Group Work: Group Working Online

Recent years have seen much work and study moved online. This has its own mix of advantages and disadvantages, for example you cut down on travel time and have more flexibility about arranging group meetings. On the other hand, in online meetings you miss out on non-verbal cues and don't have the same level of personal interactions that you have in face-to-face meetings.

Online group work is still group work, so it has many of the same requirements as in-person groups. Online groups still need to agree ground rules organise meetings and communicate effectively. There are added challenges to online group working however,:people might have connectivity issues which might affect participation. In an online meeting really only one person can be talking at any given time, so you don't get the same dynamic as in-person meetings where it's possible to have several conversations going on at once.

A couple of suggestions for more effective online group working:

Check your technology before you start to make sure everything is working so that you're not wasting time during the meeting sorting things out
Agree some standards or rules about communicating online (e.g., muting your microphone when not speaking, not interrupting speakers) - have a look at the etiquette and best practice guides on the Links and Resources Page
Use the chat feature and have someone watching for questions
Include some time at the start of the meeting for some conversation to break the ice
If your video platform allows polling, poll attendees for input and feedback
Just like with in-person meetings, take your own notes and have a group member take notes for the meeting