Framing positive transformation for students learning : Collaborative coursework guidance

Organizing students of a large cohort (e.g., over 300 students) in groups of 4-5 members for an assignment is an approach suggested to make the assignment authentic and less tedious. However due to the diversity, cultural challenges in each group, and varying ideas on how to complete the assignment can result in some inappropriate academic conduct by the students. There have been many attempts by students to outsource the assignment or use academically unapproved software such as the ChatGPT writing software. However, to ensure the integrity of the assignments and authenticity of students’ submitted work, the module team trailed a method for enabling collaborative guidance on the assignments. This involved the module team having personal meetings with each of the student groups during tutorial sessions. It was discovered that some of the students, though in the same programme of study had never had interactions with each other; this made it, difficult for them to initiate the level of interaction required by the assignment.