Commencing with the experience of working with a group in general, I have never thought I can enjoy or prefer group work. But this wasn’t until I joined university. My way of thinking and dealing with people has completely changed. I realized how important it is to exchange knowledge and experience with other people. Actually, after passing through different experiences in different group projects, I can tell that being part of a group is a great opportunity for students to acquire variety of skills and develop their own knowledge. In this blog I will be sharing my experience in a group presentation that was meant to develop my team work skills.

Let me begin with how we, as a group, prepared for this group assessment. As any group work, we had to start with knowing each other. I took the initiative and started to contact all the group members so we can have a group chat to easily communicate with each other. Then, we went through the very first step of group work which is the planning process, where we had to choose a company to be the core of our presentation. We started working immediately, right after one of the group members suggested a company. Then, we moved to one of the most substantial steps of working with a group, which is organizing. While each one was picking the part that he believes will finish effectively, we were finally able to divide all the tasks among us collaboratively. Indeed, this allowed us to share responsibility and feel more involved to the group. Although it was a challenge to be working completely remote, we were able to leverage the experience.

Taking it personally, I realized that working on this assessment as a group is much more beneficial than working individually. I had the opportunity to develop my own personality as I became more receptive towards any new idea or suggestion, flexible with dealing with people, and honest. All these traits directly reflected on my communication skills. In fact, the experience I obtained from this group assessment greatly influenced my style of working as well, in which I became more organized and plan-focused. Not only did I finish my work in a shorter period of time than if I worked alone, but also discussing a particular idea with different perspectives was pivotal for a better understanding and more creativity. Besides, I did not just develop my own skills, I also acquired new ones. For instance, I became more patient and confident while doing a presentation.

To make this short, this experience gave me the chance to get to know new people, broaden my communication skills, and widen my own perspective. I can also say that it was an opportunity to develop my employability skills that will certainly impact my future career. As an overall experience, I can say that this group assessment was really engaging and useful to me on a personal level.

References:

kopackka, 2018. Extreme Group Work: Cooperative Learning. [Online]
Available at: https://blogs.miamioh.edu/edt431-531/2018/10/extreme-group-work-cooperative-learning/
[Accessed 29 January 2021].

musolfnj, 2019. More Than Just Group Work. [Online]
Available at: https://blogs.miamioh.edu/edt431-531/2019/10/more-than-just-group-work/
[Accessed 30 January 2021].

PMR, 2014. Offsets Working Group. [Online]
Available at: https://www.thepmr.org/events/eventlist/working-groups/offsets-working-group-march-3-2014
[Accessed 30 January 2021].

Sugarman, I., 2019. Facing up to the challenges of the reformed functional skills. [Online]
Available at: https://feweek.co.uk/2019/05/21/facing-up-to-the-challenges-of-the-reformed-functional-skills/
[Accessed 29 January 2021].