Explain - Execute - Evaluate: The 3 E’s of Online Group Work

“EEEEEK – there’s a group project in this course!”

Is this the reaction when students read your syllabus? Working in groups is challenging in any situation but an online learning environment can make it more so for the simple reason of ‘remoteness.’ But it can work well. Prior to the pandemic, I included group work in online courses and learned several lessons that helped make the experience enjoyable for learners and myself. Here are my suggestions to help facilitate collaborative learning experiences that don’t scare students.

Explain

You need to ‘sell’ group work to your students. The best way to do that is to show them its value to their learning, but also indicate that you understand the challenges they may experience and offer them a range of supports and solutions during the group work process.  

Start by clearly describing why the group project is included in the course and explaining how it will help students achieve the course outcomes or goals. Try to emphasize how the assignment is best completed by the collaborative work of a group, as opposed to individually, and the important skills they’ll gain from the experience. Students understand that communication, cooperation, and leadership are often part of professional roles and are valued in future endeavours like graduate studies or employment. Remind them that working effectively in a virtual environment is an essential skill in the 21st century and the group project is more than an end product, it’s also the process. Point out that improving those skills are clearly articulated in your course outcomes. (If you can’t directly apply the group project to course outcomes, maybe it doesn’t belong in the class.)

With careful and thoughtful preparation, a group project may provide opportunities for students to build relationships with classmates and lessen isolation, in our current pandemic situation. Integrating structured ways for students to meet each other and build those dynamics will help initiate some important team building. However, be mindful that class projects won't satisfy all of the students' needs for social interaction.

Thoroughly describe the assignment including all the steps required. The more detailed the directions the better, even if you think you are explaining the obvious. Having too many directions for an assignment is never a student criticism, but the opposite extreme often is.  

Execute  

Group size and composition are very important. My favorite group size is 3 or 4 because the smaller the group size the greater the accountability and stronger the relationships. The best situation is for the instructor to intentionally select the members of each group but only if they know something about the students. A simple online survey or poll helps with this and/or using information shared in the Introductions Discussion Post. (Design the directions for the Introductory Discussion Post with the goal of creating the groups.)

Choose members that can each bring something different to the group. Use time zones, skills, disciplinary backgrounds, and interests to the best advantage. If you don’t want to manually select the group members you can choose the random assign option. I don’t recommend asking students to self-select their groups as it causes undue stress to find a group in the inherently awkward online space. If you can, wait until after the add/drop date and the class list is final before establishing the groups to avoid having to rearrange members once the work has started.

Give the groups both asynchronous and synchronous communication spaces within your course. You can set up group discussions in Brightspace and group meetings in Collaborate Ultra or Microsoft Teams. Don’t be surprised if some groups use other virtual meeting places and file sharing platforms, as they tend toward technology that’s outside the course site for a variety of reasons. Be sure to inform students that using technologies not supported by Dalhousie comes with the risk of unauthorized use of their personal information, while the Brightspace environment has the advantage of Dalhousie IT support and an authenticated log-in system that provides a safe and secure digital environment.

Give them a generous amount of time (plus more) to complete the group work. Plan on experiencing a few complications and give the students, and yourself, time to address those and still make the due date. I consider the time required to do the group project when estimating the hours/weeks required to complete the course. I organize my course such that there are certain weeks where the group work takes priority and other course activities are reduced. Since the learning resulting from the group project is part of the course goals, it’s reasonable that the appropriate time is allocated for it.

Decide how much intervention or support you will give students and communicate this to them prior to the start. This will depend on the course context and the complexity of the project. Consider the following questions:  How experienced and competent are the students?  Will they need help to navigate problems? Will you follow the group activities and the development of the product? When will you redirect groups if things get off course and they don’t ask for help?  Will you provide feedback and grade components as the work progresses?

Evaluate

Design ways for each group to share their end product with the whole class. Make this a highlight in the course to celebrate what has been created. Rubrics can be used to evaluate the end products and the group processes, including peer and self-evaluation. Distribute all the rubrics to students in the assignment directions prior to beginning the activity. I’ve found that if the evaluation criteria for the group process are clearly defined and peer evaluated (i.e. communication, collaboration, problem solving, accountability, etc.), many of the group dynamic issues can be diminished because most students strive to meet the highest levels. Stress the importance of peer evaluation and how it links to professionalism and leadership qualities. Depending on your course context you may need to provide guidance (beyond a detailed rubric) on how to both give and receive feedback.   

Finally, and most importantly, solicit feedback from the students about their experience with the group project. Ask them the hard questions about the value of the project, such as knowledge gained about the subject, the team skills that were enhanced, transferability of those skills to other situations, and how the activity could be improved. Save all that information and refer to it the next time you decide to use collaborative learning in your online course. You may be able to use that information to help ‘sell’ a group project to another class.

Additional Resources

Ekblaw, R (2016). Effective use of group projects in online learning. Contemporary Issues in Education Research 9(3), 121-127.

Roberts, T. S. & McInnerney, J.M. (2007). Seven problems of online group learning (and their solutions) Educational Technology and Society 10(4), 257-268.