Group Work -This video will explore how to make group work fun and productive, instead of the painful experience it can sometimes be. You'll learn how to identify your strengths, get everyone working, how to set up a good first meeting, and the best way to deal with any challenges that arise. First off, it might be important to understand why profs assign group work in the first place. We know from research that we actually learn and retain more info when we work in groups. But those groups have to be effective for us to receive those benefits. Also, most students would agree that they learn best when they're actively involved in a process. And lastly, collaboration is an essential skill in the workplace and something that many employers look for. If you're still not buying into group work, think about how you'll have a chance to practice your communication skills, develop shared responsibility for the outcome, and be exposed to different points of view. To have an effective and cohesive group, there's just a few things that should be established in your first meeting to keep your group running smoothly. We'll go into them in more detail in a sec, but here's an overview of what you should be thinking about. First off, get to know each other. You're going to be working with these people for possibly a whole term, so get to know them on a personal level. It's probably a good idea to set some ground rules right off the bat. Then think about setting up a meeting schedule early on. Lastly, determine group member strengths so that you can assign tasks and roles to everyone in the group. It's always a good idea to set some ground rules about respect, effort, and how the group will interact. This will help establish the tone of how your group will work together. Everyone should be contributing equal effort, and you can take this time to address how your group will achieve a balanced workload between all members. Keep in mind that there might be different opinions on many decisions. Think about setting up a process for how to make decisions. This will help you avoid conflict in the future. It's important to determine your meeting schedule early on. This helps prevent scheduling conflicts, especially when you're in a large group. Determine how often you will meet and how much needs to be accomplished every time your group meets. Draw out a breadth outline of what needs to be accomplished at each meeting to stay on track with your timeline. Key points in your timeline might be collecting your sources or having a rough draft complete. It is essentially the list of major milestones in your project. The last step in the process is determining tasks and assigning roles to each group member. Assigning roles can help make meetings more productive. Some suggestions of roles are, facilitator. They organize and guide the meetings. They are the person who summarize the discussion and outlines the next steps. The progress checker. They're the person who ensures all group members are on task with their individual work so that the group's timeline can be achieved. Note-taker. They take notes during the meetings and then distribute them to group members so everyone can be on the same page. And the mediator. They assist in decision-making and help with conflict resolution if necessary. Keep in mind that having these roles is completely optional and you may prefer a group that is a little more unstructured. But these rules are useful if your group is having trouble staying organized. There are some really useful tools for group work. If you're needing something for communication, you can go with tried and true email, or you can think about setting up a Facebook group. If you want to collaboratively work on an idea, think about creating a Wiki page at wiki.ubc.ca. If you need to provide feedback or ask questions, you can create a blog at blogs.ubc.ca or you can use Blackboard Connect. Now that you've got the tools to set your group up for success, it's time to actually get working. As mentioned before, really focus on each member strengths when assigning tasks. If you play to someone's strengths, they'll likely enjoy the work they're doing and will produce good work and have a great experience when doing group work. An example of this is if you have a member who's good at design, they might enjoy putting together the presentation. Once you've assigned things, don't just forget about it. Ensure that your progress checker is following up with everyone to make sure you're all staying on task. And lastly, stay organized. When multiple people are working on a project, it's easy to let things fall between the cracks or overlook something. There are lots of online tools that can help you work together in between your meetings. This is especially useful if the task will take over a week or two and constant reiterations of the project will be developed. Wikis are fantastic for this. Online mind mapping tools can be great for group brainstorm sessions. And lastly, Prezi is a great way to work on a presentation without everyone having to meet in person. Unlike PowerPoint, which is fixed on one member's computer, Prezi is online so you can create a group login and then everyone in the group can contribute and add to it. Mutual understanding, or communication, is pretty important in a group, so how do you get there? It's important to always be fully present and focused when listening to members. People can sense if your attention is wandering. Make sure you ask questions. Not only will it help clarify things for you but it ensures that all group members are on the same page. Lastly, reinforce the idea that the group is a safe space and that everyone should feel comfortable to share their opinions or ideas. Unfortunately, conflict does sometimes arise. No matter how much you try to set up your group for success, sometimes certain members won't be as invested in the project, and this is a natural part of group work. The best thing you can do is actively listen to the situation, be empathetic, patient, and respectful. By getting angry, it will only make the situation worse. Be flexible when trying to solve the problem and focus on building agreement for your resolution. If your group continues to have issues, address this with your prof or TA. Since challenges always arise, we listed some of the most common ones with our suggested approach of how to address it. Sometimes you'll find that the group is ineffective. This is when it's time to go back to the drawing board and review the project goals and make sure that everyone still remembers and agrees on them. Sometimes you'll find that one person in the group is dominating. This might be the time to politely suggest that all ideas are vocalized and that everyone has a chance to contribute. And like we said, conflict within the group may happen, and if it's severe enough, assigning a mediator that is impartial and not involved in the group might be the best course of action, although we're hoping that your group work experience doesn't come to this. Well, we hope you have found this video useful, and please feel free to leave a comment below or check out some of our other student tool kits.