Group Work With Digital Tools
Group work is one way to facilitate interaction between students, but it is often challenging for instructors. Group work can be made easier with digital tools that offer valuable features for collaboration and communication, help streamline the process, and support productive group interactions in online and hybrid environments. A variety of such tools are available to NC State students and instructors.
This article identifies some of the group work processes that can be eased by a digital tool, and it identifies and describes the tools available at NC State that might help with each process. Guidance on where to find instructions for each tool is provided.
Tools for group creation
Grouping students can be a logistical challenge, especially in large classes. Both Moodle and Zoom have tools that can help you group students randomly (automatically), manually, or based on student choice. See “Tips and Strategies for Successful Group Work” for things to consider when deciding how to form groups.
| Tool | Support articles |
|---|---|
| Moodle groups allow you to group students manually, randomly, or by group choice. | Creating and Adding Users to Moodle Groups – manual and random grouping Using the Group Choice Activity in Moodle – allowing students to self-select their Moodle group |
| Zoom breakout rooms: allow small groups to meet within a larger meeting. To allow students to self-select a group in Zoom, create the breakout rooms and then choose “Allow participants to choose room” in the Breakout Room options. | How to manage breakout rooms in a meeting – guidance on manual and random/automatic grouping into breakout rooms and how to save breakout room assignments for future use. Enabling creation of meeting breakout rooms from poll results |
Tools for group communication
Group members need a means to communicate effectively with each other. Google, Moodle, and Zoom all have tools to help groups communicate. Instructors will need to consider whether they want to have access to group communications to monitor progress or use communication records to assess student participation.
| Tool | Support articles |
|---|---|
| Moodle: “Separate group mode” in a forum activity provides a channel for asynchronous discussion between group members. Instructors can easily view (and participate) in these group discussions, but students in other groups cannot. | Using Groups with Moodle Forums |
| Google Chat enables students to collaborate in real-time or asynchronously from mobile devices and desktops. Instructors can choose to include themselves in group chats, in order to encourage active participation, ensure accountability among group members, and/or facilitate task delegation. Chat integrates with other Google applications so collaborators can chat with other members active in the document. | Get Started with Google Chat Chat with others in a file in Google |
| Google Docs can assist with group communication through commenting, suggesting mode and emoji reactions, making it easy for students to provide feedback and refine shared documents. | Commenting in Google docs Emoji Reactions in Google docs |
| Zoom – Students may meet in Zoom independently, or you can provide time within synchronous class sessions for small group breakout room discussions. If you are concerned about student participation, you might ask students to provide a recording, transcript (captured automatically with a cloud recording), or an AI summary of their discussion. | Enabling Meeting Summary with AI Companion How to record in a breakout room |
Tools for task management and progress-tracking
Group projects require clear task delegation, deadlines, and progress tracking. Without a structured system, tasks may fall through the cracks, and workloads can feel uneven. Additionally, many students may lack experience with project management and introducing digital tools is important for professional development. Tools within Google files help groups assign roles, set timelines, and monitor progress on a shared dashboard, ensuring accountability and clarity.
| Tool | Support articles |
|---|---|
| Google checklists can add to-do items to Google Docs or Sheets for project-tracking purposes. Group members can assign specific checklist items to collaborators to maintain clarity on responsibility. | Add a numbered list, bulleted list, or checklist to a Google Doc |
| Google action items can assign items within document comments to delegate tasks or request reviews. Assigned comments can integrate with Google Tasks, enabling individuals to track their personal responsibilities seamlessly. | Use comments, action items, & emoji reactions in a Google Doc |
| Google interactive smart chips allow one to create dropdown menus to assign roles, set task statuses, or outline priorities; dates & timers to schedule deadlines or time collaborative work; and voting chips to group input or finalize decisions interactively. | Insert smart chips & building blocks in your Google Doc |
| Google Building Blocks include templates for project planning, such as meeting notes for groups to document their discussions and project trackers to create visual maps of timelines and deliverables. | Insert smart chips & building blocks in your Google Doc |
| Google approval workflow enables reviewing and finalizing of collaborative documents as individuals can request sign-offs, ensuring everyone agrees before submission. This feature simplifies asynchronous collaboration and promotes consensus. | Get approvals on files in Google Drive |
Tools for collaboration
When collaborating on shared documents, miscommunication, overlapping edits and version control issues can create headaches and slow progress. Digital tools help avoid these issues by enabling real-time co-authoring, tracking changes, and providing centralized access for smooth teamwork.
| Tool | Support articles |
|---|---|
| Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides provide powerful collaboration features that allow multiple users to work on a single document simultaneously viewing edits as they happen. | Share files from Google Drive – explains how to control access levels (edit, comment or view) based on individual, group, domain, etc. Find what’s changed in a file – explains how to track changes, recover older versions, or monitor individual contributions |
| Zoom Whiteboards enable teams to map out project plans, establish timelines, assign tasks, and annotate diagrams. Collaborators can add and edit content synchronously or asynchronously to brainstorm ideas or outline projects using features like drawing tools, sticky notes, and text annotations. Access settings ensure that only designated group members can view or edit the whiteboard; instructors can join as group members to monitor progress and provide feedback. | Getting started with Zoom Whiteboard Digital Whiteboards for Teaching and Learning |
Tools for presentation of work
Presenting group work with other groups can be a challenge. Poor preparation or mismanagement of sharing settings can lead to unnecessary delays and confusion. Digital tools streamline the process by providing platforms that make uploading, sharing, and presenting work straightforward and efficient.
| Tool | Support articles |
|---|---|
| Moodle forums with visible group mode allow groups to post their work (perhaps a link to a presentation, file, etc.) for the rest of the class to view. Group members can post to their group’s forum; others have view-only access. | Using Groups with Moodle Forums |
| A regular Moodle forum can be set up without group mode, and one member of each group can start a discussion by posting their group’s work (perhaps a link to a presentation, file, etc.) to the forum. | Using Groups with Moodle Forums |
| Google Slides built-in recording feature enables users to create and share presentations asynchronously. Recording is supported only in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers; viewing and sharing recordings can be done from any browser. Each recording has a 30-minute time limit, and sufficient space must be available in Google Drive to store the recording. | Use slides recording in Google Slides |
| In VoiceThread, groups to create interactive presentations that blend multimedia elements with threaded discussions. Groups can upload media and collaboratively contribute voice or text comments and narration. Students can share their VoiceThread link through a Moodle forum or through a VoiceThread Moodle activity where students add their presentations to a student gallery. It is possible to allow peers to ask questions or provide feedback. | – VoiceThread: Interactive Presentations and Student Discussions – How to use new assignments in VoiceThread (student gallery) – How to comment in VoiceThread |
Tools for assessment and evaluation
Full details and affordances of tools for group work assessment and evaluation can be found in the Teaching Resources article “Assessment and Evaluation of Group Work in Moodle.”
| Google forms – cam be used for self- or peer-evaluation | Sample self-evaluation form Sample peer evaluation form (make a copy of these adjust according to your expectations) |
| Moodle Peerwork activity allows group members to upload their work and also evaluate each other according to a rubric the instructor creates. You can decide how much of each person’s final grade each component counts for. | Peerwork activity Moodle doc |
| Moodle Assignment in group mode allows one member of a group to upload the group’s work to an assignment. Each group member gets the same grade. | Assignment settings Moodle doc |
Resources
Other articles in this group work series include: