Group Collaboration in Information Systems Class Projects: Survey and Critical Success Factors

Group projects play an important and increasing role in students’ learning in information systems courses at colleges and universities. Due to various reasons, successful completion of complex group projects depends on effective collaboration among group members. Despite the continuous improvement in teaching methos and techniques for group projects in the past decade, collaboration among members of student groups is often impaired, resulting in group or individual problems and diminished overall performance. This paper presents the findings of a study on group collaboration among students working in information systems projects at St. Cloud State University during the period of 1993-1994. The study includes a review of literature and a survey of student members of IS group projects. The paper concludes with discussions of success factors and suggestions for improvement