Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Advanced Research in Education
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Quick-Set Groups: Facilitating Group Work in an Accelerated Course Through Scaffolded Assignments
Lauren H. Mandel, Mary Moen
ABSTRACT:
There is not much literature on how to facilitate group work for adult learners in accelerated timelines, such as in 7-week courses, where there is limited time for a group to get to know each other, gel, and produce quality work. An instructor in the leadership track of a professional master’s degree program incorporated group work into classes on advocacy and community relations by scaffolding assignments to ensure individual contributions to the group’s work. Students completed a Contract, two Projects, and Peer Review. For two weeks, each student completed an individual assignment. That work led directly into the group’s project, for which group members used the third week to combine their individual work into the group’s project, using a provided template. They also completed Peer Review assignments after submitting each project. This paper focuses on the degree to which scaffolding projects facilitates group work in an accelerated online masters course. Interviews with students and content analysis of student work will be used to measure the equity of work distribution and determine the relationship of selected contract clauses to actual peer review criteria used by students. This paper will report the results of both the content analysis and interviews. The overarching goal is to share best practices in facilitating effective student group work.
keywords: andragogy; collaborative learning; graduate education; library and information studies; online learning