Group Work

Use systematic practices to make working in a group equitable and positive.

Agreement or Contract

Begin by formulating a group agreement or contract.

See the discussion and examples here: Making Group Contracts

As example of a simple contract template:

Team Name

These are the terms of group conduct and cooperation that we agree on as a team.

• Participation: We agree to.... (role distributions)

• Communication: We agree to...

• Meetings: We agree to.... (frequency, locations/mode, deliverables)

• Conduct: We agree to...

• Conflict: We agree to...

• Deadlines: We agree to...

• Team member names and signatures:

Attribution

During your meetings, allocate time to discuss progress and individual contributions.

For the submission, prepare a document discussed, agreed on and signed by all collaborators confirming the roles and contributions to the submitted work.

Use formal categories to describe contributions as informed by established formats in reserach.

Here is an example: CRediT, a system used by Wiley.

Here is another example intended for students: Group Roles Template

Self-Evaluation and Peer-Evaluation

Use the suggestions and templates from the link above to review your own and group work regularly in a friendly and supportive manner.

If you feel that the contributions were not equal and that this should be taken into account when marking, express individual contributions as percentages for each group member.

Remedial actions can include:

• splitting the group to submit individually
• creating additional individual tasks
• raising or lowering marks for individual students within groups

Little or no contribution to the group is unacceptable but role within groups can vary.

Students have the responsibility to handle issues themselves. Discuss problems openly. Learn to work professionally in groups, and put personal likes and dislikes aside.

Raise possible problems early, internally or with the tutor if needed to address any possible underperformance when still possible.

Issues about underperformance raised at the last moment before the final deadline will not affect the group assessment.