Best practices for project-based learning
Group project courses offer a unique opportunity to teach teamwork, but managing team dynamics and ensuring good collaboration can be demanding. Whether you’re teaching a project course yourself or coordinating a broader teaching team, this site is here to support you. The materials revolve around the most commonly asked questions by teachers related to project-based teaching, which can hopefully help and inspire you in your own teaching development.
The focus in the materials is in practical solutions that are aimed to help you make informed and manageable decisions in your teaching and course deisgn. Whether you're designing a new course or refining an existing one, these materials aim to make teamwork teaching feel less like an extra burden, and more like a meaningful part of your course.
Preparing your course
Tips related to course planning
What should I teach about teamwork?
Project work alone doesn’t build teamwork skills systematically, well-designed learning activities are required.
What should I consider if I’m planning to use peer assessment?
Make peer assessment fair by keeping it clear, simple, and transparently linked to grading.
How can I use project instructors to support my teams?
Support instructors with clarity and encouragement. It helps them help students, and makes the course run more smoothly.
Getting teams started
Tips on how to get teams formed and running
How do I form project teams within my course?
This section outlines the 'how to' of forming project teams.
What are good initial team-building exercises?
Ideas about simple, purposeful activities to kick-start team interaction, align working styles, and ease the first steps of collaboration
Fostering smooth collaboration
How to ensure that your student teams can work well throughout your project course.
One of my teams is struggling, should I intervene and how?
Team issues are normal. Support teams early, talk things through, and help them take small steps toward better collaboration.
How do I provide opportunities for team development and reflection?
Help teams improve by building in moments for structured reflection – small changes in collaboration can make a big difference.
Help teams improve by building in moments for structured reflection.
