I didn't find the activities too useful. However, I realized that many would either go off on a tangent or just ramble on, no knowing what they were talking about. But despite all of this, I believe that some people in the class did get something out of the sessions. People got an idea about how others analyzed the assignment. Now to look back at all the group activities that we've done, although it might not have done too much good for me as an individual, but I have to admit that it was interesting.
Groups really let many people get to know each other more.
Of course another yet bigger part, would be how people learned to work with one another. Some of the groups worked out fine, some not so fine. All in all, I think it was probably a good experience for all of us. Although when my group assigned each other work to do, it wasn't always accomplished, but the end product came out ok. I suppose everyone got to learn something out of each group.