I know I’m not the only one who thinks group projects are a nightmare in the era of e-learning. Like many students, I approach course-related “group work” with considerable trepidation.
While I realize group work is an integral part of many disciplines’ core curricula and an important aspect of our general education, I often find it unnecessarily anxiety-provoking.
In a virtual learning environment, professors should ensure any required group work adds essential value to course learning objectives. Otherwise, on behalf of stressed out students, I implore faculty to avoid it entirely.
While it can be engaging to have breakout room dialogues, professors should stop making their students regularly submit group work for a grade, especially when it is not crucial for students to adequately understand the course content.
In a virtual class, coordinating with partners (often off-camera) can be very awkward. Validating the equitable distribution of group work is even more uncertain and challenging. Moreover, connection glitches frequently derail best-effort participation and time-sensitive uploads.
Group work outside of class lends itself to yet additional challenges: inaccessible group members, the complexity of trying to establish rapport remotely and difficulty organizing given students’ conflicting schedules across possibly different time zones.
Typically, I find myself anxiously compelled to take the reins. If you’ve ever been burned by a group member who failed to deliver, you probably relate to the group project negativity bias this experience tends to inspire.
Government junior Gary Dhingra, for example, is having trouble working on major online group assignments.
“We have really struggled with reaching out to one of our group members,” Dhingra said. “It has been really hard to communicate with him and hold him accountable in this virtual environment.”
Lisa Dobias, associate professor of practice and managing director of the Texas Media & Analytics program, acknowledges the reality of these challenges.
“It may be easier to be MIA even though you might be logged in,” Dobias said. “The heavy lifting is potentially done by fewer students in the group, and I get that.”
Of course, many professors cannot adequately teach their students without virtual group work.
“Group work is vital to the education of our students in the program that I teach in because it is literally what they are going to do on the outside,” Dobias said. “There is nothing that’s not collaborative in advertising and PR.”
In Dobias’ class, online group learning gives students unique insights into their future careers — something they may not have access to otherwise.
However, many group assignments serve no larger purpose than simply making students work together. In these cases, the challenges of working with classmates virtually override the potential benefits of class time collaboration.
I concede that group work can be vital to students’ immediate learning and long-term success, especially in disciplines where collaboration will be a major expectation after graduation. However, having students engage in group work that is not purposeful and ignoring the challenges that they face working with their peers via Zoom only compounds the stress of the current moment.
Strelitz-Block is a Plan II sophomore from Austin, Texas.
