Lessons Learned from Group Project Work in University

This article discusses the importance of retaining a record of project progress and the benefits of working in a group. The author shares their experience as a group leader and the techniques used to ensure all members were engaged and involved. Challenges faced and lessons learned are also discussed.

Introduction
When academic project work is finished, significant lessons are undeniably learned
hence the practice of having lessons at the end of any project work. Classwork and
teacher-student interactions eventually terminate when project development is
successfully conducted. Retaining a record of the progress of ones’ project is
important as it allows one to ensure that all relevant data obtained is included during
documentation in a well-organized, precise, continuous and complete manner.
When members work jointly for instance, in attending to group assignment(s), each
has a fair opportunity to be engaged and involved in such exercises. Personally, it has
been a privilege to attest to this in practice during our group task where each member
was equally trusted to attend to a given task through to its completion. Competency of
the member saw each making precise and well-informed presentation towards the
task. Furthermore, each member adhered to the deadline set to have the task ready. I
had the opportunity to be selected as the leader of the group given the initiative I
showed by requesting the unit coordinator through the mail to help create a group
since our group at the time did not meet the membership threshold since we were few.
Moreover, I maintained constructive interactions and engaged my group members
accordingly. Since the formation of the group at the end of week 4, all members
equally and effectively worked as a team in to get our project done. Social media
platforms such as WhatsApp, email, and messenger enabled us to connect and discuss
key assignment concerns through continuous interactions however remotely in such
instances. Each Friday of the week, all member had classes at the school hence we
would meet at the library after our respective classes to conduct our face-face
discussions regarding our project. This gave us an opportunity to also formally bond
with one another. Relevant techniques learned during my university career were
keenly and carefully applied in our group meetings. For instance, we employed the
use of a to-do list, google document as well as brainstorming flowchart techniques in
our meetings. These techniques/ strategies were useful as I found it easy to have all
members stay focused and involved throughout the discussions; in face to face
meetings as well as social media platforms discussions. In the end, everyone's idea
and contribution were fairly and continuously.
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Key points of decisions made:
I have no thread of doubt that my contributions positively impacted on the semester
assessment. All along in our group meetings, I took the initiative as a group leader to
designate tasks to each of our members. Brainstorm flow technique helped me to be
able to factor in every member’s contribution was fairly considered. Brainstorm
techniques were key to the success of the group as all proposals from the members
were heard and hence allowing for assigning of tasks to individual members or among
ourselves. Research on market aspects and council constraints formed the basis of my
contribution in Task 1 (the first of our presentation). This research was critical as it
applies significantly to the conception of our project. Completion of Task 1 was
marked by conducting and presentation of the sustainability report. My involvement
in our next presentation task 2 was to produce a possible exit strategy for the years 2,
7 and 15. Furthermore, I did Computations of Net Present Value (NPV) of the project.
Mostly, I spent my time doing research, doing computations or assigning tasks to my
group members.
Lesson learned:
Innumerable challenges were evident throughout our project work in the semester.
However, each member embraced and worked to overcome such challenges hence
ensuring success at every level. It was unanimously agreed that we face these
challenges as a team and ensure only positive response and/or outcomes. By
identifying and prioritizing on issues, understanding the potential cause of the
problem and work compliance to eliminate further instances of a particular problem as
well as effective decision making, review and keeping a record of finding; we
managed to get through any challenge that came our way.
This unmistakable strategy was connected to each obstacle that the group was looked
with. Our group utilized a group register as a powerful association device with the end
goal to stay aware of the time plan given. This was exceptionally useful as each group
member was kept on top of it of what was happening and members comprehended
what was expected of them. Moreover, our group didn't have enough individuals until
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late week 4. In the wake of staying in touch with our tutor we were put into a group
with individuals whom we didn't work with previously, along these lines this made it
very troublesome in the first place as we as a whole had distinctive learning
procedures, it likewise made it hard to distribute work to each colleague as the group
was framed in week 4. Anyway as the weeks advanced we could defeat this
hindrance.
Correspondence was a key factor in our group; we utilized different correspondence
stages, for example, mail, WhatsApp and Email to stay in contact all through the
undertaking. This truly profited our group, as each person could get contact data and
could without much of a stretch offer views and substance about the evaluation. This
likewise gave each colleague an understanding of how everybody was following, with
respect to his or her movement of work.
Also, if I somehow happened to finish this venture again I would guarantee that there
would be better time administration and structure to the underlying group association.
This would additionally keep issues in that capacity from emerging all through the
task. In any case, these key issues have obviously helped the group in further building
up their correspondence and administration abilities which will be utilized in their
future workplace.
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