Essentials for Collaborative Learning Groups

Are you considering using a team project in your course? This UMN resource walks through the stages of planning you’ll need as you design and implement your students’ collaborative assignments.

This easy-to-navigate guide describes thirty-five creative assignments for groups. With chapter titles like "Designing the Learning Task," "Forming Groups," and "Techniques for Discussion," it articulates the whys and hows of different collaborative assignment types and includes plenty of examples.

In this podcast episode, four faculty from different disciplines discuss their approaches to group assignments: what is "suitable" for groups, how to ensure equitable participation, and how they approach assessing group work.

What are the challenges of group work and how can I address them? This article provides the potential challenges students face and provide various strategies to address these challenges. Also included are a list of potential challenges for instructors to consider when implementing collaborative learning.

This unique, student-facing resource contains helpful phrases that students can use when faced with common collaboration or discussion scenarios.

This brilliant flow chart can help you organize the many possible decisions for student collaboration while also pointing to the relevant research.