Online Student Team Assignments: The Why and How

Abstract

Many online students dislike team assignments, and for some fairly good reasons: unresponsive classmates, grades relying on others, misunderstandings about instructions causing arguments, time constraints, and other problems can cause anxiety and apathy that lead to poor performance. Despite faculty's insistence that the workplace often requires teamwork, the connection of student team projects to usefulness is getting lost. The online classroom can still successfully support teamwork, however, with good communication, planning, and use of appropriate tools. Careful curriculum design, techniques in setting up teams, identifying motivation and encouraging diversity, mitigating problems as they occur, and using ethical grading methods are crucial, along careful evaluation and selection of collaborative tools.