This COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in disruptions in a number of aspects in our lives, including in language education. Teaching and learning are now done remotely using various online learning platforms and educational technologies. While one of the foci in 21^st century skills is collaboration, how to design and manage group work in online courses remain a challenge for language educators. Literature has showed us that students are facing problems in the online class. There still appears to be a disparity between what online learning promises and what it can deliver in terms of student learning. Interpersonal interactions between students are hampered. As a preliminary study in this topic, through this descriptive qualitative research, we try to explore the experiences of some university lecturers in coping with group work in their online classes. Data were gathered through open-ended questionnaires distributed to lecturers teaching first semester students. This research is expected to shed a light on the challenges and strategies taken by lecturers to ensure that collaboration occurs in their classes.