Student perceptions of collaborative group work (CGW) in higher education

Despite the vast body of research surrounding collaborative group work (CGW) and its potential to enhance learning and engagement, questions persist in relation to the effectiveness of CGW initiatives in the development of teamwork skills amongst students in higher education. Prior studies have tended to measure the effectiveness of teamwork and group work through student grades, however, this is increasingly seen as problematic, with more researchers stressing the importance of student perceptions as a better measure of the efficaciousness of CGW. This paper presents the findings from an Australian study which set out to investigate student perceptions of the effectiveness of a technology-enhanced groupwork assessment on student learning outcomes, including teamwork skills and self-evaluative judgement skills. An unexpected event in the beginning of 2020, that being the global COVID-19 pandemic, affected learning and teaching in significant ways, with all students forced to learn online, inevitably impacting their experience with this CGW initiative. Adopting a qualitative inductive research methodology, the findings suggest that students perceive collaborative group work as beneficial in many ways, though it is not without its challenges, one of those being the global pandemic and its ripple effect of remote learning, isolation and increased difficulty with collaboration. This unforeseen event and its impact on the delivery of education elicited interesting results about CGW in the online context. Findings may advance the understanding and implementation of CGW in higher education, particularly in an online learning context.