And yet another week has passed. This has been, so far, the topic I have enjoyed the most. Maybe this is due to, at least from my perspective, the fact that the transfer of the content to my day-to-day work is easier to apply (plus the interaction with my group is getting very fun!). I am learning a lot about group collaboration in this course. I do not know about you, but I am super happy with the group I am in (PBL13). We work very good together and have established different communication channels that make it very easy to be updated, even when you cannot attend one of our meetings, as it was my case this week. Another aspect of this group interaction is that you learn new things beyond the specific content of the topic/assignment. This should be embedded in any group learning activity, but sometimes we tend to forget that, and look only to our own, short-term interest and the fastest way to accomplish the goal of the task. This week, for example, I have learnt how to use VoiceThread. If you want to know more about it, check our fabulous presentation of Topic 3 in this link (https://voicethread.com/myvoice/thread/11685221/68982625/65210470).

The main questions my group has decided to tackle are extremely relevant for a successful group learning activity; (i) what is the ideal group size and how should the groups be formed, (ii) cooperation vs. collaboration, (iii) facilitation vs. supervision, (iv) how to promote students’ engagement. As teachers, all of us have had to make decisions about these aspects when preparing group assignments for our students, and I would say that these issues become even more relevant in distance/online learning.  I have to admit that from now on I plan to specifically address each of these questions before launching a new group task for my students!

Although we have to put these questions into our own, personal context, there are some factors that are common to all circumstances. For example, as I have learnt this week, the group size (ideally 4-5 students) should be smaller if the time you give the students is short, as well as if the task is very complicated or the students’ experience in that specific area is low. Next, I think we should try to make the group assignments as collaborative as possible, leading to a community-type interaction, since I believe the students will gain more by using this approach (not only content-wise). Regarding facilitation vs. supervision, one can think that at the beginning, the students may need more supervision and as the group task progresses the role of the teacher becomes more that of a facilitator. Yet, for undergraduate students, I still consider supervision is needed in most instances… feel free to contradict this thinking!  Finally, if you want to promote the students’ engagement, try to make the students understand, before the task, how important the assignment is by relating it to real-world scenarios where they will be able to use the desired output of the specific group task, and also, set the group rules (or even better, let the students set their own group rules if you have time for that!)

Well, if you think I have missed any important point (I am sure I have), please provide feedback!

Have a great week!

Photo by: Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalo – CC BY-NC-ND