Learning is often enhanced when it is collaborative and social. Incorporating group assignments into your course is one way to increase student collaboration. However, group assignments can be difficult to facilitate, especially in an online course where you and your students are physically separated from one another.

Despite these challenges, online courses rich in student interactivity facilitate the development of critical thinking skills and foster a sense of belonging. When students collaborate, they can share their ideas and respond to the reactions of others, allowing them to practice important skills like trust-building, leadership, decision-making, communication, and conflict management .

Consider the following six essentials when designing and facilitating collaborative assignments for an online course–or any course for that matter!

1.  Purpose: Ensure the collaborative assignment aligns with your intended learning outcomes and mirrors what professionals in your discipline might do, modified as appropriate for your students. Communicate the purpose of the assignment with your students, explaining how they will benefit from the activity.

2. Student Preparation: Scaffold your students’ collaborative skills by increasing the complexity of the assignment as the course progresses. Divide the assignment into multiple parts and deadlines, giving groups feedback at each checkpoint. Additionally, provide students with group guidelines and expectations, like using an agenda to keep meetings on track and strategies for dealing with non-contributing group members. Consider asking each group to complete a team contract in which they determine and agree to meeting days and times, roles and responsibilities, and other relevant procedures.

3. Assessment: Use self, peer, and group assessment tools at multiple points throughout the course. This fair and balanced approach holds all students accountable for doing their share of the work and provides them an opportunity to reflect on their individual and group members’ contributions. Allow groups to share their work with the class asynchronously or synchronously to extend their learning and foster community.

4. Technology: Select digital collaboration tools based on your learning goals and students’ needs, such as Google Workspace or Microsoft Flip. Include links to technical support resources for students unfamiliar with the resources you select. Consult with an eLearning Specialist to determine which platforms and tools are best suited for the assignment.

5. Group Formation: Use a survey to help you form heterogeneous groups, asking students about their time zones, availability, strengths and weaknesses, and experience with group work. Form groups after the add/drop deadline to support group cohesion. Additionally, decide on the appropriate group size for the assignment and whether you will define roles with specific responsibilities. Students generally feel more comfortable in smaller groups of fewer than five members and perform better on convergent tasks. Larger groups of five to eight members usually perform better on divergent tasks. 

6. Facilitation: Plan to be involved and monitor student progress during all stages of the collaborative assignment—this is where the previous essentials come into play! Determine how you will address challenges that might arise, such as negative group dynamics.

Keeping these six essentials in mind will help you design meaningful group assignments and mitigate common obstacles. Your students will benefit from sharing their knowledge and perspectives and developing their collaboration skills. Be sure to ask students for their feedback about the group assignment so you can make improvements in the next iteration.

Resources:

Donelan, H., & Kear, K. (2023). Online group projects in higher education: Persistent challenges and implications for practice. Journal of Computing in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-023-09360-7

Laal, M., & Ghodsi, S. M. (2012). Benefits of collaborative learning. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 31, 486–490. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.12.091

Lowes, S. (2014). How much “group” is there in online group work? Journal Of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 18(1), 133–146. https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v18i1.373

Roberts, T. S., & McInnerney, J. M. (2007). Seven problems of online group learning (and their solutions). Educational Technology and Society, 10(4), 257–268. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/74872/