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Group work

The purpose of group work

Working in a group on team assessments can be a valuable learning experience. Group work provides opportunities for deep learning in areas such as organisation, delegation, effective communication, leadership, and networking. Assessment tasks can often require students to work in groups. You may be asked to deliver a presentation, write a report, or analyse a case study with other students to demonstrate an ability to work collaboratively.

Watch Purpose of Group Work video

Hey there, my name is Evie and I will be assisting you with understanding the purpose of group work at uni.

You have just been assigned to complete a project for class but this time, you are not alone and need to work in a group. This is going to require some skills and strategies that are different from individual work. Group work projects can be quite extensive for you alone but it is possible to complete with the collective talents of the group members who share their knowledge, abilities and ideas. This way it can be used as a potent learning tool to help you deepen your understanding on topics.

Let's visualise how group work usually occurs. 

When most students do group work, they divide up the tasks, work independently, and then they try to combine the results into something that looks patched together. Imagine that you were assigned a story to write as a group. But if you didn't plan the characters, the settings and the plot as a team, you would end up with an extremely confusing story.

Now let’s look at an alternate way a group work can occur.

The key is to work collaboratively instead of separately where everyone works together to share information, co-creating knowledge and working with the strengths and weaknesses of every member. This way, a clear structure can be created to logically connect various ideas into a grander yet coherent story.

Group work gives you the chance to explore a topic or idea from multiple angles and the opportunity to interact with diverse peers and perspectives. This way, you broaden your understanding and strengthen your interpersonal, planning, organizational and leadership skills.

Successful collaboration occurs when members:

  • Set ground rules
  • Have clear objectives and goals
  • Define roles
  • Ensure there is enough time and space
  • Communicate effectively
  • Monitor progress and stick to deadlines
  • Are supportive and responsible
  • Demonstrate empathy and are sensible to each other’s needs
  • Are solution focused, rather than critical  

However, working in groups can be challenging. The most common reasons why groups fail are: conflict, ‘social loafing’ (not putting in the work) and lack of leadership and direction. 

To maximise the contributions of each group member, it takes patience, effective communication, and dedication. Each participant must concentrate on the process rather than just the outcome for group work to be productive, but importantly, each member should be empowered to contribute in line with their personality, experience, and talents.

To complete a task in a collaborative project, you must go through a number of steps. Planning is essential for productive group work because it provides direction and makes it easier to coordinate your efforts for quick job completion.

  • Start with an initial Meeting: The first meeting is most important for setting up the basis of the assignment. You can brainstorm ideas and develop a detailed plan by:

1. Developing a team charter- here you will identify: 

  • Goals and purpose of the project 
  • Team member information 
  • Team fuctionality
  • Schedule of assigned task 

2. Dividing up the tasks

  • Break down the project into smaller, more manageable tasks
  • Assign every team member a role that utilises their strengths, see Belbin’s Team Roles
  • Assign a team lead and record the group decisions in the Team charter document 

3. Identifying everyone’s availability to ensure effective workflow and communication.

  • When are team members available in the week?
  • What shared online platforms can be used?  
  • Monitor developments to ensure you stick to any deadlines set. 

It is important to recognise that everyone has an opinion and that everyone learns and works in a different way. Remember that the person who thinks they’re “doing all the work” is as problematic as the one "doing nothing". 

Group dynamics is affected by individuals’ roles and responsibilities. Positive group dynamics relies on listening to everyone’s point of view and making collective decisions. 

Individual team members need to be the group’s stakeholders. Each person needs to be proactive and try to foresee potential problems that may impact the common project. This means alerting other group members and requesting meetings to raise and address these issues collectively. 

When comes the time to present the finished product (the assignment), the group leader will need to be able to harmonise individual voices into one voice, one style. 

You will therefore need to choose someone who will be responsible to check: 

  • Fonts consistency
  • Typos, spelling and grammar
  • Quality of the graphics (if you have included graphs and images)
  • References (in text + reference list) 

Make sure the group has clarity about the objectives that will need to be achieved. The team must agree on the best possible structure to present the ideas. Group members will therefore need to think carefully about who is best suited to research and present each part.  

Be fair and equitable when attributing parts to each group member. Keep each other accountable and check on each other’s progress regularly: 

  • Ask for “proof of progress” by asking group members to submit regular progress reports (or updates) to all members of the team. 
  • Ask for current drafts, even if they are incomplete. 

Adopting these measures early in the group work will minimise chances of conflict. 

Although you might want to avoid conflict, it is important to acknowledge that disagreements can occur, and that there are strategies you can implement to respond appropriately to conflict. 

What can go wrong when working with other group members? 

  • Lack of leadership or ineffective leadership
  • Lack of participation
  • Poor communication between group members
  • Lack of respect of others’ opinions and ideas
  • Absence of common goal or purpose
  • Power dynamics and personal agendas
  • Negative – people who complain and blame everyone but themselves 

Resolving conflict will require group members to: 

  • Listen actively to each other to understand the source of the misunderstanding.
  • Be open-minded and try to acknowledge the value of other people’s thoughts. For example, instead of saying: “I don’t think this will work”, you could say “I see what you have tried to do here, but the assessment’s focus is...”
  • Propose solutions to problems once they have been identified.
  • Help each other when individual team members are struggling.
  • Patiently explain or clarify the tasks to group members who have misunderstood the objectives of what they needed to achieve. 

Knowing when to reach out for additional support is important – there are two approaches to this: 

  • Subject Coordinators
  • Subject tutors 

Subject Tutor: For issues surrounding the completion of the assessment, your tutor can provide guidance, helping to ensure your group has the correct understanding of the task. 
Tutors can also help manage group conflict by talking to individual group members, and reminding people of their responsibilities and obligations in relation to group assessment tasks. You can book consultations online or in person, both as a group or individually, to discuss any issues you face. 

Subject Coordinator: The Subject Coordinator may be your best point of contact for more serious issues that arise in group work, such as a member not participating. You can email or book a consultation for advice and support in group-related issues. 

To find the correct contact information, visit the Subject Moodle Site, or have a look at your Subject Outline.