Group work
The ability to collaborate, negotiate and listen to others will help you not only in your studies but in your career and life in general. That’s why teamwork is one of Deakin’s graduate learning outcomes.
The first time you meet your team, get to know each other a little and make a timeline so you know what each person can do.
Barkha Aghicha, Senior Student Writing Mentor
Group assignments
In your unit, you may be asked to:
- develop a class presentation
- start a class or group discussion on a given topic or question
- participate in an activity, such as fieldwork, an experiment etc.
- contribute to a group reflection
- co-create, design or build something.
When completing group tasks, you will have the opportunity to develop in these skills areas:
- Planning in a small group.
- Complex time management.
- Taking on different and/or multiple roles.
- Negotiation, compromise and problem solving.
- The ability to reflect on and share experiences in order to make future improvements.
Working as a team
If you have not previously met the other members of the group, spend some time getting to know each other to work out what skills and experiences you can each bring to the group. Consider your diverse experiences, skills and backgrounds.
You and your team will get the most out the experience when you:
- get to know your team members and establish roles early
- elect a team leader
- create clear goals and set timelines
- decide on a mode of communication
- set up regular meetings
- communicate openly and contribute ideas
- respect your team members unique talents and ways of learning.
Download our teamwork checklist to help you with your next group assignment (PDF, 73.9KB)
A learning experience
If you run into problems, try to work it out with your teammates, but don't be afraid to contact a tutor or lecturer for assistance.
Gypsy O'Dea, Writing Mentor
Teams who do not work cooperatively or collaboratively are likely to produce work that is disjointed, inconsistent and underdeveloped. When problems arise, it will depend on the group members to resolve them. You may need to negotiate and compromise within your team – and if you do, you will also be developing valuable negotiation skills. It is important to identify factors that may be preventing your team from working well together and develop a strategy to deal with it.
Problem | Suggested strategy |
|---|---|
A team member is not contributing | Some people may find certain tasks challenging, so a good place to start is by identifying what might be causing the problem. Think about team members' strengths and allocate different tasks they might be able to carry out or pair them with someone who may be able to provide support. |
There is conflict within the team | Team members will bring different perspectives so it is important to ensure that people feel comfortable raising alternative viewpoints. Diversity helps to make a team strong and flexible. Share information about the way you prefer to work and always keep communication open. Bring discussions back to completing the assessment. |
A team member is dominating | If some team members talk too much, suggest setting time limits in order to give each member a chance to speak. You might even set a meeting agenda with different member speaking to different items of discussion. |
To continue to build your teamwork skills, it is a good idea to reflect on your own and your team's performance at the end of each assessment. Think about what you would do differently next time and ask yourself:
- How were decisions made?
- How did you share information?
- How did you give feedback?
- What did you enjoy / gain from about the experience?
- Did all team members feel the task was successful?
- What was the most difficult obstacle to achieving your task?
- What would you do differently / the same next time?
Collaborating online
Settle on the best mode of communication early.
Storm Logan, Maths Mentor
Deakin provides all students with access to collaboration tools such as: Zoom, Microsoft Teams, OneDrive and Office 365. This can make it easy for groups to collaborate on documents and communicate but first check that everyone is comfortable using these tools.
Once you download Zoom, you can easily set up a video meeting via your Deakin email calendar and invite other students to join. You can then share your screen and any documents to discuss your task.
OneDrive is your personal cloud storage where you are able to share documents or other files such as a presentation or spreadsheet with other students. You can give team members permission to edit and make comments on the one document in one place.
Office 365 is the online version of popular Microsoft programs, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. You can access these programs on a variety of devices, without downloading software.
