Two Heads are Better than One
During your time in university, you will need to partake in quite a few group projects. Group work is enriching because the individual can contribute creatively to perform a task, exchanging ideas, discussions and this way building cooperation.
The formation of the group is not always your choice so it is important to learn how to get along with the team for the progress of your work. Group projects in university can be a great experience for many but if the correct skills are not applied, it can turn into a nightmare due to possible conflict of opinions, work not divided equally, no time management etc.
In this page, we share some tips to help you achieve the best possible result when taking part in group projects. We also show you the benefits of using ExamTime Groups for collaborative work.
Organisation is Key
When it comes to group projects, organisation is fundamental to ensure future success. It may sound simple, but in reality organising a group of people to achieve high productivity is a rather complicated task.
In order to accomplish this, consider the following:
- Planning
- Work Division & Setting Goals
- Tracking Progress
- Teamwork
Planning
It is important for the group to firstly discuss and analyse together the proposed task. Ideally, students should expose what they understood from the topic, their ideas and how they can help the group.
It is also highly recommended to list all possible points to be addressed and developed. Then choose those that should be studied and developed. Each subject can become a chapter of the final work.
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Work Division & Setting Goals
The worse thing that can happen with group projects is people not carrying their weight. Workload should NEVER be left to one person only, no matter how smart or knowledgeable that person might be.
In fact, sharing the workload equally is one of the best ways to avoid possible conflicts. From research to writing to presenting the final work, each student should be involved.
These roles should be set from the very beginning making sure to include dates and deadlines where necessary. This will help with the progression of the project.
To help with the work division and goal setting, create a project timetable with daily and weekly goals until the group project is finished.
Join Now and Create your Study GroupTracking Progress
To further help with organisation, the group should elect a coordinator. This person can vary on each phase of the project and should be responsible for organising the work and tracking progress.
Try setting dates for meetings and for delivery of individual work. This is very important as late delivery of the final work is often penalised with loss of points.
Once the project is completed, allow enough time to put the project together and arrange for another set of eyes to go through it and provide feedback.
Teamwork
With cooperative work, you learn many things due to the different personalities in the group. Always share ideas with colleagues, you will not always agree on everything but meeting different opinions, working and seeking solutions together will be of huge benefit to the group.
If you ever feel that it is completely impossible to reach an agreement, the best solution is usually to vote democratically within the group or even to ask someone outside the group to be the mediator.
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New technologies are already part of the daily life of college students. To take full advantage of them, we present ExamTime Groups tool. We want to show you how you can use ExamTime to facilitate your group work.
With this tool, you can boost the productivity of your group projects as you have the opportunity to coordinate them in an efficient way.
ExamTime Groups allows you to:
- Connect with the members of your group online
- Create resources and easily share them with the group.
- Open discussions and debate ideas.
- Organise your work.
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