Lesson Overview

Group work can be an amazing opportunity for students to learn together in a one-to-one capacity allowing for peer learning and the creation of new knowledge. Working in teams can be helpful for future job opportunities as it allows you, for example, to practice speaking in an interview with another student about a real scenario and the learning that you took from it. It also can be used to showcase how you operate in a group and still have responsibility for your individual work.

This lesson aims to help you make the most out of any upcoming group projects or presentations you will have in university life, by making you aware of the key aspects of group work to enable you to make conscious, well-educated decisions. These key aspects include preparation, communication, organisation, conflict and reflection. This lesson will also cover some useful digital tools you can use for increasing efficiency while doing group work!

Group Work Video Lesson

Preparation for Group Work

Communication Red target with arrow logo

UCC gives all students and staff G-suite accounts (a.k.a. the student number@umail.ucc.ie). As a UCC students, you have access to multiple online resources to keep you and everyone else in the group up to date on the project. As a group, you can work on the same documents and make individual changes that everyone can see by using the Drive in the G-suite. This could be useful to inform the group of updates, work completed, etc.

There are other, more complex versions of this service available online (see Useful Links below). For example, Trello is a Team Dashboard and can be used for larger projects. It is free to download for all group members.

Skills Audit

A good way to get to know your team members is to begin with a Skills Audit. This brings your team together and exams the skills that will be required to complete the task at hand. Teams should assess the following:

What skills are present at a high level?
What skills are present but may need some development?
Identify any skills gaps.

A good skills audit will allow for a vision of the project to be created by all team members and it may even help decide what roles are most suited to each person. If roles are pre-determined then it will allow the team to know where the skills of the group lie and to be able to help each other complete the tasks to ensure the success of the project.

Challenges

Group work involves more than yourself so keep an open mind and pay attention to others input and ideas. Keep an outline for what needs to be done and what has been done; that way there isn’t double the work for things that have already been finished. Separate the work evenly, that way no one is overwhelmed and everyone has a part in the project.

The main challenges in group work are categorized as follows:

Communication - It works both ways! You need to be understood and you need to understand others. Try to take pauses during group discussions to ensure that everyone is on the same page and to clarify any points that may cause confusion for group members.
Organisation - Outline and plan how to manage the project that suits all of the group members. Remember, this takes input from everyone. Set out the tasks that need to be done and when they need to be done by, communication is key at this stage to ensure that everyone is assigned an equal workload that suits their unique skills.
Workload - Fair and equal share of the work for the duration of the project.

The Planning of Group Work

Step 1: Breaking Down the Task

Review the assignment requirements and talk about them in the group so everyone understand what is being asked.
Confirm the due dates and write down achievable deadlines. For example, editing will be completed by Week 4.

Keep in mind what discipline you are doing the project in and who the audience is going to be.
Generate ideas and work together to figure out the end goal.

Working backwards will enable your group to confirm deadlines and break down the tasks for the overall project.

For example, if the project is due on Wednesday, there would be a presentation practice on Tuesday and the slides would be prepared 2-3 days beforehand.

Step 2: Creating Rules

Ground rules help everyone stay on track and work together to avoid conflict.

The rules may change the more you work together but they should ensure that all members in the group agree and know what is expected of each other.

Here are questions to keep in mind when working with others:

Are all group members treating everyone in the group with respect?
Is everyone up to date and are all group members informed about changes and updates for the project?
How often is the group meeting?
How long will the meetings be?
Does everyone have an opportunity to be heard? For example, is there a designated time for each member to speak and respond to each other?
Are the minutes of each meeting emailed to the whole group and is one person responsible for this?
Will there be a person to chair each meeting and what does that role entail?
If a team member is unable to attend, what is the acceptable time to give notice?

Step 3: Getting Started

Stay positive! The more confident the individual group members and the group as a whole, the more confident the outcome of the project. Make sure the location has a place where everyone can be heard, and work can be done. This might be the responsibility of one of the team members.

Step 4: Reviewing & Updating

When you creating a timeline leading up to the due date, leave extra time just in case there are unexpected issues dealing with other aspects of the project. Give yourself and your group members plenty of time to revise and review the project.

Make sure the dates that have been agreed are realistic with the workload and time frame.

The update log (maybe developed in G-suite), should be shared and emailed to everyone in the group; that way everyone can refer to past notes if there is any confusion.

In a nutshell:

Create a list of due dates for the group
Leave plenty of room and time to practice and troubleshoot
Keep dates achievable
Keep an update log for every meeting
Are there any problems that needs to be resolved?
What is the progress on the project?
What needs to be done next?

Conflict

Make sure everyone gets their voice heard. If an issue cannot be resolved, remember this is a group project and you all must work together.

You do not have to like everyone in the group to create an amazing group project. If the issue keeps coming up refer to the ground rules that the entire group created. The rules can bring attention back to the project and what needs to be done.

Reflection

At the end of the group project, you may be required to submit a reflection and the following questions are helpful to ask yourself throughout the process:

What did you and the group do well?
How did you feel about what happened?
What could have been improved?
How can you explain what worked and what did not?
How would you do things differently?

Remember, your focus should be on your reactions/actions/accomplishments/failures – not on specific team members. You cannot and should not control group members, but you can guide them and refer to the ground rules you have created together.

And don't forget to have fun and embrace this opportunity to work with peers on this project. You never know what you will discover during the process; there could be an idea for a future article or an MA dissertation waiting just around the corner from your group project!

Helpful Links