Collaboration essentials
Why are there teamwork assignments at university?
Teamwork assignments have many benefits and are common at university because they:
- allow you to collaborate with and learn from your classmates
- allow you to practise the functional skills required for future group work in the workplace
- help you practise the key interpersonal and communication skills required for effective group work
- simulate professional experience in the workplace.
For example, teamwork assignments can help you to better understand what it takes to effectively manage small-scale projects in the professional world.
Here are the key skills needed for completing your teamwork assignments:
- time and project management
- organisation and planning
- leadership and delegation
- diplomacy and mediation
- negotiation and cooperation
- collaboration and inclusion
- respect and tolerance
- communication and presentation.
Types of teamwork assignments and associated skills
For teamwork assignments, you may find yourself in pairs, small teams of 2 to 3 people or larger teams with 4 or more members. These assignments usually involve (1) a research component and (2) a creation component. This means you often need to apply your own independent research to what you have studied in class in order to meet specific task requirements.
