Measuring Student Engagement in Group Work Using Slack-Based Evaluation: Solving Issues in Global Project-Based Learnings

Group activities in Global Project-Based Learnings (gPBLs) can encounter issues of uneven contributions and levels of commitment among students; situations arise where some students in group projects rely almost entirely on their peers to complete the assigned tasks. Therefore, when designing instructional plans - especially for online gPBLs - it becomes crucial to establish mechanisms that hold each student accountable throughout each stage of the project. This paper advocates a new method for assessing students’ engagement in group work, leveraging an analysis of their activity within the ‘Slack’ collaboration platform. We also demonstrate that employing Slack-based evaluation enables more effective and accountable tracking of student engagement, consequently boosting their motivation to actively participate in the program. Our study concludes that this enhanced level of engagement in group work should strengthen the overall effectiveness of the online gPBL format.