# SmartGroup: A Tool for Small-Group Learning Activities
###### Abstract  
Small-group learning activities (SGLAs) offer varied active learning opportunities and student benefits, but higher education instructors do not universally adopt SGLAs, in part owing to management burdens. We designed and deployed the SmartGroup system, a tool-based approach to minimize instructor burdens while facilitating SGLAs and associated benefits by managing peer group formation and peer group work assessment. SmartGroup was deployed in one course over 10 weeks; iterations of SmartGroup were provided continuously to meet the instructor's needs. After deployment, the instructor and teaching assistant were interviewed, and 20 anonymous post-study survey responses were collected. The system exposed students to new perspectives, fostered meta-cognitive opportunities, and improved weaker students' performances while being predominantly well-received in terms of usability and satisfaction. Our work contributes to the literature an exploration of tool-assisted peer group work assessment in higher education and how to promote wider SGLA adoption. active learning; collaborative learning; peer assessment; peer evaluation; peer grading; appeal; team-based learning; teamwork; education technology; iterative design; meta-cognition +
Footnote †: journal: _Future Internet_  
learning in higher institutions during the pandemic adds more importance to exploring the potential of SGLAs in improving students' interactions with peers, learning engagement, and motivation. Since the year 2020, the sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic forced most higher institutions to transit to \"emergency synchronous online instruction\" [10] in the U.S. Previous studies showed that emergency remote education gave rise to some new challenges for instructors and students in comparison with in-person education. For instance, students became more demotivated or disengaged in online classes [11; 12], and easily become bored or fatigued by Zoom [13] after staring at screens for an extended period of time without personal interaction [14]. In addition, virtual education makes students feel isolated and lack connection to instructors and peers [15] without physical interactions that would otherwise happen in classrooms [11]. Even though most universities have shifted back to in-person classes in the year 2022 in the U.S., hybrid education that combines synchronous online classes with in-person classes has become a new normal of education in the post-pandemic era [16]. Because students' learning engagement is closely related to their interactions and collaboration with peers or faculty [17], this new education trend (hybrid education) in turn makes it necessary to explore the potential of SGLAs in offering students opportunities to collaborate with each other, thereby improving their learning experience especially while they are taking online classes. Despite all the aforementioned benefits, SGLAs are underutilized in higher education, resulting from a lack of coherent instructional design, collaborative activity design, and technology support for SGLAs [18; 19]. In addition, SGLAs would lay extra burdens on instructors who should undertake different responsibilities including class administration, group facilitation, and oversight. Such burdens make it more intimating and challenging for instructors to adopt SGLAs in classrooms. Therefore, if SGLAs are going to be effectively integrated into instructors' practices, we must reduce instructor burdens for adopting this collaborative learning technique. Although previous studies showed that some learning management systems have been utilized to facilitate SGLAS, such as Moodle, on which collaborative learning activities including forums, vocabulary, and databases could be done by students [20]; Canvas [21]; or other more mundane tools such as Media Wiki, Google docs [22], and Blogs [23], none of the tools could reduce instructors' burdens by automating instructors' workflow activities such as grading, managing student groups, etc.