Working as part of a group is a key part of many courses. Remembering these 5 tips will help make group work flow a bit easier!

Assign Roles

When working in a group, it’s important that people are assigned roles and responsibilities from the start. This way everyone is contributing, and things are less likely to fall between the cracks and be forgotten about. When everyone has a clearly defined role, this means that the work can be divided up evenly and no one is left with nothing to do.

Communicate Regularly

While regular meetings might seem like the ideal way to keep in touch, people are busy. Meeting regularly in person can be difficult to arrange and you might not be able to get everyone in the same place at the same time. Communication is key in group projects, and using technology is a fantastic way to keep in touch. Having a closed Facebook group, a WhatsApp Messenger group or sharing documents via Google Drive are all great ways to keep in contact and update each other during the group project.

Have a Clear Schedule

Agreeing on a schedule for the project, and setting clear, realistic deadlines means that all members of the group understand what is happening and when.

Leave Some Cushion-Time

No-one wants to be panicking the night before the assignment is due, so factor in time between when you expect to have the project finished, and when it needs to be submitted. If you are all working on parts of the project individually, factor in that you will need time to edit, restructure and format so that the assignment looks cohesive and not like a patch-work of lots of different pieces.

Stay Positive

Although working in a group can be frustrating sometimes, especially if you feel everyone is not contributing equally, remember that group projects are a great way to develop skills you can use in the working world. Most jobs involve some aspects of working as part of a group, so look at this as good practice for negotiating and achieving a goal as part of a team.