Working with Small Groups in an Online Classroom
Why use online groups?
Despite the best efforts of online instructors to encourage participation in whole-class discussions, many students will feel more comfortable participating in a smaller group environment. In fact, by breaking your class up into smaller discussion groups, you are giving more people an opportunity to participate. In online classes, interaction does not only depend on one-to-one communication with the instructor, it can also include interaction among classmates. If fact, using small groups can help you manage your workload by ensuring that interaction is not only a matter of instructor-student communication, but includes a great deal of student-student interaction as well. It also provides your students with opportunities to practice team-building skills, gain leadership and management skills and experience real-life collaborative situations.
When working in online groups, students must negotiate agendas and priorities, choose roles for their group members, manage their workload, and collaborate with each other in solving problems and accomplishing their tasks. Group projects usually end up being the highlight of the course, but it is essential for the instructor to facilitate the process by carefully designing the assignment and providing clear structure and guidelines. It's relatively easy to structure and lay a foundation for students to interact with each other while it's relatively hard for an online student to take charge of this activity. By varying the mix of activities in a class--whole class discussion, peer activities as well as individual work, you can give students a more satisfying classroom experience.
What kinds of activities can student groups do online?
Group activities can range from informal small group discussions to a highly structured project. Depending on the size of groups, students can collaborate on assignments, create projects, conduct brainstorming sessions, discuss readings, work on case studies, critique each other's work, or just about any activity which may be enhanced by an exchange of view among peers, collaboration or debate. By providing an organized rubric or simply a series of guideline questions for evaluating assigned readings or for actual writing, you can help students establish a framework for judging their own work. This will help your students know how to proceed and they will appreciate this level of guidance.
How to create a space for groups in your online classroom?
Even if an instructor does not teach with a course management software program which has preset areas designated for group functions, it is usually possible to carve out a special area in which groups can work. Sometimes this means simply setting aside and labeling a conference or section on a bulletin board to indicate each group's assigned channel for communication. In Blackboard, there is a Group Pages area where you can divide students up so that each group or pair will have its own discussion board or you can create forums or threads within forums on the main discussion board for each pair or group if you prefer to have the entire class view each group's work. An advantage of the Group Pages is that you can create a sense of privacy for the small groups or pairs and also enable them to use the File Exchange area as an option for the exchange of documents.
Strategies for Working with Groups
Provide Motivation
The key to getting your students to participate in small group discussions and activities is to make them an integral part of the course. It's important to let your students know that their group project/exercises will be graded and that their group collaboration/interactions will be counted as part of their grade. There are a variety of strategies you can use to evaluate your students' individual and group performances in their group activities and motivate them to do their share of a collaborative assignment. Examples of effective evaluation strategies for groups include assigning points for participation, peer assessment, self-assessment, and grading rubrics or checklists.
Set Expectations
In the section of your syllabus where you describe your expectations for student participation, clarify that you expect them to participate in BOTH the class level forum and their private group conferences and WHAT they will be discussing in their groups (i.e. the readings, discussion questions or other). This will highlight the importance of participating in both areas of the classroom.
Group Size and Duration
The ideal size for a group depends on the task students are asked to accomplish. "A group formed only for the purposes of discussion can easily accommodate ten or more, but when the group members must collaborate on an assignment, a group of four is probably the optimum number. For online collaboration, any number larger than four risks creating problems of organization and communication that will consume time. Try to maintain the composition of the group for the duration of the course. It takes time for groups to develop a working dynamic. Changing the groups just as members are getting familiar with one another leads to needless waste of time as students adjust to their new circle of collaborators," (Ko & Rossen, Teaching Online: A Practical Guide, p.114).
Choose Teams Carefully
To help ensure that a group will work well together, assign students to groups based on similar interests and goals as expressed in their self-introductions during the first week of class. Students can also choose their own groups using this same method -- however, "many online instructors don't realize how clumsy it can be for all but the most outgoing and determined students to join or form groups on their own" (Ko & Rossen, p.113). Be aware that when students self-select, you will have to play a role facilitating the process -- for example you may have to help stragglers find a team. "If you would like to give your students some measure of choice in forming their groups, you can ask them to email you their preferences so you can take them into consideration" (Ko & Rossen, p.113).
Set a Timeline and Sequence
Since most communications take place asynchronously, teammates will be logging in at different times during a day. That means a simple conversation where consensus needs to be reached could take 2 days or more. The best thing an instructor can do is to assign group projects with ample time to complete them -- sometimes group projects will need to span two weeks or more during your course. Give students a specific timeline for each stage in a sequence of tasks they will have to accomplish together. Students will need clear guidelines as to the number of days they should spend for each step of the group assignments.
Provide a Warm-up
Consider creating a small non-graded activity that your students can do in their small groups during the first week of the class. This will help them get accustomed to posting in their small groups, so when the time comes for them to do their work, they will know what and where to do it.
Create Clearly Defined Tasks
To ensure the success of the groups, give them a clearly defined task where they will have a deliverable product. Make the project simple so the group only has to contend with a limited number of tasks to accomplish together. The project should be doable in "chunks," meaning that each team member can be responsible for a part, but then come together and blend those parts into a whole where revision by fellow team members is necessary in order to produce a polished product. Where appropriate, provide tools students can use such as critiquing guidelines in the case of a peer review activity, discussion questions, or links to resources they can use as they work together.
Assign Group Roles
Asking students to assume roles is an effective method of ensuring true sharing and cooperation and allows for students to choose roles based on their strongest skills. For example, you might request that each group appoint one member to to lead the discussions or allocate portions of the work (an organizer), another to summarize (editor/recorder), another to present the group's conclusions to the rest of the class (presenter). If your course is more than 8 weeks in length, consider requesting that these roles be rotated during the duration of the course if more than one group project or activity is assigned. "Make the rotation frequent enough to give each member a chance at several roles, but not so frequent as to interfere with group continuity," (Ko & Rossen, p.114).
Observe Group Interactions
Let your students know that although you may not participate in their group discussions, you will be observing and you will be available to chime in if they need help. Request that your students use the discussion board in their private group area for their communications about their group projects so you can observe their collaboration. If they want to use email to communicate, they should cc you on all their correspondence so you can see what's going on. A common concern voiced by students about small groupwork is that they may not be recognized for their individual contributions. Knowing that the instructor is observing provides reassurance to these students and also helps motivate everyone else to do their part.
Encourage Non-participants
Once the groups get underway, email any group members who are not participating and ask them to check in to their group. You can use this opportunity to clarify your instructions so they know what to do.
Help Groups Stay on Task
If you notice that one or more groups are getting off target with their discussions, or if their discussions lack clarity and need some direction, you might need to jump in to this group's discussions and redirect their conversation or help them get off to a better start -- perhaps you can do this by interjecting some questions that will get them thinking in the right direction.
Provide Both Small Group and Class Level Discussions
Do not use groups to the exclusion of class-level discussion or activities. Create a balance in your class so there will be some times when students come together as a whole to participate in discussions in the main class-level discussion forum. Make sure that at least some of the group activities are presented to the entire class for discussion, critique, etc. by all class members. This will get your students interacting on a more global classroom level as well as privately in their small groups. A mix of different activities are keep an online class lively, accommodate more learning styles and provide a dynamic learning experience for all.
Suggested Reading:
Why Teams Don't Work
http://www.esb.utexas.edu/drnrm/ClassTopics/teams/WhyTeamsDont.htm
Have you had collaborative group projects in your classes not go as smoothly as you had planned? Have you participated in group projects and had problems reaching your goal? This resource will give you insight into what happens when teams of people work together and advice on how to avoid common pitfalls and fix them when they occur.
Structuring Effective Group Projects
http://www.stedwards.edu/cte/resources/groupproj.htm
This resource will show you how to set up cooperative learning projects and assignments avoid common problems that can occur during traditional group work.
Facilitating Online Groupwork
http://www.learner.org/courses/rfts/om6web.htm
This resource is from the Western Montana College of the University of Montana and explores what it takes to successfully design and moderate online group projects toward specific outcome goals.
Online Groupwork Hints
http://www.guelphmba.com/support/groupworkhints.asp
This is a list of "tips for success" from students in online courses about how to be approach online
group assignments.
Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace: Effective Strategies for the Online Classroom, 1999. ISBN: 0-7879-4460-2
by Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt
147 Practical Tips for Teaching Online Groups, 2000. ISBN 1-891859-34-X
by Hanna, Glowacki-Dudka and Conceircao-Runlee
Teaching
Online: A Practical Guide, 2001. ISBN: 0-618-00042-9
by Susan Ko and Steve Rossen
