Post Pandemic Group Activities in Higher Education: A Study of Learning Activities in Indian Universities

Abstract

The trend of group learning activities in higher education were affected during the Covid pandemic, but the virtual platform of learning enhanced its usability. A qualitative study with students in colleges in India has revealed that the learners adopt cyclical responsibilities, create social spaces, and increase the quality time to foster cohesiveness among groups. Group learning helps students to learn themselves by the support of peers and builds confidence to share their opinions without hesitations. Students from the same regional language background become closer to each other very fast. However, present research has found that group members belong to different socio-cultural-economic backgrounds. The similar area of interest encourages them to form a group rather than language. They gradually develop rapport among them to overcome the differences. The study also found that the students prefer to form a group of their own because of easy collaboration among them. However, it is not always possible for all the students to find members with similar interests and therefore instructor’s guided group formation is preferred. It is found that a smaller group consisting of 3-5 students performs better than a larger group. But, the performance in group learning also depends on duration of group activity, nature of tasks and dedication among group members. The students see the outcome of group learning activities beyond getting better grades, but they start relating the lessons of group learning to build better social life in future.