Facilitating Group Work in Your Brightspace Course

Originally presented for CAT+FD on 27 October 2022 by Ms. Janice Florent and Dr. Elizabeth Yost Hammer

“Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just by sitting in classes listening to teachers, memorizing prepackaged assignments, and spitting out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences and apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves.” (Chickering & Gamson, 1987).

If structured well, group projects can promote important intellectual and social skills and help to prepare students for a work world in which teamwork and collaboration are increasingly the norm. Take advantage of Brightspace's groups tool for online group activities that give your students the benefits of working collaboratively in your courses.

This workshop, the twelfth in our #LEX Advanced series, builds on the skills you learned in the #LearnEverywhereXULA course and shows you how you can use the Brightspace groups tool to facilitate online group activities and build community in your courses.

Pre-Workshop Assignment

• Watch this Online Teamwork and Collaboration video (5 minutes) - to be completed before the workshop.

Resources

Slide Deck

• Workshop Slides

Plan and Facilitate Group Work

• Designing Effective Group Work
• Facilitate Effective Group & Team Work
• Using Cooperative Learning Groups Effectively
• Using Group Projects Effectively
• Facilitating and Monitoring Group Work
• Small-Group Learning in Higher Education—Cooperative, Collaborative, Problem-Based, and Team-Based Learning
• Strategies for Implementing Group Work in Large Classes: Lessons from Enquiry-Based Learning
• Promote Active Learning in Group Projects Through the Use of the Transparent Assignment Framework
• Supporting Students to Reflect on their Group Work
• How to Survive Virtual Group Work (resource for students)

Assessing Group Work

• Group Work Assessment
• Assessing Group Work
• Assessing Group Work and Participation

Brightspace Groups Tool

• Brightspace Groups
• Groups Tool How-to’s
• Best Practices for Setting Up Groups
• Best Practices for Group Enrollment

Grading Group Assignments in Brightspace

• How do I assign Grades for an entire group? Also individually?
• Grading an Assignment (Individual or Group)

Rubrics

• Sample Group Work Rubric
• Brightspace Rubrics Tool

Surveys

• Get Feedback from Your Students