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Student Guide to Group Work

This guide offers you an introductory video and three modules to help you engage in successful group work. Each module, shown below, contains a short video and a section titled Tips, Tools & Templates offering practical tips and downloadable checklists, activities, templates and more to help you engage in effective group work as part of coursework in a university context. Students may benefit from using this guide in tandem with the recently launched Student Project Toolkit.

This module focuses on key tips and techniques for fostering a strong team dynamic early on in the course of a group project with the goal of building a solid foundation for all the work and stages that follow. You’ll learn to appreciate typical stages a group will go through and how to navigate these stages in ways that produce a successful outcome.

This module explores why effective communication is key to group success and shares communication strategies and techniques to foster constructive, respectful communication in general and specific contexts like group meetings or dealing with difficult conversations. You’ll also learn about different modes and tools to support communication in group settings.

This module focuses on strategies and techniques for effective group project planning to help your group stay on track and meet deadlines. This includes identifying and negotiating roles, learning about tools and approaches that can help you plan effectively, as well as highlighting resources to help your group with key academic skills, like research and writing, which are commonly integral to the group project planning process.

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Except where otherwise noted, all resources in the Student Guide to Group Work, authored by the Learning Commons at York University in 2020, are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. If you reuse, adapt or build upon this work, please cite The Student Guide to Group Work, Learning Commons, York University and link to https://learningcommons.yorku.ca/groupwork/