Group work
Group working is increasingly recognised as being a key part of students’ learning. It encourages active engagement with the ideas being taught, leading to better understanding and retention, and also provides a means to acquire valuable lifelong learning skills.
The ability to work productively in a group is much sought after by graduate employers. Technology can support group working in both face-to-face and online settings, with synchronous and asynchronous activities.
Planning
You may find it helpful to think about the following:
- Aims - What are your aims in introducing the use of group work?
- Support - What support will your students need?
- Timing - Will group work happen within existing scheduled sessions? If not will students be able to meet face-to-face or will they collaborate online?
- Change - What are your students existing expectations? Will you need to explain the changes to them?
Case studies
- A blended approach to developing employability skills
- A blended approach to teaching translation
- Content system for group projects in Aerospace Engineering
- Introducing problem based learning
- Pair report writing using a wiki
- Teaching transferable skills through online peer collaboration and assessment
- Using wikis for group projects in dentistry
- Video Assessment for Maths Students
- Virtual Exhibitions with Exhibita Pro
Further reading
- Centre for excellence in enquiry based learning guides (University of Manchester) - covers a wide range of issues related to group-work
- LearnHigher - making group work work (PDF)
- Resources specific to problem based learning and similar ideas:
- Challenge based learning (PDF) - a variant on PBL working with real-world problems
- Problem based learning overview in the British Medical Journal