Effective Group Projects

1. Effective Group Projects Tips for surviving and succeeding with team assignments

2. The Path to Group Success • Know your group. • Understand your assignment. • Organize your process. • Check your progress. • Combine your work effectively.

3. Know Your Group • If you can form your own group: • Get good people for the job. It’s not about friendship; it’s about teamwork for learning and for a grade. • Think about a group as a collection of skills. Do you have someone who can proofread? Who has computer skills? Who is a good organizer? • Consider schedules, locations and lives. Understand the challenges if you choose to work with someone who does not share the same schedule or live in the same city. • Exchange useful contact info. that actually reaches people.

4. Know Your Group • If your group is formed by your professor: • Get over it if your situation doesn’t seem perfect to you. The world of work is just like this. Spend your energy on figuring out how this group can succeed. • Find out what skills each person has. • Share information about schedules, location, and lives, so that you are aware of any challenges. • Exchange usefulcontact information that actually reaches people.

5. Understand the Assignment • Review the assignment together • You may want one person in the group to be the “Reader.” This person becomes an expert on the assignment requirements. • What is the goal of the project (solve, recommend, instruct…)? • Who is the audience for the project (classmates, professor, imaginary client…)? • Are there specific content requirements (at least 3 sub-topics, limited to X field…)? • Are there research & documentation requirements (at least 3 sources, APA documentation…)?

6. Organize Your Process • Work backwards to create a time line for your project and be sure everyone understands it. • Find out what people are good at. • Assign specific tasks and deadlines; agree on detailedexpectations: • Example: Claudia will bring research results to the meeting on Mar. 9th at 10am in E111. She will bring a typed list of exact quotations, along with their references in APA format, on a memory stick in Word format.

7. The Right People for the Job • Detail People: • Researchers • Meticulous, speedy readers, and excellent Googlers; not afraid of learning how to use the databases in Mohawk’s e-Library. • Can sort through lots of information to find relevant, useful, credible data • Can be counted on to record the references as info is found • NOTE: Procrastinators either shouldn’t do this job or should be aware that their delays will hold up the entire project. • Proofreaders • Can obsess about spelling and grammar accurately. • NOTE: If you don’t have one of these in your group, GET ONE. (Or… remember the Communications Centre, room C122 – help is available for this!)

8. The Right People for the Job • Big Picture People: • Information Management: • Sees connections • Can select useful data from a pile of research from different sources • Can organize data logically with the overall goal in mind. • Editing: • Sees things from the audience’s (and professor’s) point of view • Can see what data needs to be added, cut or changed. What’s missing or repetitive? • Can see the logical flow that the audience will experience: Is anything confusing? Is this argument logical?

9. The Right People for the Job • Big Picture + Detail People • Leader: • Can organize and motivate people. • Can see the overall progress and connections, and can notice when the details aren’t right. • Writing: • Can take organized data and place it into the required format: paragraph form, PowerPoint slides, etc. • Can create introductions, conclusions and transitions between sections of a report so that the whole thing flows seamlessly and logically.

10. Check Your Progress • Set regular meeting times, so that you can assess your progress. • Are you meeting your deadlines? • Does new information alter the direction of the project? • Is there information you just can’t find? • Refuse to cling to the plan that isn’t working or to the idea no one else wants. • Stay open to changing and improving as a team. Get help when you need it!

11. Check Your Progress • Handle problems immediately. • Contact the professor: • with research problems • about changes in the direction of the project. • about what steps you are permitted to take if a group member is not doing his/her work. • Deal with group members directly: • when someone is not meeting deadlines • when someone’s work does not meet expectations • It is not the professor’s job to manage internal problems in your group! However, he/she is often a good source of advice.

12. Progress: Difficult Situations • Speak to the person with whom you have the problem! Talking to the wrong people will not help and will waste precious time. • Communicate the problem clearly, give the member an opportunity to correct the problem, and be clear about expectations and deadlines. • Be clear about what will happen if the problem is not corrected.

13. Integrate Your Efforts • The worst group projects look like individual efforts that were slapped together thoughtlessly. • Your project should look, sound and feel like a TEAM effort. • This requires time. Lots. Leave some. • Organization of content, fonts, slide backgrounds, report headings, documentation numbering, page numbering, labels for charts/tables… ALLof these must be coordinated, correct and consistent.

14. RECAP • Know your group • Get good people and assign the right jobs for their skills. • Understand your assignment. • Be clear about the goal/purpose, audience, and all other requirements. • Organize your process. • Make expectations clear for people, tasks, deadlines. Meet early and often. • Check your progress. • Know whether you are on track. Handle problems immediately. Be willing to change your direction if needed. • Combine your work effectively. • Be sure that the end product is coordinated, cohesive, correct and consistent!