What are the best platforms for communication online? 

In the modern age, there are many ways to communicate online effectively. Many platforms are easily accessible to students, making communication and task management easy, even for large groups! 

Meetings and calls

• Google Meetings, Zoom, Skype, and GoToMeeting are ideal for chatting over video to discuss projects. These programs also allow screen sharing to share files and update the team on your progress! 
• Blackboard Collaborate and Microsoft Teams are designed for online education, with the ability to video call, share and collaborate on files simultaneously! 

Messaging  

• Facebook Messenger is particularly effective as it’s fast, accessible, and almost everyone already has a Facebook account! It’s a great way to give and get instant feedback, ask questions, and create groups.  

• Slack is another popular messaging platform to communicate in channels. If you’re worried about social loafing, this one is for your team! Teams that use Slack show significantly less social loafing since everyone can see each members’ contribution. 

How do you keep your group motivated? 

When working together in a group, sometimes the project may drag along, and your teammates can lose interest. This can limit the quality of your project.  

Here are a few tips to help keep your group motivated:

• Setting clear goals eliminates uncertainty in the group. By making each member’s responsibilities and expectations clear, this helps the group succeed with little confusion about who’s doing what.  

• Encouraging collaboration between group members is a great motivator. It creates a less lonely working environment and helps you get to know each other better. 

• Regular meetings keep members organised and on track.

• Assigning a team leader will help ensure that progress is continuous all throughout the task. They can create a friendly meeting space where members can discuss and give feedback. 

• Avoid harsh criticisms, be constructive! When working for deadlines, members can get stressed, and the last thing they need is harsh criticism. Through constructive criticism, members can learn from their mistakes and perform more effectively. 

What are some good apps to use to organise group work? 

• Trello is an app that allows users to create online boards for large tasks, where they can be broken down and organised using a virtual ‘card’ system. Each card can be used to group different tasks and assign them to members.  

• Wrike is an app which organises teams into departments or tasks. It includes a proof tool that lets users make suggestions and approve images, writing and emails. It also has a feature to generate a Gantt Chart! 

• Todoist is a platform for collaborative to-do lists. It creates a personal list of daily tasks and includes a point reward system (named karma) that motivates members by keeping track of completed tasks. 

• Asana is a task management app for teams tackling larger projects and can be accessed on a laptop or mobile phone. Each task has a convenient chat feature, allowing members to discuss progress and adjustments. The inbox feature helps you keep track of multiple projects, provides a full list of your tasks. 

How can students create an effective timeline to ensure the assignment is submitted by the deadline? 

Keeping on top of your work by creating an effective timetable is crucial to your success at uni! Here are some ways that students can do that: 

• Start early! Plan for assessment tasks. Gantt Charts can help break down and visualise the assignment into subtasks with their own deadlines. This makes the assignment a lot more digestible!  

• Write things down! Note down, in a diary or calendars, when you need to be starting parts of the assignment and remind yourself of the deadlines. 

• Regularly check online announcements, forums and resources. This keeps you updated on due dates, submissions and changes. 

• Use apps to organise tasks and keep track of deadlines.