Group Projects

Issues to Consider in Assigning Group Projects

1. Why use them? The reasons COB faculty assign group projects vary; many speak to the benefits of working in teams, simulating a real work experience, collaboration & teamwork, the diversity of backgrounds students can share within a team, and grading efficiency. It is important to consider the difference between having collaboration, teamwork, and project management as a learning objective and as a characteristic. If they are a learning objective, the skills for working in teams and collaborating should be taught and assessed. Alternatively, if working in teams is not a learning objective, instructors should consider whether it is equitable and reasonable to base a significant portion of the students’ grade on their ability in this area. 

Many faculty members use group projects as a way to build workforce skill in students. Collaboration, communication, and working in diverse teams are indeed some of the key competencies that employers want from students! To find out more about the specific skills that employers want, and find some learning outcomes that you can include in your projects related to these competencies, review the NACE Career Competencies Download NACE Career Competencies.

2. Structure: COB faculty use a variety of structures and tools that we use when designing and implementing group projects. They include: 

  • Assigning groups: a variety of approaches here, from professor assignment to student choice. Some who assign groups themselves also use some type of assessment ahead of time of students skills/interests, to try to increase the diversity or the effectiveness of the group. Some assign students for one or two smaller groups and then let them reform groups if they want.
  • Contracts: teacher facilitates the creation of a group contract in which the duties are laid out ahead of time and team members sign. Here is a contract template Links to an external site. used by one COB faculty member, and the guiding questions Links to an external site. they have students use before creating the contract. More sample contracts can be found here Links to an external site.. 
  • Weekly check-ins: many require students to check in weekly with a statement about what they are working on or have competed that week. 
  • Assigning roles: some assign group roles (i.e., scribe, meeting organizer, meeting leader, liaison with instructor) to ensure certain tasks will be accomplished and everyone in the group has a role. 
  • Research suggests that assigning students roles within groups can increase cohesion and performance; it may also better mimic real life, as in real life work teams each person in the group generally has some differentiated skills or comes from different departments. 

3. Grading: We use a variety of mechanisms for grading. Some ideas are: 

  • Many include individual accountability for the project; this may be a reflection paper, individual sections of the paper, weekly graded discussion forums, or some other individual requirement, like a weekly quiz on the project. Research suggests it is important to use individual accountability to reduce social loafing (free-riding). 
  • Some use peer review to try to increase individual accountability; others have moved away from peer review or use a “positive” peer review where students share positive things about team members. When using peer review, it may be important to provide some training to students so they can effectively evaluate or provide constructive feedback to peers. How peer reviews are incorporated into grades varies. Suggestions for peer review evaluations here Links to an external site..
  • As an individual assessment tool, group projects can be problematic. They can give us information about the team, but it can be difficult to link the team assessment to the assessment of any single individual’s skills. For this reason, consider whether it is appropriate for a group project to constitute a significant portion of students’ final grades. Also, keep in mind that group projects may not provide sufficient information and individualization for AACSB assessment of learning purposes. 

Pitfalls of Group Projects

  • Students have a lot of feelings about group projects--many of them negative. This article Links to an external site. describes a lot of the concerns and also provides great resources to help address them.

Resources on Group Projects

Group Projects Blog  and Infographic with suggestions for structure and assessment, by Funmi Amobi, OSU CTL.  

Teamwork Skills: Being an Effective Group Member. Center for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo. https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/tips-students/being-part-team/teamwork-skills-being-effective-group-member Links to an external site.

John Warner, Arranging Groups for Group Projects, Inside HigherEd, https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/arranging-groups-group-projects Links to an external site..

Cooperative Learning: Best Practices (University of Michigan Center for Research on Teaching and Learning), http://www.crlt.umich.edu/publinks/clgt_bestpractices Links to an external site.

Eberly Center of Carnegie Mellon University, What are best practices for designing group projects?  https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/teach/instructionalstrategies/groupprojects/design.html Links to an external site.

Mennecke, Brian. “Making Project Groups Work: The Impact of Structuring Group Roles on the Performance and Perception of Information Systems Project Teams.” Journal of Computer Information Systems, 01 September 1998, Vol.39(1), p.30-36  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jtm4jCoVbv8QrJ39l0NA4qhwGRFHVZoN/view?usp=sharing Links to an external site.

  • While teams in the business environment are highly structured with clearly defined roles, unstructured project teams in the educational environment suffer from communication and coordination problems. We demonstrated the impact of this lack of structure by providing distinct roles and responsibilities for two sections of an Information Systems class while leaving two other sections without imposed structure. The structured teams not only reported a more positive experience with the project, they also scored significantly better. This paper discusses team structure followed by the methodology and results of the study. The paper concludes with a discussion of the findings, implications for teaching and further research.