Groupwork

Online learning environments are especially effective for assessing the quality and participation of online discussions which are commonly text-based asynchronous interactions on discussion boards. This includes group or collaborative activities whereby groups interact online, both within groups and across other groups within the class.

To be effective online discussions need to be assessable and integrated within the online learning activities. Research by Jian and Ting has shown that students' perceived learning was significantly correlated to the percentage of grade weight assigned to participation and their resulting participation in discussion. (Jian and Ting 2000) However care should also be taken not to use excessive assessment which may hinder effective social interactions and discourse amongst the students. For strategies on assessing quality and participation see Effective Learning.

Online Groupwork and MyUni

MyUni, the University's learning management system, includes a group feature incorporating a group discussion board, group virtual classroom, group file exchange and group email.

The MyUni lecturer needs to set up the groups via the Control Panel. This is done via User Management and Manage Groups. Each group name or title is able to be seen by the entire class, however students are only able to access the group to which they have been enrolled by their lecturer. The lecturer is able to view all activity within each group.

The group feature is ideal for small group projects where members of each group can interact privately online.

The group feature has been successfully used within the University of Adelaide as part of an online roleplay simulation titled 'The Mekong e-Sim' which is part of a Civil and Environmental Engineering course. Within the Mekong e-Sim, group members are able to meet, communicate and share information privately. This assists them to formulate a group position which is then made public on the class discussion board. The group feature enables realistic communication channels in that private as well as public interactions are enabled.

Online groupwork also forms an integral part of an Agriculture & Wine course at the Waite Campus of the University of Adelaide. Students work on group research projects. Each project is different and wherever possible students elect which project they wish to work on. Rather than use the private group features of MyUni, the class discussion board is used and each project has its own discrete forum. The aim is that groups are able to view each others interactions and research findings in a public area. This enables a wider degree of learning to take place.

Why group learning?

The Centre for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE) considers that there are three main reasons for using group learning:

1. Peer learning can improve the overall quality of student learning
2. Groupwork can help develop generic skills
3. Groupwork may reduce the workload involved in assessing, grading and providing feedback to students

CSHE also outline common issues and concerns as well as strategies for designing groupwork activities.See Assessing Groupwork - Assessing Learning in Australian Universities

Further Resources

Curtin University of Technology's Learning Support Network provide useful online resources with regard to assessing groupwork.

A study at Flinders University revealed that online collaboration can be as successful as face to face collaborations. See Curtis, D & Lawson, M (2001) Exploring Collaborative Online Learning, JALN, Vol 5, Issue 1, June http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/jaln/v5n1/v5n1_curtis.asp [accessed 12 August 2005]

Self and Peer Assessment http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/assessing/peereval.htm [accessed 12 August 2005]

Assessing Group Tasks - download a comprehensive Teaching and Educational Development Institute (TEDI) University of Queensland pdf document at http://www.tedi.uq.edu.au/teaching/assessment/groupass.html [accessed 12 August 2005]

Group Assessment Tasks and Assessing Groups. Flinders University. A short statement on the benefits, problems and strategies of group assessment. http://www.flinders.edu.au/teach/t4l/teaching/groupwork.htm [accessed 26 June 2006]

Jiang M and Ting E (2000) 'A study of factors influencing students' perceived learning in a web-based course environment', International Journal of Educational Telecommunications, 6, 4: 317-338