Group activities are an excellent way to improve student learning in an online course. But they invariably raise the free-rider problem—the student who does not contribute his or her fair share of the effort. This is particularly bothersome to students when there is one group
Many teachers avoid using group work because they fear what happens when students work together—some group members don’t contribute, others contribute too much, there’s no in-depth exploration of issues, some members don’t deliver, others don’t show up, group meetings are more social events than work
Group work is a valuable learning device that teaches teamwork skills which students will use no matter what profession they enter. It is perhaps even more valuable in online classes, as more and more organizations are using distributed employees who need to coordinate their work
The reasons we should be letting students learn from and with each other continue to accumulate. Here are highlights from a large cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional study that explored the relationship between psychological well-being and peer learning experiences.
For faculty members requiring group work, one of the key logistical questions involves how long group membership should stay the same. Membership can shift after every meeting, or groups can be stable, with the same members meeting together multiple times across a content unit or
Making sure students come to class prepared is an ongoing challenge for all faculty members.
With the Readiness Assurance Process, Team-Based Learning (TBL) helps instructors and students alike get past this age-old obstacle. This seminar transcript delves into TBL’s problem-solving framework and discovers how you can
Small group learning is learning expressly designed for and carried out in pairs or a small, interactive group. Why should we use small group learning in the college setting? Small group learning provides a practical rationale. Most of us have seen the surveys of employers
Grading small group work can be a challenge. Most instructors use a combination of individual product and group product, often developing a percentage split based upon the assignment (e.g. 70% individual work and 30% group work).
When using groups, teachers can form the groups or they can let students select their group members. When the groups are only working together for a class period or part of one, who forms the groups is less critical. However, recent research results
Recent interest in using group work to promote learning and develop important interpersonal skills began in the late ’80s, and since then various types of group work have been promoted, researched, and implemented. Among the most widely used and best known “brands” are collaborative learning,
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