You will most likely be assigned group work during your time at University. If you are working with your group remotely, we encourage you to use online platforms such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams to arrange any group study sessions/work.
If planning a video call in the Library, please choose an appropriate floor/noise zone/room.
Things to consider when doing group work online:
This guide helps you by listing some of the software and tools available at Roehampton that you can use to work collaboratively online.
Group work offers a good opportunity to practice and demonstrate communication skills, for example: liaising with others to ensure the project is successful, dealing with problems, agreeing and delegating tasks/roles, sharing ideas and resources, providing support for each other, etc.
Group work also allows you to develop project management skills, e.g. agreeing and working to a deadline, reviewing progress and dealing with challenges/barriers that may impede successful completion of a task, learning from team members and sharing their expertise.
See our section on Group Dynamics on the Learning Skills Hub Moodle page to learn more about how to work effectively in groups to produce quality projects and assignments.
Also see our interactive tutorial on Effective Presentation Skills for information about how to plan, create and deliver an effective presentation.
When working out the project details, it is best to be able speak with your team members directly. There are three tools that you can use to communicate live with your group:
In order to manage group projects, tasks and deadlines effectively, scheduling helps to keep on track of where you are and where you're going.
You may need to share files with your team members to provide them with the resources they need to get the project done. You can use One Drive to access information from any location, including from home. That way everyone in the group can add, edit and update current information.
Microsoft OneNote - Microsoft OneNote is an online notebook that can be used to plan and track your project, collaborate on digital content and share content with your team. Get organised in notebooks you can divide into sections and pages. With easy navigation and search, you’ll always find your notes right where you left them.
One Drive - Share the files across devices with your team and can also have OneDrive personal cloud storage. Linked to your Outlook and Teams.
Moodle - is our virtual learning environment (VLE). Our Moodle guides will walk you through the need to know areas of the tool. If you can’t find what you need, please contact the Moodle helpdesk (see our contact details in the footer of the guidance pages). There are a range of teaching tools that are supported by the eLearning team which can be enabled by teachers on your modules to be used collaboratively with fellow students:
- Forums
Forums enable staff and students to communicate in a public module forum in their own time. Your lecturer will determine how Forums are used. This could be for general questions, an online seminar, group work, or getting to know your peers. A forum can be limited to a group or open to all students enrolled on the module.
Remember – all messages you post to the Forums on a module are available to staff and students enrolled on that module. It is therefore important to behave appropriately online. Our Forums Student Guidance will give more details on the different forum types, how Forums can be used for information relating to modules, peer support or groups work activities and debates, and how to participate in Forums.
- Glossaries
Glossaries allow lecturers and students to create and maintain a list of module-specific dictionary definitions. Entries can be searched or browsed in many different formats and definitions can ‘pop up’ over instances of the word whenever the term appears in the module. One useful Glossary type is the FAQ (Frequently Asked Question) which allows a question and answer to be entered instead of a word and a definition. Our Student Guidance on Using a Glossary will give more details on how this can be used in your modules.
- Using a Wiki
A wiki is a type of collaboratively authored website which can be used as a powerful tool for both reflective and collaborative learning activities. Wikis are very flexible and can be set up and edited in many ways. A Wiki may house lecture notes which an entire cohort can develop collaboratively and can act as a space in which a group can collect evidence prior to a presentation, or be used as a brainstorming facility for an individual project. Our Student Guidance on Using a Wiki will give more details on how this can be used.
- ePortfolio
Peer Review posts and pages on Individual Sites: Students can read posts and pages via a My Class widget on the class management site. They can also add comments which can be moderated by teachers.
All UoR students have access to Office 365 online as well as office on site on the open access devices, PC’s and Mac’s. You will need to login with your UoR details.
Microsoft Office 365
Get started with Office 365 for free.
Provides you a suite of Microsoft packages, including Access, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher and Word.
Even better, it can be used across your all devices. You can install Office on up to 5 personal devices (which can include PCs, Macs, tablets and smartphones).
Please note: the IT team does not support personal devices and therefore cannot assist with installation or any issues you may encounter with this. Please visit the Microsoft support pages if needed (see below).
Windows help & learning - Microsoft Support
Help and support content for Windows operating systems, including Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7. Learn about activation, installation, updates, privacy, security, and how to install the software on your devices.