Methods for assigning students to groups: A study of alternative objective functions

This paper describes the problem of forming work groups. The motivating problem is often described as maximizing the diversity of members within groups, and also as minimizing the differences among groups. We review the formulations of this problem in the literature, paying particular attention to the different criteria that have been suggested. We compare the various criteria by solving a number of test problems using standard techniques and then examining the possibility that using one criterion will produce a result that is desirable on other criteria. Ultimately, we recommend a composite procedure for solving large versions of the group formation problem.