Ace that assignment! Five online tools for uni group work
Handy apps designed to make collaborative assignments at the university a breeze!
They say some of our best years are spent at university with a pivotal part of the experience being of course, group assignments. Dreaded by some, loved by others, they can sometimes prove to be quite a challenge.
Our top picks of apps will help with seamless group collaboration whether you’re working together on campus, or at home.
These tools will help you reach success with those assignments time after time, giving you peace of mind and plenty of time to enjoy more of campus life, both in and out of the lecture theatre.
No matter the size of your team, Trello is the perfect tool to visually track group work from start to finish.
From managing to-do lists, to sharing links and files, Trello makes assignments easy to manage with everything in the one place, to ensure that the work is being completed. Need to share important documents?
Files can be shared not only from your computer but your Dropbox, Google Drive, Box and OneDrive too. Checklists will keep your process on track and never miss a deadline with notifications to let you know when everything is due.
Trello is free to use and available via web, iPhone and iPad, Android and Kindle Fire.
Slack
Chat about ideas, ask questions and share files in an instant with your team, all in the one place.
Channels on Slack allow for conversations to be organised by teams, topics – whatever way you wish! For the really important conversations, private channels can be created to keep sensitive or confidential information between a select few.
If you ever need to get someone’s attention directly within a channel, you can tag them with their username and they’ll receive a notification instantly. If they are away Slack, they’ll also receive an email to ensure that no message is missed.
From managing to-do lists, to sharing links and files, Trello makes assignments easy to manage with everything in the one place. Photo: Trello
Impress your professors away with your new and improved essay writing skills with Grammarly.
From correcting grammar and punctuation errors, to finding the perfect word and enhancing your vocabulary, this tool helps to improve your work whilst educating you about the errors along the way.
You can also check the originality of your assignment with the Plagarism checker, comparing your work with over eight billion web pages.
Citations can be automatically generated to suit specific requirements, perfect for ones you’re not quite sure of and handy for saving time on manually logging them.
Grammarly is available on the Web and on Windows with monthly, quarterly and annual subscriptions plans currently starting at $29.95 per month.
Evernote
It’s the multi-faceted workspace in one place, changing work organisation as you know it. Basic features allow you to save and share web articles, take notes and track tasks all discussing with your team.
Evernote offers syncing across phones and computers so you can be assured you’ll never be more prepared for your assignments by having everything in the one place. Photo: evernote.com
With Plus and Premium subscriptions, you can access notes when working offline, save emails, create presentations, scan and digitise business cards – the opportunities are endless.
With syncing across phones and computers, you can be assured you’ll never be more prepared for your assignments by having everything in the one place
Evernote is available on Mac, Windows and iOS and Android mobile devices. It is free to use with Plus and Premium subscriptions available, currently starting from $29.99 per year.
Simple Note
True to its name, Simple Note is simply that – simple! From taking notes in a lecture, jotting down a random thought starter or collaborating on an ideas list, it’s the perfect tool to keep your ideas in the one place. Can’t find that stray thought? Organisation is simple and easy with searching and tagging abilities allowing notes to be found instantly.
If you’re working across multiple devices, notes are always updated across the board so you’re always prepared.
Simplenote is free to use and available for iOS, Android, Mac and the Web.
From ideation to execution and from planning to submission, these tools are the team members you never knew you needed!
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