Moving to online teaching: models to deliver group work
The pandemic is dramatically changing our reality and is driving the education of tomorrow to rely on delivering distance-learning units. Moving to online teaching can be challenging. In these uncertain times, we must be flexible and creative to adapt to this new normality.
Embedding group-based activities in online units, can increase engagement with the learners and build a sense of community and belonging. In the following video, we compare two models that we have implemented for the delivery of online group work. The models have been used for delivering undergraduate and postgraduate course units at The University of Manchester. We then discuss the lessons we have learnt, and provide supporting documents to assist a smooth transition to online delivery.
Model 1 — Asynchronous iterative model
This model has been used to deliver the large scale undergraduate module AI: Robot Overlord, Replacement or Colleague?. This module has been designed to be delivered online in an asynchronous way; the teaching materials are being released weekly and the learners can complete the group activities in their own time. Group work is a vital part of this module, as it provides the opportunity to learners to engage with people from a variety of disciplines and exchange ideas on how Artificial Intelligence can form our future society and workforce.
We used an iterative model to deliver the groupwork assignments. Every week, we begin with introducing the topic of the assignment. Then, the learners work in self-organised groups, they plan the activities required to complete the assignment and whether they will have any meetings to allocate tasks. They will then produce and submit their assignments.
To support the large number of students enrolled in this module, each group has been allocated a Teaching Assistant (TA) who acts as the group tutor. The tutor will read the submitted assignment and provide constructive and timely feedback. The learners have access to this feedback before the next assignment is being introduced so they can reflect on what went well, and how to improve as a team in the future iterations.
Model 2 — Synchronous incremental model
This model has been used to deliver the postgraduate Introduction to Health Informatics course unit. The unit was first designed to be delivered face to face with some online supportive materials, and was transferred to fully online as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the face to face sessions, learners work in groups to map patient pathways using large pieces of paper, markers and post it notes.
In the online version of the unit, the learners work together to map the pathways in a synchronous way; they have allocated slots in their timetables that they have to attend. They use tools like Blackboard Collaborate, Draw.io, and Google Docs to create swimlane diagrams describing the patient pathways.
The online sessions follow an incremental model to deliver group work. Every week the learners revisit last week’s artefacts and incrementally build their knowledge by adding further information on their diagrams as introduced in the teaching materials. Teaching assistants are available to provide help and feedback during the session.
Lessons learnt from applying the two models
1. Support networks
In an attempt to provide on-going support to the students (and teaching assistants alike) while better distribute workload for the course educators, we have introduced the roles of TA tutor and TA lead. The TA tutor is the students’ first point of contact and is responsible to support the learning of the students and establish rapport in the group. Similarly, the TA lead is the tutor’s first point of contact and is responsible to support the tutors and ensure that groups are treated fairly and in a consistent manner.
2. Learners engagement
In this new normality when almost everything happens online, we have to engage our learners more than ever. Online teaching can give us the opportunity to be creative with delivering inspiring and intriguing teaching materials. Group work might be the only interaction that students might have in online modules. In the future, we consider enriching group activities to create a community-based feeling among the groups.
However, we have to acknowledge that some people might choose not to participate in group activities. We also have to accommodate these cases and not to burden the rest of the group. We found that groups of 5–6 people can easily adjust with such cases.
3. Assessment
When designing group based activities, is worth considering how learners will be assessed, and also, how tutors and educators can collect evidences to support assessment. From experience, we found that discussions are of the hardest and time consuming tasks to assess. The introduction of templates has worked well in collecting all the required information for the groups to be assessed, as the learners often use external tools for communication.
Note: The video embedded in this page has been recorded using the Zoom application and edited using the Openshot video editing tool. You can find instructions on how to record a video with Zoom here.
Resources
In the Google Drive folder below, you can find the following examples and templates to help organise your online unit.
- Example of student submission template
- Example of a TA weekly checklist
- TA selection form
- TA weekly checklist
- TA handbook
Authors
Iliada Eleftheriou, Lecturer in Health Data Sciences, University of Manchester
Andy Brass, Professor of Bioinformatics, University of Manchester
