Group Formation in a Cross-Classroom Collaborative Project-Based Learning Environment

Abstract

Cross-Classroom Collaborative Project-Based Learning (C3PjBL) requires the formation of project-groups by pairing student-groups across classrooms. Unfortunately, due to the configuration of these groups, the group formation techniques found in the literature are unable to automatically create project-groups for C3PjBL. This paper describes an automatic project-group formation technique for C3PjBL which utilizes clustering to create homogeneous student-groups, based on the students’ perceived technological and higher-order thinking skills (student characteristics). Student-groups, from different classrooms, are then paired using an optimization technique to form project-groups. In our results, we present a comparison of the performance of a random group formation technique and our technique. We observed that automatic group formation using an n-dimensional space of student characteristics and k-means clustering is more effective than random group formation and, the strategy of forming homogeneous student-groups and heterogeneous project-group for C3PjBL creates more compatible group compositions than random grouping.