Managing the Dynamics of Group Projects in Higher Education: Best Practices Suggested by Empirical Research

Diane Fittipaldi

doi:10.13189/ujer.2020.080515

Abstract

Employers know the importance of teamwork and seek these skills when hiring and promoting staff. To address this need, universities include group projects in their curricula with the goal of developing employable graduates with experience collaborating in teams. Many studies exist on the value and importance of individual aspects of group work such as team size, selection methods and ways to prevent social loafing. However, when designing group projects, professors make a host of decisions across a wide range of project components. Only a few aging studies bring together the varied research on group projects into a comprehensive and practical whole. The goal of this study is to analyze results of empirical research studies highlighting the best practices on managing group activities in face-to-face higher education classrooms. This study used a semi-systematic approach to analyze over 46 peer reviewed empirical studies. A semi-systematic literature review approach allowed for the summarization of themes and patterns across a wide range of study types, research designs and student populations. The results of this synthesis involve ten themes which address the central decisions faculty face when designing and implementing group projects. Specifically this study uncovered a unique hybrid approach to purposely assemble teams, demonstrated the need to keep teams small, pointed out the importance of early and ongoing team training, showed the need for a team charter, determined the value a high level of professor engagement throughout the project, confirmed the benefit of formative and summative peer assessments, established the usefulness of conducting rater training, and pointed out the advantages for using electronic tools to aid team processes.

Highlights

As businesses continue to gravitate toward team-oriented work, which requires collaboration and inter-personal skills, it comes as no surprise for employers to look for candidates with competencies in these areas [1,2]
While curricula have increasingly included group projects as a way to mimic the demands of the workplace and develop students’ abilities to work in teams, the effectiveness of these projects varies widely
A review of the literature reveals the most effective group projects begin with some forms of team training [12, 14, 23,24,25]

Summary

Introduction

As businesses continue to gravitate toward team-oriented work, which requires collaboration and inter-personal skills, it comes as no surprise for employers to look for candidates with competencies in these areas [1,2]. A 2015 report by Hart Research and Associates [3] states that 83% of employers rate the ability to work effectively in teams as highly important. Despite the need to prepare business students to effectively work in teams and teach them how to collaborate, undergraduate business and MBA programs often fall short when it comes to teaching these skills [1,7,8]. While curricula have increasingly included group projects as a way to mimic the demands of the workplace and develop students’ abilities to work in teams, the effectiveness of these projects varies widely. When administered poorly, student achievement suffers and learning objectives goes unrealized [13,14,15,16]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion