Unit 1 Lesson 2 – Assignments overview and team collaboration

Lesson Outcomes
• Understand the assignment structure of this course
• Identify strategies for improving communication and collaboration
in teamwork

Activity 1 – Discussion: work and education in the news

Before class you should

have posted in the Canvas
discussion forum your
reflection on a news article
you found that is related to
recent developments in
work or education.

Now take turns to tell your partner (in about 1 minute) about your news article and your
critical reflection on the ideas. Listen and respond to your partner’s news story with your own
critical reflection on their story. (This is a speaking activity, not a reading activity.)
Some of the language below might be useful for talking about your news article:
Summarize the topic:
• I read an article about…
• The article I found was about…

Tell us a key detail that was interesting to you:

• One thing that jumped out was…
• One point that got my attention was…

Tell us about your reflection, critical thinking, opinion, etc. about the idea in the article:
• The article got me thinking about…
• This made me wonder about…

Activity 2 – Understanding the course project

Step 1 – Your instructor will explain briefly the overview of the course project and how its 4
assignments relate to each other.

Step 2 – In a group of 3-4 students, look at the list of potential project topics on Canvas.
These topics are all examples of innovations or developments that are likely to impact on the
future of work and education. (At the end of Unit 1, you will form a project group and select
one topic for your project.) You can find these project topics here:
Canvas > Assessments > “Project overview and list of project topics”
Step 3 – Discuss the questions below in your group:
1. There might be several project topics listed that you already know something about.
Which of these topics do you think will have a significant impact on the future of
work or education?
2. There might be several project topics listed which you don’t know much or anything
about yet. Which of these topics would you like to know more about?
3. Reflect on the 4C’s of 21 st
century skills (creativity, critical thinking, collaboration,
communication) which we saw in lesson 1. Which do you think will be most relevant
to each of the 4 assignments?

Activity 3 – Understanding teamwork

Required team cooperation – Video assignment 1 (V1) is a group video. This video should
bring together some of the sources and ideas that you and your groupmates research for your
writing assignment 1 (W1). Therefore, you should collaborate with your group members in
W1 to ensure that each member researches a relevant point and uses a different source, so
that V1 will be well supported by a variety of sources. If you do not collaborate at the initial
stage of your W1 research, it will likely be more difficult and time-consuming later to plan
and produce V1.

Optional team cooperation – After V1, your writing assignment 2 (W2) and video
assignment 2 (V2) are both individual assessments. You should work alone on the research
and production of these assignments. However, your group could be an informal support
network during this time to help discuss ideas. In this way, you might adopt informal
cooperation with groupmates.

Step 1 – Reflect on some of the teams you have collaborated in recently, e.g., a group project,
a sports team, your family unit, a university society, a volunteering team, colleagues in your
part-time job, etc. Identify one person in one team who you think is a good team player. Tell
your group about the qualities that make this person a good team player.
Step 2 – In a group, brainstorm the advantages and challenges of working in a group. You
st
might think in terms of the impact of group work on key 21 century skills like creativity,
critical thinking, communication, or other areas.
Advantages of working in a group Challenges of working in a group

Step 3 – As a group, choose one of your challenges with teamwork to explore further, or
choose one of the challenges shown in the box below. Use the table below to brainstorm with
your group some ways to deal with the challenge or mitigate the problem if it does happen,
and some ways to prevent this problem from arising next time.
Potential challenges
1. Your group is taking too long to brainstorm topics.
2. One groupmate is not responding to messages in your group's WhatsApp chat.
3. One groupmate appears unhappy because everyone else wants a different topic.

Ways to deal with or mitigate the Ways to prevent the problem from arising
problem/challenge if it happens next time

Step 4 – Drawing on some your ideas above, work with your group to design a robot that
would EITHER:
• be the ideal team worker; OR
• assist with the group’s teamwork or team building in university or the workplace.
Be ready to explain to the class what characteristics your robot is programmed to
demonstrate.
Activity 4 – Group roles and group collaboration task
Below are important roles you are likely to adopt in groupwork.
Leader – the one who keeps everyone on task with a plan
Encourager/compromiser – the one who includes and encourages everyone, and formulates
strategies for reaching a compromise between group members
Researcher – the one who collects data and evidence and provides useful information to the
group
Recorder/timekeeper – the one who writes and shares notes for the group and keeps track
of deadlines
Devil’s advocate – the one who challenges what others say from other perspectives

In a group, discuss the following questions:

a. What role(s) do you think you adopted yourself in the last activity? Can you identify
what roles other group members adopted?
b. Which role(s) do you think you want to adopt in your group project?
Time to practise:
Now you are going to complete a task in which you will be assigned a group role. Work in a
group of 4 to 5 and finish the task within 20 minutes.

Your teacher will assign you a role card secretly. You should NOT tell your group members
your role, but you should act like a person with the role’s personality (you will have 2
minutes to study the role card and think about how your role can contribute to a group
task). At the end of the activity, group members guess others’ roles and explain the guesses.

Your job is to be the best of your role to help your group finish the task below.

Your group task

Create a new logo for HKUST. Be ready to share the logo to the class.

Current logo of HKUST

Preparation for next class
Check the Canvas module called “Unit 1 Lesson 3” to see what tasks you need to do before
lesson 3. These tasks extend ideas and skills covered in today’s lesson, and help you prepare
to take part effectively in the next lessons.

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