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Using examples of real students' successful group projects, this succinct and supportive guide will help students tackle group assignments with confidence. Bite-sized chapters take students from forming a group and establishing roles through to dealing with conflict and delivering a group assessment. The book contains practical advice on making decisions and active listening, alongside opportunities to reflect on progress and identify opportunities for improvement.
This is an essential resource for all students who are expected to produce a group project as part of their course, regardless of their level or discipline.
List of contents
Acknowledgements.
Introduction.
PART I: GETTING READY FOR GROUPWORK.
1. Why work in groups at university?
2. What do you expect from groupwork?
3. The key challenges of groupwork
4. What makes groups successful?
PART II: CREATING THE TEAM.
5. How groups are selected
6. The first meeting: getting it right
7. Agree your ground rules
PART III: ORGANISING YOUR GROUP.
8. Understanding the task
9. Team roles
10. Organising meetings
11. Making decisions
PART IV: RELATIONSHIPS AND COMMUNICATION.
12. Analysing what is going on
13. Reviewing and revising your ground rules
14. Dealing with conflict
PART V: ASSESSMENT AND REFLECTION.
15. Meeting assessment criteria.
16. Reflecting on your experience.
17. Writing up your reflection
Troubleshooting Guide.
References.
Index.
About the author
Peter Hartley is an independent HE Consultant, and Visiting Professor at Edge Hill University, following previous roles as Professor of Education Development and head of the Educational Development unit at Bradford, and Professor of Communication at Sheffield Hallam. As a National Teaching Fellow since 2000, he has promoted technology in education, and developed award-winning software. Alongside work on innovations such as new learning spaces and programme assessment, his longstanding interests in human interaction produced several popular textbooks (Interpersonal Communication, Group Communication) and he is now developing the third edition of Business Communication (2nd edition in 2015). He is also working on student notetaking and visual thinking, focusing on concept mapping.Mark Dawson is a postgraduate researcher at Coventry University. Previously, he held roles in learning development and HE outreach at Leeds Beckett, Bradford and Cambridge Universities. His current research investigates Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL)/Virtual Exchange in Higher Education.Sue is a National Teaching Fellow, Principal Lecturer in Digital Analytics and Technologies in the Department of Computing at Sheffield Hallam University with a lead role in Learning Teaching and Assessment. She is also a Certified Management and Business Educator, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the Staff and Educational Development Association, and a Visiting Fellow at Edge Hill University.
Her research interests include social media for learning and digital identity, groupwork, reflective eportfolios and the use of technology to enhance learning and teaching. She has published and presented this work nationally and internationally as an invited keynote speaker. She writes a blog called Social Media for Learning and can be found on Twitter as @suebecks. In 2015 she was shortlisted by Jisc as one of the Top 50 most influential higher education (HE) professionals using social media.
An advocate of informal learning, she is a co-founder of the international #LTHEchat 'Learning and Teaching in Higher Education Twitter Chat'.
Summary
Using examples of real students’ successful group projects, this succinct and supportive guide will help students tackle group assignments with confidence. Bite-sized chapters take students from forming a group and establishing roles through to dealing with conflict and delivering a group assessment. The book contains practical advice on making decisions and active listening, alongside opportunities to reflect on progress and identify opportunities for improvement.
This is an essential resource for all students who are expected to produce a group project as part of their course, regardless of their level or discipline.
Foreword
A fully-updated, concise resource that guides students through every aspect of group assignments.
