Working in groups is both exciting and educational, but at times it might also be difficult and frustrating. The unique strength of group-oriented project work is the opportunity it provides for you to learn in close cooperation with your fellow students in a forum in which you may share your thoughts, perspectives and work methods. But project work is also a challenging learning mode. You may find yourself in a group that does not live up to your expectations. Perhaps one of your fellow group members is not doing their share or you may find it difficult to work with one of your fellow group members.
Group work is no stranger to conflict – when you spend so much time together as a group and work together on an issue that you all feel passionate about and have opinions about, it is almost inevitable for disagreements to occur somewhere along the way. Whenever this happens, it is essential that you manage to deal with these conflicts in a constructive manner and re-establish cooperation. This is also a skill and experience that will prepare you for the labour market. In your future job, whatever collaborative difficulties may have come your way, you will be expected to submit a complete and professional product. Quite simply, you must be able to cooperate with all kinds of people.
This is why it is crucial that you and you group manage to cooperate and communicate with each other. The project group as a whole is responsible for creating a satisfactory project which will enable the group members to pass the oral examination. Therefore, you are all expected to take responsibility for your own learning and to actively participate in completing the project and the supervision offered to you. Actively participating means studying literature, collecting empirical data, conducting analyses, asking questions, making comments and sharing your views in your day-to-day work and in group meetings, etc. In other words, your performance and contribution is essential to the success of your group.
For a group to be successful, its members should already discuss their mutual expectations during the group formation. This way the group can make sure that all members have a somewhat shared approach towards project cooperation and have similar expectations of the quality of the finished project. If you have already discussed such matters before the process begins, you are less likely to fall out if one group member wants time off to go on a skiing holiday while another group member wants to work on the project every day.
It may also be a good idea for you to discuss your personal strengths and weaknesses and tell your group of areas in which you may want to improve. Perhaps some of you are very attentive to detail and enjoy adding the final touches to your written work while others may prefer to work with the initial phase of generating ideas and the first steps of creating a text. We should all appreciate the fact that everyone has their individual strengths and weaknesses, and you might as well take advantage of this when working in groups. If you all know how to tell your group what you can and want to achieve, you may ease your appreciation and understanding of each other, and working together as a group may become a natural and educational experience.
Shortly after having formed your group, you may choose to prepare a cooperation contract which may become instrumental in ensuring and maintaining a set of common guidelines for your group work. This may seem strange and unnatural, but it might be a good idea to at least discuss and write down your expectations of each other; this way you can all come to an agreement and decide on any consequences for group members who fail to follow these guidelines. When preparing a cooperation contract, you may want to include the following:
- How do you wish for the group work to proceed?
- What are your expectations to the working process and to the finished product? Do you have similar levels of ambition?
- Distribution of work and roles in the group. Will one group member be responsible for taking minutes (notes) at meetings or will you take turns?
- How is each group member expected to prepare for group meetings?
- Where and when do you plan for the group to meet?
- How will you prioritise project work in relation to student jobs, families, friends, etc.?
- Which group member will be responsible for contacting the supervisor?
- What are the consequences if group members fail to show up for group work/group meetings or miss their deadlines?
During the first semesters, project work may seem highly challenging; but each semester you become more and more experienced in working on projects and in groups, and for most students the process becomes easier along the way. Most students quickly learn how to best structure a project and a project process. You will learn how much time you have for collecting empirical data, how much time you can spend on writing the different sections of your projects, which sections of a project are compulsory, how to make best use of your supervisor, etc. After the first semesters, when most of the pre-defined aspects of working on a project become ‘basic knowledge’ to you and your fellow students, this will enable you to spend more time and energy on the academic contents of your product.
SPLITTING GROUPS
In some cases, for some reason or other, you may need to split up your group. A group should never be split up precipitately – bear in mind that you will learn a lot from complicated cooperation. Nevertheless, if for any reason you need to split up your group, this must be done no later than 1 December during autumn semesters and no later than 1 May during spring semesters. It is essential that you discuss the possibility of splitting up the group with your supervisor. You will find more information in the downloadable codex on splitting groups (in Danish).
Associate professor at Aalborg University Bettina Dahl Søndergaard offers her views on how project groups may work towards aligning their expectations. Watch the video on YouTube.
Aalborg University’s rector, Per Michael Johansen provides a brief account on his time as a student at AAU and how group work was conducted at that time. Watch the video on YouTube.