Group work in IT: Investigating the student learning experience

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Author(s)
Parker, J
Campbell, C
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2018
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It is well known that students dislike working in groups. However, preparing students for the workplace is important and part of the graduate attributes for each university. As such, group work can be seen as an integral part of university assignments for many students. This paper reports on the group work experiences of IT students who complete a team work assessment as part of one of their subjects. Most students in the cohort study online which can add some complexity to the team work process. Most students felt that all members of the team were given an equal opportunity to contribute, with students reporting they generally ...
View more >It is well known that students dislike working in groups. However, preparing students for the workplace is important and part of the graduate attributes for each university. As such, group work can be seen as an integral part of university assignments for many students. This paper reports on the group work experiences of IT students who complete a team work assessment as part of one of their subjects. Most students in the cohort study online which can add some complexity to the team work process. Most students felt that all members of the team were given an equal opportunity to contribute, with students reporting they generally worked at least adequately well together. One of the obstacles to working together was reported as working together online due to not being able to meet face to face. Overall, with scaffolding, working as a team does not have to be a negative experience for students and can provide deep learning
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View more >It is well known that students dislike working in groups. However, preparing students for the workplace is important and part of the graduate attributes for each university. As such, group work can be seen as an integral part of university assignments for many students. This paper reports on the group work experiences of IT students who complete a team work assessment as part of one of their subjects. Most students in the cohort study online which can add some complexity to the team work process. Most students felt that all members of the team were given an equal opportunity to contribute, with students reporting they generally worked at least adequately well together. One of the obstacles to working together was reported as working together online due to not being able to meet face to face. Overall, with scaffolding, working as a team does not have to be a negative experience for students and can provide deep learning
View less >
Conference Title
Conference Proceedings 35th International Conference of Innovation, Practice and Research in the use of Educational Technologies in Tertiary Education. ASCILITE 2018: Open Oceans: Learning Without Borders
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2018. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Subject
Specialist Studies in Education