I was never a fan of group projects when I was a student and the feedback I get from a majority of students today is similar, they just don’t like them much, often for very legitimate reasons. The “Seven Principles” states why the authors believe learning must be a “team effort,” “collaborative,” not a “solo race,” etc. but as we all know, each student is different and some students respond better to one learning method than another. Forcing all students to do group projects can be frustrating for those who are independent and very self-motivated learners, particularly when they are paired with other students who lack the same motivation.
I have seen many instances where there is nothing positive gained from group assignments, particularly where an instructor appears to be using a group assignment simply because that is the trend. If a group project is the only/best way to achieve some specific learning objective, then design the project carefully and go ahead and require participation in groups, otherwise, I believe it’s often better to use individual assignments and avoid the stress and frustration that can result from badly designed group projects.
I assign both individual and group assignments and when I use a group project, I explain to the students exactly why I am choosing this method and why I strongly believe it will benefit them. Still, I always have a few students who resist. However, I have seen some of the students who are uncomfortable participating in group assignments in a face-to-face setting are much more active when they only have to participate in discussions on-line. Again, different strokes for different folks.
Jim’s question for our post was, what will we consider as we build future classes? Like most instructors, I incorporate a combination of practices trying to resonate with students’ different learning styles, including readings, lectures, videos prepared by others, group discussions, individual and group assignments, and, most recently, my own short videos. My videos are far from polished but the more I make the more I learn what to do and not to do in them. I plan to use them even more in my future face-to-face classes, since I’ve had very positive feedback from my students, and will definitely use them in my first hybrid class next semester. I use Blackboard and will also be trying to make it more visually appealing and even more interactive, keeping in mind the axiom that good site design means it never takes more than three clicks for a user to get to the information he/she needs.
The weather felt like fall tonight and the Chargers won; it’s been a good weekend!
