students become truly engaged, are reduced in this mode.  With a small but significant number of students still having to be remote for any given class, the question becomes, how to create meaningful group work opportunities? As is often the case, time to prepare is key. Here are some useful practices that can make your preparations for group work more effective:

Consider the learning mode & main goals of your course when you start planning the group activities for your class. There are many tools available for you to help you replicate the collaborative work when some students must be online. In these circumstances, consider flipping your class so that students learn from readings and lecture videos before the class and participate in interactive collaboration during class time. Chat tools such as Google Chat, Slack, or MS teams chat also help create more interaction between in-person and remote students. Encourage teams to use the chat for their group discussion--you won’t even need group members to be sitting together, or have group furniture. For brainstorming sessions Jamboard or Padlet can come in handy as well. 

Provide clear instructions. Focus on the interaction students should aim for, not only on how to use the tool itself. A great benefit of group projects is having students learn to work together and build connections with each other. Make sure that aim is reflected in the ways you structure your groups and how you assess them. Offer students a clear communication plan, list of roles to claim, deadlines, and ground rules. Just as you had to when using Zoom breakout rooms to facilitate group activities, try to be clear about your group-interaction rules and what the students need to do [3].

Provide opportunities that foster collaboration. It always helps to provide opportunities for students to develop rapport with one another before they start the group project itself. Consider providing some lower stakes collaborations, scaffolding your large projects with a series of small preliminary collaborations [4] or a set of multiple checkpoints to hit early on (e.g. have your roles selected, introduce yourselves to your group-mates, choose a topic). This will help students develop rapport, interact with one another, and stay engaged. An especially good strategy here is to ask your students their thoughts on how they would implement the group activity. They can be a great resource, as they may have experienced another group activity that went well in another course or may have suggestions for making the activity more successful [2].

Establish positive connections within your course. This might be the most important practice to create successful collaboration in your course. Provide ways for students to interact casually and get to know each other. When students feel connected to the class, they will participate more actively [2].  More importantly, they’ll be motivated to learn and to help team-mates succeed. Ice-breakers often seem silly, but that very silliness is to be valued and encouraged. 

If you would like to learn more on how to facilitate group work in your class, please feel free to reach out to the [email protected] or request a consultation here.

Additional Resources

CRLT, University of Michigan, Introduction to Groups and Teams

References

[1] Collaborative learning. Center for Teaching Innovation. Cornell university

[2] Adapting Group Activities for COVID to Ignite Student Engagement- Faculty Focus

[3] Get Creative with Your Use of Breakout Rooms- Harvard Business Publishing

[4] Implementing Successful Collaborative Group Work: Structure and Strategies. Oregon State University

Research

Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., and Smith, K.A. (2006). Active learning: Cooperation in the university classroom (3rd edition). Edina, MN: Interaction.