Designing an innovative digital group work assignment to foster employability: an adaptable hybrid approach for the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond

ABSTRACT

A strategic priority for university educators is to ensure graduates have developed a range of transferable skills. An important skill required by employers is the development of digital capabilities. The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the move of courses into blended formats which provided an opportunity for educators to redesign their modules to embed digital skills. During this challenging context, the Biological Sciences Department at Royal Holloway, University of London, in collaboration with the E- Learning and Careers Teams, capitalised on existing Microsoft technologies to launch an innovative online group project for a first-year module. This collaborative approach to curriculum design increased capacity to pivot quickly, and readily support students, as well as ensuring that learnings from the design process could be widely disseminated. The virtual collaborative assessment had high engagement and supported the development of transferable skills such as teamwork, digital literacy, and communication. The incorporation of a guided self-reflective exercise into the assessment allowed students to evidence the transferable skills they had acquired. By frontloading these foundational skills into an assessment early in their education, we increased capacity to build on these skills in future years across the wider programme. The design, which used asynchronous online technologies, also increased the capacity of staff to fit marking and student queries around their schedules. Our findings demonstrated that through online group work and guided self-reflective assessment, students developed transferable skills that would benefit them in their future careers. This transformative approach could be utilised across other departments, both in remote and hybrid environments.

KEYWORDS:

• Reflection
• Microsoft 365
• group work
• skills
• hybrid learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contributions

Shobana Dissanayeke – module organiser, designed assignment, drafting and final approval of manuscript and agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Rebecca Lewis – technical advisor, customised the online learning environment and selected the integrated apps for the assessment, drafting and final approval of manuscript and agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. Siobhan Swindells – careers consultant, designed reflective assessment, drafting and final approval of manuscript and agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Ethical approval

Ethical approval was granted by the Royal Holloway Ethical Committee Ref. no. 3072–17 January 2022-17-18.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2024.2307623

Additional information

Funding

There was no external funding for this work.

Notes on contributors

Shobana R Dissanayeke

Shobana R Dissanayeke is a teaching focused academic in the department of Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway University of London. Shobana has experience in designing and implementing group work assessments throughout the Biomedical Sciences degree course.

Rebecca Lewis

Rebecca Lewis is a Learning Technologist at Royal Holloway University of London. Rebecca supports academics with a wide range of innovative blended learning approaches, alongside a particular focus on the use of Microsoft technologies and their pedagogic impact.

Siobhan Swindells

Siobhan Swindells is a Career Consultant at Royal Holloway University of London. Siobhan collaborates with academics to embed employability skills within the curriculum in addition to providing coaching and guidance individually to students to support their career decision making and planning for the future.