The group project. Few words strike fear into the heart of the graduate student. And, why wouldn’t it? Compared to individual work, group projects tend to involve a higher degree of preparation, accountability, coordination, and communication in order to ensure successful and timely completion. Below, I’ll detail some of the key lessons learned from two of the group projects successfully completed thus far:
INFM 210 – Health Informatics: If I had to sum up this project in three words, it’d be, “Preparation is key.” Due to the three-fold nature of this project – website, presentation, and report – it was imperative that my team and I started the groundwork for this project immediately. Though my team and I started communicating about our project’s topic and rough outline as early as the 3rd week, I’d recommend starting as early as possible to mitigate any potential roadblocks and to prepare for anything unexpected. Additionally, we had frequent and consistent communication to foster a sense of accountability with one another. Utilizing Google Workspace, we used this application to create tasks, keep track of deadlines, and share working documents for ease of collaboration. Additionally, it is equally important to know each team member’s strengths and areas for improvement. In doing so, we were able to work together in a way that harnessed our strengths and actively supported one another in areas that might not have been our forte. Preparation was the key to our success, and it definitely proved to be instrumental in helping us to achieve a grade that we all were floored about.
INFM 213 – Epidemiological Methods: In this particular course, our team successfully tackled two projects. Through these projects, we learned the significance of timely and consistent asynchronous communication, especially with one of our team members located in the Central European Time region. Additionally, after submitting one of our projects, we were reminded of the importance of checking sharing permissions for group projects being shared via a link.
Through these experiences and previous others, I have learned to appreciate the different perspectives and contributions that each member brings to the table, understanding that it takes the whole team to see a group project through to fruition.