PowerPoint presentation – initially blank.  A small amount of support / signposting is given initially – such as “Please edit online – don’t download”, plus a technical support discussion board.

Assessment

Presentations do not contribute to summative assessment – they have extensive formative feedback. Each group presents on Thursday morning to all students and the course leader and, typically, an external expert. Immediate feedback is given by an external expert and then the course leader – about 2-3 minutes of comment from each, on the positive aspects and areas for improvement.

Espousing benefits

The approach illustrates some of the benefits of group work, drawing attention to some:

• As all students have access to all presentations on different aspects of the weekly topic the presentations become an excellent resource bank;
• A tremendous amount of learning takes place during the presentations owning to the students’ commitment to the presentations and the commentary from external experts.
• The episodic nature of the presentation session keeps student engagement high.

Summary

Thoughtful group work design can produce outstanding results. Here are some steps you could try in your courses:

• Suggest sections of a course where students could work collaboratively;
• Use Brightspace’s group tools to create areas for group collaboration.

The TEL Unit would be very happy to discuss how Group Work could enhance your module and the students’ experience – email your Educational Technologist, contact the TEL Unit via tel@lstmed.ac.uk or call x3747.

David Callaghan

Senior Educational Technologist

Technology Enhanced Learning Unit
0151 702 9385
David.Callaghan@lstmed.ac.uk

 

Image credits:

Bob sleigh: skeeze

Group work: Eldan Goldenberg

References

Carnegie Mellon University (2015a) What are the benefits of group work? [Accessed 25.10.17] https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/design/instructionalstrategies/groupprojects/benefits.html

Carnegie Mellon University (2015b) What are best practices for designing group projects? https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/design/instructionalstrategies/groupprojects/design.html