4.6 Group activities and facilitation

Group activities have been shown to enhance academic achievement by engaging students in co-constructing meaning through discussion and interaction (Slavin, 1991). They can be especially effective when students are given an authentic problem to solve as a group or a meaningful project to create. Not only can group activities be pedagogically beneficial, but in online classes they can be an important strategy for socialization and community building, which extends outside of the specific task the group is asked to do.

Group activities always present certain challenges in any educational setting and the same challenges exist online. Students often perceive that group learning is less effective than instructor directed learning, because answers are not presented to them directly and it can be challenging for groups to arrive at consensus (Lee, Ngampornchai, Trail-Constant, Abril, & Srinivasan, 2016). In addition, there may be concerns about equitable distribution of work, with students feeling peers are not making positive contributions. The nature of communication in online environments can present additional challenges as groups may find it more challenging to organize activities and group processes and communication might take more time. At the same time, online environments also offer students a collaborative space to work together and to share their work with the larger class.

Tips for effective group activities in online courses:

• Build group socialization into the process. It can be difficult for students to work together on a meaningful activity without first having the time to get to know each other. This might happen naturally when students are together in an on-campus classroom, but in an online environment it is important to build a group forming stage into the larger group activity. Including an 'ice breaker'/'warm-up activity' Links to an external site. [pdf] or a low-stakes, fun group activities Links to an external site. can be an effective way to nurture a learning community.
  
  
• Scaffold larger group projects. For larger group projects, break the project up into smaller, more manageable sections with multi-stage milestones to keep the group on track, limit procrastination, provide an opportunity for formative instructor feedback and allow you to intervene if there are problems with group dynamics.
  
  
• Create space in synchronous sessions for group coordination. Having a synchronous space for more immediate conversations in order to work out logistics, make plans and resolve issues can help save a lot of time and frustration. You can do this by creating a Collaborate Ultra session for each group that remains open so they can meet outside of class time or by setting aside time during your scheduled, synchronous class sessions for student groups to meet in breakout rooms.
  
  
• Focus group work on meaningful projects. Students often carry with them negative feelings about group work from previous courses , so will be more receptive to group work if they believe it has value and is closely connected to course learning goals (Hillyard, Gillespie, & Littig, 2010). It is important for you to explicitly communicate why you think the group activity is valuable and how it contributes to their overall learning in the course. Designing group activities based on real problems or cases can also help students perceive their value.
  
  
• Provide guidance for how to work in a group. Students may not know how to interact in a group and organize their work tasks. This can be exacerbated online when there are more options for communications and potential time-zone or home-life/school balance concerns to work around. To encourage effective engagement in collaborative groups, remind students to:
  • Use appropriate language, and avoid negative words expressing anxiousness, blaming, or negligence.
  • Express opinions clearly rather than position themselves in a grey area.
  • Be attentive to the project timeline, starting as early as possible.
  • Promptly respond to members’ ideas/suggestions.
  • Stay connected with group members via tools provided in the course or outside media (e.g., phone, Facebook, Skype).
  • Check in with you regularly about their work plan.
    
    
• Grading. One of the challenges of assessing group work is balancing how to grade the quality of the final product for the group as a whole and grading individual contributions, particularly since students sometimes feel that not all students contribute equally to a group project. Strategies for fair grading that encourage individual accountability include: using a tool like iPeer to have students peer assess group member contributions and requiring individually submitted reflections or project wrappers where students write about their contributions and what they learned.