Using Peer Feedback to Motivate Teamwork in an Online Learning Environment

The Value And Challenges Of Teamwork

Being able to work effectively as part of a team or group is regarded by many employers as one of the most valuable soft skills that employees can possess (Gruzdev et al., 2018). Teamwork is highly valued in professional business situations, which is one of the primary reasons why postgraduate programs often make extensive use of collaborative tasks, such as group reports and presentations (Plant et al., 2019). In seminars and workshops, students are routinely asked to solve problems or generate solutions using a collaborative, team-based approach (Forsell et al., 2020). In the authors’ university, an increasing proportion of graduate summative assessments are based on group tasks. In the University’s School of Management, use could be described as extensive.

Students themselves recognise that working with others in a team can provide advantages, in that the synergy of the group can result in a higher level of efficiency and improved outcomes (Hunief et al., 2020). There is sometimes a reassuring sense of relief expressed by the authors’ students when they first learn that a summative assessment will be based on a group task, perhaps because they initially perceive that completing the task will be easier as they will benefit from the input of others. However, once faced with the reality of collaboration on summative tasks, such assumptions can be deceptive as teamwork is a skill that students find challenging to execute and develop, even more so when operating in an online learning environment (Vlachopoulos & Makri, 2019). Many university students have had little experience of working with others on high stakes, summative assessments and find the process confusing, uncomfortable and stressful, compounded by the common perception that each member of the group being awarded a single outcome mark is unfair (Li & Campbell, 2008). Sharing the burden of responsibility for a group task in an equitable and purposeful way is difficult. Improving teamwork may be a slow process, often involving trial and error, and relying on frank and honest feedback.

As part of the way in which courses are evaluated, the authors regularly collect feedback from students. This feedback, although generally positive, has often referred to inequity that manifests itself when tasks are completed in groups. The contributions made by group members are often regarded as unequal; this is an issue that may not only impact upon the quality of work produced, but on the motivation that students have for completing the work and their enthusiasm for engaging with a true team-based approach. This perceived weakness of group-based assessment may be familiar to readers.

Inequity in collaborative assessment is arguably because group activities are vulnerable to so-called ‘freeriders’, who might contribute little but are happy to benefit from the efforts of more motivated students and receive credit for the completed task (Bace, 2016). When a summative assessment is based on a group task, such issues of inequity can lead to resentment from those who perceive the entire process to be flawed, in turn affecting the commitment and motivation of other students, including those who would otherwise be engaged and driven. Aware of these problems, the authors of this chapter sought to find a way to motivate students to engage more enthusiastically with group tasks and to demonstrate a high level of commitment to their teams by sharing responsibilities in a more equitable way.