SmartGroup: A Tool for Small-Group Learning Activities

Haining Zhu, Na Li, Nitish Kumar Rai and John M. Carroll ()
Additional contact information
Haining Zhu: Stack Exchange Inc., New York, NY 10038, USA
Na Li: College of Information Science and Technology, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA 16803, USA
Nitish Kumar Rai: College of Information Science and Technology, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA 16803, USA
John M. Carroll: College of Information Science and Technology, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA 16803, USA

Future Internet, 2022, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-26

Abstract: Small-group learning activities (SGLAs) offer varied active learning opportunities and student benefits, but higher education instructors do not universally adopt SGLAs, in part owing to management burdens. We designed and deployed the SmartGroup system, a tool-based approach to minimize instructor burdens while facilitating SGLAs and associated benefits by managing peer group formation and peer group work assessment. SmartGroup was deployed in one course over 10 weeks; iterations of SmartGroup were provided continuously to meet the instructor’s needs. After deployment, the instructor and teaching assistant were interviewed, and 20 anonymous post-study survey responses were collected. The system exposed students to new perspectives, fostered meta-cognitive opportunities, and improved weaker students’ performances while being predominantly well-received in terms of usability and satisfaction. Our work contributes to the literature an exploration of tool-assisted peer group work assessment in higher education and how to promote wider SGLA adoption.

Keywords: active learning; collaborative learning; peer assessment; peer evaluation; peer grading; appeal; team-based learning; teamwork; education technology; iterative design; meta-cognition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/15/1/7/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/15/1/7/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jftint:v:15:y:2022:i:1:p:7-:d:1014856

Access Statistics for this article

Future Internet is currently edited by Ms. Grace You

More articles in Future Internet from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().