Collaborative Learning

The following tips aim to give you ideas on how to optimize groupwork assignments that support CL and help to prevent common teamwork issues.

• The task should be challenging and too complex to complete individually. However, it shouldn’t be immediately clear to students how to complete it – this invites for a discussion among students.  
• The tasks within the assignment should be interdependent, requiring students to communicate with each other (e.g., build a product that consists of several components to be integrated).
• Consider setting up the assignment in such way that students in teams have to explain theories or concepts to each other. This way more content can be processed and applied to the project/ assignment. Moreover, students would be aware of the whole assignment, not only “their parts”.
• The assignment description should include clear expected outcomes to reduce the likelihood of misaligned agreements and students freeloading.
• The assignment may include a competitive element between the teams, as it could strengthen the collaboration within the teams.
• Consider the group size for your assignment. Note that in smaller groups (2-3) students would have a greater individual responsibility, but less opportunities for diverse input and complex team working processes. In larger groups students are likely to feel less motivated; however, larger groups can work well if the task is large enough to tackle and good supervision is offered.
• In cases where you aim to contribute to the development of students’ collaborative skills in your course, make sure to include it as a learning objective and specifically assess it.
• Consider relating individual assignments (remember: groupwork cannot be 100% of the course grade) to groupwork. This way, students will be motivated to actively engage in the groupwork assignments, as they will also relate to their individual tasks.

• At the beginning of the course, make sure you address working in groups during the orientation. Specify the value of working in groups, such as critical thinking through negotiating perspectives, mention personal development goals and learning objectives related to teamwork. And specifically point students to materials that support working in diverse teams. Doing so will give students space and purpose to learn collaboratively.
• Encourage students to sign a team contract and develop a project plan. Remember that not all students have learnt about team contract, and even if they have, refer them to the student materials. To enable students to align values, expectations, and set-up team goals, meeting and working norms with their groups. (Workshop - TA or coach-led, and student materials provided)
• Help your students identify the (technical) skills and knowledge needed to complete the assignment. Encourage students to discuss both the skills they have and would like to develop while distributing tasks and responsibilities. Prompt students to take on different responsibilities to achieve personal goals and learning objectives. (See student materials for tips and tools on role adoption and adaptation)
• At the start of the assignment, make students familiar with what is expected (in terms of deliverables, assessment criteria, good and bad examples, etc.). This can help students make clearer agreements within their teams.

It is important to understand how your students are progressing during the groupwork activities. After all, you will have to assess the work of teams (and in some courses, collaboration skills). How can you ensure appropriate monitoring of students’ progress when working in teams?

• Consider various pieces of different information. For instance, if there were external parties (e.g., a client) involved, they would also have information on how the team proceeded. You may have recruited teaching assistants or mentors in your course, who could observe and support student teams during the project. They can share the information about the team processes with you.

Those with more teaching experience should focus on the process, while those with less teaching experience on content.

Get students to monitor their teamwork processes themselves by providing relevant process related-criteria (see student materials):

• Encourage students to have a teamwork discussion session half-way through the course, where they can reflect on how the team has succeeded so far. During the formative assessment of the assignment, ask about team processes. Refer to the student materials for such reflection.
• Ask students to individually evaluate teamwork process from their own perspective (refer them to the student materials). Consider incorporating individual reflections throughout the course and/ or at the end. Additionally, ask each student to explain their role and contributions to the team and the project. For example, if they were unable to convince their peers of their ideas, this would provide them with a chance to explain what they would have done differently and why.
• Encourage students to provide peer-feedback throughout the teamwork during group meetings and afterward.
• You may use BuddyCheck tool for self- and peer- feedback. Please make sure that feedback and reflection are discussed with the teams. Without this discussion, feedback scores are not accurate enough and will not provide learning moments for students.