37 Group work

How did you respond to concerns regarding group work?

EVH: My first assignment required students to annotate a course reading as a group and then submit an individual reflection. This caused a fair few problems, particularly related to absent, noncommittal, or unhelpful group members — some of which followed from the haphazard formation of groups (from within remote tutorials) in the first place. A few considerations that follow from this, and which I’ll be thinking through the next time I assign group work:

• In general, group work grades should be low stakes (between 5-15% of total grade).
• Decide in advance how absent group members will be responded to, and include that in the assignment guidelines. One option here might be a required consultation (3-4 minutes) with TAs to confirm group members.
• Make sure TAs are familiar with the group assignment well in advance of the due date, so they have several weeks of tutorials to help students prepare.
• Consider building the organization and management of group work into the assessment itself. For instance, in lieu of or as part of a reflection, students could submit a report on how they assigned different roles, planned ahead for challenges, etc.
• Decide how the assignment could be completed individually and include that in the assignment guidelines as an option.

ES: As per usual, I agree with what Emily has said. I planned an assignment where students were in groups of 5-7, and had to prepare a playlist that coordinated with the decade that we discussed that week. Some students had difficulty reaching out to group members, who were absent or noncommittal; however, I had already planned to grade the students individually. In the future, I would make that information clearer to students in order to lessen their anxieties about wrangling group members.