Group project practices and guidance in higher education contexts
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Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Anecdotal good practice in group projects is widely available. In the academic context group project work offers potential for real world experience development along with enabling activities to be undertaken within limited resources. Nevertheless, concerns exist regarding aspects such as fairness, burden and unpopularity. This paper provides a review of commonly cited best practice for group projects, supplemented by a cross-university review undertaken by students of group projects at Imperial in combination with guidance from three other universities. Arising highlighted good practice principles include prioritization, holding a kick-off meeting, establishment of project scope and objectives, attention to group composition, resource planning, change management, project planning, risk management, documentation, communication, cooperation, culture and psychological safety, dependability, sense of purpose, conflict management and feedback. From the extensive body of guidance available it is evident that we could learn more from industrial approaches to project management. However, it is also acknowledged that maximizing outcomes may not maximize learning, especially for academically weaker and stronger students. A recommendation arising from practice in some modules and industry includes ongoing attention to project management training and role development during a project so that practitioners can continue to learn and upskill within a project and specific role, rather than relying on training sessions before a project.
Date Issued
2025-07-18
Date Acceptance
2025-06-23
Citation
Frontiers in Education, 2025, 10
ISSN
2504-284X
Publisher
Frontiers Media S.A.
Journal / Book Title
Frontiers in Education
Volume
10
Copyright Statement
© 2025 Wang, Gupta, Page, Agg, Spivey, Hazeri, Zou, Zhao, Lucas and Childs. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
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Publication Status
Published
Article Number
1614627
Date Publish Online
2025-07-18