Gloria Tumushabe

EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley

Technical Report No. UCB/EECS-2021-85

May 14, 2021

http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2021/EECS-2021-85.pdf

Peer collaboration is essential for learning because it creates positive experiences in the classroom and makes students feel supported. While many researchers have attempted to make the teamwork experience better for students, women, and students from racially marginalized communities sometimes still feel excluded in class study groups. Even worse, some are even unable to find study groups at all. This project seeks to make finding a study group easier for the students and the study groups are created to be more inclusive. We conducted an experiment on study group formation in an introductory Electrical Engineering and Computer Science course, Designing Information Devices and System’s I using a lightweight, automated, scalable, and inclusive approach. Our project aims to make the burden placed on students who want to find study groups very minimal. To form the groups, we created surveys to collect demographic information and team matching details using google forms. These steps not only enabled us to form more effective groups but also allowed us to investigate the experiences of these students. Using an automated software platform, groups were generated while ensuring that there was no single person from one demographic category that was in a group by themselves. The students were then given study guidelines to follow during interactions with their group members. Students were allowed to request for reassignment after two weeks in the case that they were unable to connect with their group members or for any other reason where they felt the need to find a new group. To examine the impact of our approach to forming the groups and to understand the experiences of the students in the groups, we administered surveys at the middle and the end of the semester. In this report, we present the process of forming the inclusive study groups and the key findings such as the similarities and differences in the comfort levels and future study group plans of the students from different demographic groups. We also present the effects of participation and interaction frequency of the students in the study groups. Finally, we highlight some reflections from this project and propose strategies to improve the existing group formation strategy.

Advisors: Gireeja Ranade

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BibTeX citation:

@mastersthesis{Tumushabe:EECS-2021-85,
    Author= {Tumushabe, Gloria},
    Title= {Inclusive and Scalable Study Group Formation},
    School= {EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley},
    Year= {2021},
    Month= {May},
    Url= {http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2021/EECS-2021-85.html},
    Number= {UCB/EECS-2021-85},
    Abstract= {Peer collaboration is essential for learning because it creates positive experiences in the classroom and makes students feel supported. While many researchers have attempted
to make the teamwork experience better for students, women, and students from racially marginalized communities sometimes still feel excluded in class study groups. Even worse, some are even unable to find study groups at all. This project seeks to make finding a study group easier for the students and the study groups are created to be more inclusive. We conducted an experiment on study group formation in an introductory Electrical Engineering and Computer Science course, Designing Information Devices and System’s I using a lightweight, automated, scalable, and inclusive approach. Our project aims to make the burden placed on students who want to find study groups very minimal. To form the groups, we created surveys to collect demographic information and team matching details using google forms. These steps not only enabled us to form more effective groups but also allowed us to investigate the experiences of these students. Using an automated software
platform, groups were generated while ensuring that there was no single person from one demographic category that was in a group by themselves. The students were then given study guidelines to follow during interactions with their group members. Students were allowed to request for reassignment after two weeks in the case that they were unable to connect with their group members or for any other reason where they felt the need to find a new group. To examine the impact of our approach to forming the groups and to understand
the experiences of the students in the groups, we administered surveys at the middle and the end of the semester. In this report, we present the process of forming the inclusive study groups and the key findings such as the similarities and differences in the comfort levels and future study group plans of the students from different demographic groups. We also present the effects of participation and interaction frequency of the students in the study groups. Finally, we highlight some reflections from this project and propose strategies to improve the existing group formation strategy.},
}

EndNote citation:

%0 Thesis
%A Tumushabe, Gloria 
%T Inclusive and Scalable Study Group Formation
%I EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley
%D 2021
%8 May 14
%@ UCB/EECS-2021-85
%U http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2021/EECS-2021-85.html
%F Tumushabe:EECS-2021-85