Strategies

The following strategies can enhance the effectiveness of group work:

• Include group work skills in the learning outcomes for the task, the course, and the program
• Teach group process skills using the Group Work tutorial for students in RMIT’s Learning Lab Group Work
• Assess skills related to both the group work process and the product, and include these skills in assessment criteria.

Issues related to group work

Learning and teaching issues:

• Learning outcomes often do not include skills acquired through group work, so students do not see reasons for it
• Group process skills are generally not taught, yet students do not always have the necessary skills to run a functional group
• Skills learned through the group process are often not assessed, so are not given value.

Student issues:

• The process of working with others is often frustrating
• Marking is seen as unfair - some people do no work
• Students often do not come to meetings
• Group work seems to lack relevance
• Meetings are seen to be a waste of time.

Productivity issues:

Process

Members not contributing to the work Non-attendance Lack of organisation and communication.

Product

Lack of coherence No consistent approach (structure, format, language) No established point of view.

The strategies outlined above, and in the following sections, are designed to address these issues.