ERIC Number: EJ1323837
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1055-3096
EISSN: N/A
Designing Group Assignments to Develop Groupwork Skills
Hogan, Mairéad; Young, Karen
Journal of Information Systems Education, v32 n4 p274-282 Fall 2021
The challenges of designing group assignments in university environments, with the aim of effectively developing teamwork skills, are well documented. It is often assumed that simply placing students in assignment groups will facilitate the development of the task and interpersonal skills necessary for teamwork. However, very often students circumvent this aim by dividing the assignment up and simply assembling the resultant work together at the end. This paper examines the impact of two innovative assessment approaches on the development of teamwork skills in a one semester UX (User Experience) module in a university business school. Students elected to attend either a one-day UX Hackathon or to create a tutorial on a topic relevant to User Experience Design (UXD). Both assignments required the submission of a video as the assignment report. The groupwork skills questionnaire (GSQ) was used to assess the impact of the two assignment types on students' teamwork skills. Analysis of the results demonstrated students who attended the UX hackathon exhibited significantly improved task related teamwork skills over those who completed the tutorial assignment. Neither group exhibited an improvement in interpersonal teamwork behaviors as measured by this instrument.
Descriptors: Cooperative Learning, Assignments, Group Activities, Soft Skills, Skill Development, Business Administration Education, Teamwork, Problem Solving
Journal of Information Systems Education. e-mail: editor@jise.org; Web site: http://www.jise.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A

Peer reviewed
Direct link
