Group Projects

Students should be engaged with each other on a regular basis. Group work is one way to ensure there is interaction among peers.

A host of technology tools makes collaborating much easier than one might think. Students may hold virtual meetings using tools such as Google Hangouts, WebEx, or Zoom. Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides allows shared access to documents.

As the instructor, make sure group activities are comprehensive enough that students see the benefit of working together. Consider incorporating a peer evaluation rubric to encourage equitable contributions by all group members.

Successful online group work depends on clear instructions, concrete deadlines, articulation of student roles, and thorough explanations of how activities will be graded. Use the template below to set up your group project. Fill-in-the blanks to help answer the questions you’ll need to know to create the prompt. Answering these questions ahead of time will help communicate to students what the expectations of the project are upfront and prevent confusion later. Replace the information in the right hand column with your own group project details.

Project Title:

Investigation of Education Myth

Due Date of final project:

Friday, October 2

# of Groups:

5 groups of 3

How will students be assigned?

Manual assignment of groups by instructor

Final project details (format, length, group responsibilities)

Final project will be a 7 page exploration and investigation of an education myth with an accompanying infographic to be shared with the entire class (i.e. students’ preferred learning styles). Group members should share in content creation equally.

Group Communications

2 synchronous group meetings – Evidence of synchronous communication (screenshot of webex, google hangout, or Zoom meeting) required for group contract creation and final project milestones.

Splitting and coordination of project proposal, source search, annotated bibliography entries, and outline can be done asynchronously. Conversations must take place in the group forum in Canvas.

Group evaluations are completed independently.

Project Milestones with due dates
  1. Group Contracts due Sep 11
    • Assignments and agreements made collaboratively in a synchronous meeting
  2. Project Proposal due September 16
    • Each group member must propose at least 1 idea and document it with at least 2 sources in the proposal in addition to indicating which of the ideas was selected to continue for the project
  3. Source List and Annotated Bibliography due Sep 23
    • Each group member must contribute at least 2 sources with ann. Bib entries
  4. Outline due Sep 28
    • Breakdown of the different parts of final project must be split evenly between group members
  5. Final project due Oct 2
    • Each group member should have contributed equally to the drafting, revision, and editing of the final project and creation of the infographic (550 word contribution by each group member at minimum).
  6. Group evaluation due Oct 2

What format will the milestones take?
  1. Group Contracts – fill out worksheet, submit to Canvas assignment box
  2. Project Proposal – fill out worksheet, submit to Canvas assignment box
  3. At least 6 credible sources and ann. Bib entries formatted like provided example, submit to Canvas assignment box
  4. Outline – follow example format, submit to Canvas assignment box
  5. Paper that follows APA format with accompanying infographic, submit to Canvas assignment box
  6. Group Evaluations, fill out worksheet, submit to Canvas

Project Grading
  1. Group Contracts – 10 points
  2. Project Proposal – 10 points
  3. Source List and Ann Bib – 15 points
  4. Outline – 10 points
  5. Final Project (with infographic)- 50 points
  6. Group Evaluations – 5 points

Total = 100 points

What weight does group work have in the project?

All projects are graded holistically based on milestones and final project quality and fulfillment of instructions. Deductions from that overall grade are made to individual students by instructor if group scores of individual members are below 80%. If the quality of the project suffers because of one or more group member’s lack of contribution, only the group member who didn’t do the work will get a lower grade.

Required Resources and Rubrics for milestones
  • Group Contract Worksheet
  • Project Proposal Worksheet
  • Annotated Bibliography Format Guidelines
  • Annotated Bibliography Rubric
  • Outline Guidelines
  • Outline Rubric
  • Final Paper Guidelines
  • Final Paper Rubric
  • Infographic Guidelines
  • Infographic Rubric
  • Group Evaluation Form

Additional Resources

  • Groups in Canvas (Canvas Instructor Guides). Explains how to set up groups in Canvas
  • Making Group Contracts (University of Waterloo, Centre for Teaching Excellence). Contains an example of a group contract and multiple other resources for group work.