Collaborative group work across campuses

We use cross-campus group work between students in Aus and Dubai often in the MBA, however, it hasn’t all been plain sailing. In an effort to encourage more harmonious group dynamics myself and Florian Gerth (UOWD) tried a few new things in trimester 1 this year. We asked students in each location to discuss what they liked and disliked about cross-campus group work. These findings were shared with the other location so they had an idea of potential issues eg. the Overuse of WhatsApp as a communication tool and reluctance to turn the camera on in meetings was a gripe of the Aus students, Dubai students thought that Aus students could be a bit bossy. We then arranged for students to meet in both an informal and formal setting within the app “gather”, where they could chat, order a virtual coffee, play Tetris and then interview each other for group membership. Group preferences were then taken for each student and used by lecturers in group formation. This exercise had the effect of allowing students at each location to get to know each other a bit better but also have some control over the group formation process. Video testimonials from students indicated that this was a beneficial exercise and substantially enhanced group dynamics and the overall student experience.