Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Dec 31;29(1):2341508.
doi: 10.1080/10872981.2024.2341508. Epub 2024 Apr 12.

Facilitators and barriers to online group work in higher education within health sciences - a scoping review

Live Edvardsen Tonheim  1 , Marianne Molin  1 , Asgeir Brevik  1 , Malene Wøhlk Gundersen  2 , Lisa Garnweidner-Holme  1
Affiliations

Facilitators and barriers to online group work in higher education within health sciences - a scoping review

Live Edvardsen Tonheim et al. Med Educ Online. .

Abstract

Introduction: In health education, group work is essential to prepare students for working in health care and medical teams. Following the widespread adoption of online teaching, group work increasingly takes place in online environments. Although successful group work can provide good learning outcomes, it is unclear what facilitates or hinders online group work in health science education, and to what extent this topic has been addressed. Thus, this scoping review aimed to identify the facilitators and barriers to online group work in higher health education, provide an overview of the scientific literature related to the topic, and identify knowledge gaps in the research.

Methods: This scoping review was guided by the methodological framework described by Arksey and O'Malley, and reporting is in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Extension for Scoping Review (PRISMA-ScR). Eight online databases were searched for scientific articles published between 2012 and 2022. At least two researchers independently screened records and full-text articles and charted data including article characteristics and key information related to the research question. Findings were categorized and summarized based on the Community of Inquiry Framework.

Results: After screening 3671 records and 466 full-text articles, 39 articles met the inclusion criteria. The review revealed smaller group size, consistency in group composition and joint responsibility to be facilitators. Challenges with group communication, scheduling synchronous meetings and technical issues were identified as barriers. Our findings supported the importance of all three elements of the Community of Inquiry Framework: social, cognitive, and teaching presence.

Conclusion: This review provides an overview of facilitators and barriers to online group work in health science education. However, there is a need for further investigation of these factors and studies addressing this topic from the teachers' perspective.

Keywords: Online group work; community of inquiry framework; health education; health science; higher education; online education; scoping review; student group work.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The community of inquiry framework. Image used with permission from the community of inquiry website and licensed under the CC-BY-SA International 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.Org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). The original image is located at https://www.thecommunityofinquiry.org/framework.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
PRISMA flow chart of the study selection.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Burgess A, van Diggele C, Roberts C, et al. Facilitating small group learning in the health professions. BMC Med Educ. 2020;20(S2):457. doi: 10.1186/s12909-020-02282-3 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gillies R. Cooperative learning: review of research and practice. Australian J Teacher Educ. 2016;41(3):39–19. doi: 10.14221/ajte.2016v41n3.3 - DOI
    1. Lou Y, Abrami PC, Spence JC, et al. Within-class grouping: a meta-analysis. Rev Educ Res. 1996;66(4):423–458. doi: 10.3102/00346543066004423 - DOI
    1. Slavin RE. Research on cooperative learning and achievement: what we know, what we need to know. Contemp Educ Psychol. 1996;21(1):43–69. doi: 10.1006/ceps.1996.0004 - DOI
    1. Johnson RT, Johnson DW. An overview of cooperative learning. In: Thousand J, Villa A, and Nevin A, editors Creativity and collaborative learning. Baltimore: Brookes Press; 1994. p. 14.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources