Making Groupwork Work: A Guide to Communication and Structure
Key Contributors: Olive Ndungu and Iman Ellahi
Background
Group projects can be challenging for any student, but for neurodivergent students, the difficulties are often compounded by factors like social demands and sensory overload. The approach to group projects varies across departments. For Materials Science and Engineering, for example, group projects have at least four students assigned based on past grades. The project duration can range from either one afternoon of collaborative work to multiple terms that contribute significantly to our grade that year. These include design-related projects in 1st and 2nd year, and labs in 3rd year, all of which include written coursework, presentations, and some kind of final report. At the beginning of projects, groups are each assigned a supervisor who provides ongoing in-person feedback on coursework and general guidance. After submitting the final report, group members individually submit a peer review, which contributes to few percentage of the final mark for that module.
This article outlines some common challenges of collaborative work and offers advice on how to navigate them more effectively. The focus of this article is mainly on the social communication and interactions.