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Group Work: Best Practices

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assigning collaboration:  research on best practices for meaningful group work

 

 

Provide students with your honest reasoning for assigning group work. Ask them to abandon their preconceptions. Facilitate a conversation about the best ways to approach group work.

 

Create logical criteria for making group assignments. If your course is asynchronous, consider removing the common barrier of meetings by forming groups based on availability.

 

Prepare students for the roles in the group. Require a small task at the beginning to make sure everyone understands their role. Guide them through communication. Prompt the team to set ground rules.

 

Gain access and monitor group conversations. Provide structure for and require deliverables throughout the process, not just at the end.

 

Provide students with tools to use for collaboration outside the classroom. Talk about methods for resolving conflicts
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Create formal methods for teams to provide feedback to each other. Supply clear criteria for behavior so students can meet expectations.

 

 

   

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This work by Kelly Faulkner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.