Unexplained absences, not sticking to deadlines, free-riding on others to do the work… Do these things sound familiar? I’m sure throughout your time as a student be it in high school or even in workplace settings like during an internship or part-time job you will have gone through such instances and just remained silent about it while complaining in private or with others who are dealing with a similar situation.

Fret not, as someone who has gone through it and learnt how to deal or improve on the process, here I lay out the steps for success when dealing with group assignments:

• Firstly it is important to establish a set of group guidelines. Introduce each other from the start and find out everybody’s strengths and preferred ways of working. Try to recognise that everyone has an opinion and that individuals have different methods of working and learning.
• Draw out a timeline for your project and set deadlines for individual tasks.
• Discuss the group’s task or activity in order to reach a shared understanding and clearly state this near the top of the space everyone is working on so people can refer back to it when necessary.
• Appoint a group leader and also a scribe to record the group’s activities and meeting minutes.
• Get everyone to read around the topic initially to facilitate the division of the task and identify particular interests. Make sure you are clear on everyone else’s tasks in order to prevent duplication.
• Designate roles and tasks and ensure that each individual or subgroup has a sense of responsibility and accountability to meet the timeline.
• Discuss how you are going to approach the problem. Brainstorm to create ideas, plans and tasks for your group. Everyone should be involved in the discussion and in agreement on what direction the group is taking and why.
• Once you have decided on your tasks and roles it is vital that you arrange regular meetings to review your progress and decide on what direction your work should take next.
• Any resources, information or knowledge should be shared, some good tools are Slack, Padlet, GroupMap, Google Drive and Microsoft Teams.

I hope these tips will prove useful and steer you to success in your future group work tasks!