Many instructors incorporate teamwork into their courses to teach skills that are critical for academic and business success. Yet many students and faculty also dread the inevitable problems that doing groupwork—face-to-face or online—creates. It can be difficult to ensure equal participation by all team members, manage interpersonal conflicts, plan and coordinate activities, identify roles and responsibilities, and agree on group processes (e.g., leadership issues, or how decisions will be made). Consequently, instructors spend valuable time “intervening” in an attempt to solve team problems.
