Providing feedback on collaboration and teamwork amongst off-campus students

While the importance of developing and giving feedback on generic skills is widely recognised for on-campus students, this is still largely ignored for off-campus students, primarily due to the practical difficulties involved. This paper reports on 2 phases of the implementation of a compulsory group work project into an off-campus unit, delivered through Open Universities Australia. Wikis were used as the technical tool to facilitate the project, which was successful for students, albeit requiring more support than anticipated from staff. While all participating students successfully completed group projects, few groups demonstrated high levels of collaboration during the process. At the completion of the second trial, students were provided with feedback on their teamwork skills, meeting the initial objective of the project.