How To Completely Change Group Work Using A PC

It takes a certain amount of effort to make group work, work for students. Add a PC to the mix and life gets much easier for both teacher and student. Here’s how you can completely change group work using a PC:

1) You Can Put Everything In One Place

Right from the assignment, useful websites, reading material to previous projects for student reference - with a PC you can put all the required data in one place. It can be emailed to students, updated on Google Drive^[1] or your very own WikiSpaces Classroom, so your students have one place to go for everything they need. This is beneficial as students don’t waste time searching for multiple things and have a head-start to actually focus on getting the project done on time.

2) It’s Possible To Track The Little Things

Often, tasks pile up creating last minute stress for students. By dividing up tasks into bite-size chunks, and regularly tracking milestones (no matter how small), you can make group work, work.

You can track progress by doing the following:

1. Have an in-depth conversation during class with each group.
2. Join in during a group meeting by providing some class time for meetings.
3. Regularly check what’s happening in the cloud service that you’re using.
4. Ask your students to email you once a task is completed along with regular updates of the progress made by each group member.

3) Ask Students To Evaluate Themselves

While this may seem a little risky at first but it’s worth a go as you will be able to assess who contributed the most or least in the group. Resources such as Survey Monkey^[2] and Google Form^[3] can help you ask direct as well as unlimited questions to give you a detailed overview of each student’s contribution to the final project.

Working with others is something grown-ups and students alike can’t ignore, thankfully group work is a skill that can be taught and learned. The more projects you give along with subject-specific PC learning resources, the better your students are going to get at working with others and at using a PC!