Posts Tagged ‘student collaboration’
March 1 - The Effects of Collaborative Testing
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Educational Assessment, Teaching and Learning
Although letting students work together on exam questions is still not a common instructional practice, it has been used more than might be expected and in a variety of ways. Sometimes students work together in groups; other times with a partner. Sometimes those groups are assembled by the instructor and sometimes students are allowed to select their partners or group members. Sometimes the groups share multiple exam experiences; other times they work collaboratively only once. Sometimes the group submits one exam with everyone in the group receiving that grade; other times students may talk about exam questions and answers but submit exams individually.
January 21 - Promoting Student Success Through Collaboration
By: Oliver Dreon, PhD in Teaching and Learning
Last week, a student named Mary visited me during my office hours and presented me with an interesting dilemma. In one of her classes, a professor had distributed a study guide with a series of questions to help the students prepare for an upcoming exam. Mary, being the millennial student that she is, decided to upload the study guide into Google Docs and invite the rest of the class to contribute to the document. Students answered the study guide questions from each of their individual notes and then refined the answers from their peers.
September 18 - Using Group Work to Promote Deep Learning
By: Mary Bart in Online Seminars
Designed appropriately, cooperative learning assignments can actually turn group work—what was once a frustrating exercise for instructors and students alike—into a powerful way to reinforce course concepts and promote understanding. Let Barbara Millis, director of the Teaching and Learning Center at the University of Texas at San Antonio, show you how.
February 8 - Group Work: A Bill of Rights and Responsibilities for All Members
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog
I recently revisited something I have always considered a great resource. It originally appeared in a 1992 issue of The Teaching Professor and was published then as a Study Group Member’s Bill of Rights. It outlined what individuals had the right to expect when they participated in study groups. Students not only have rights, they also have responsibilities. Those rights and responsibilities are relevant in any group activity used to accomplish educational goals. The version below attempts to capture those larger expectations and duties.
September 16 - Fostering Collaboration in the Online Classroom
By: Rob Kelly in Online Education
Glenda Hernandez Baca, professor/coordinator of teacher education at Montgomery College, Takoma Park Campus, encourages the use of collaborative learning throughout online courses. In an interview with Online Classroom, she offered the following ideas for facilitating collaborative learning in group projects and in threaded discussions:
March 14 - Fostering Student Interaction in the Online Classroom
By: Mary Bart in Online Education
When you first start teaching online, there’s the temptation to put on your Superman cape and try be ultra responsive and ever-present. So intent on ensuring that each and every student has a successful learning experience in your class, you answer student emails at any hour of the day or night, respond to every discussion board post, and design elaborate assignments that take advantage of all the latest technology tools available.
February 23 - Group Exams and Quizzes: The Benefits of Student Collaboration
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching Professor Blog
Have you ever used any sort of group testing activity? The approach is not without benefits. Most students find exams enormously stressful and abundant research documents that high levels of test anxiety can compromise performance. Said more bluntly, students can know the information, but be so anxious they can’t summon it for the exam. Letting students work together on test questions reduces that anxiety considerably. It could be a case of “misery loves company” or the “two heads are better than one” scenario.
August 31 - To Improve Students’ Problem Solving Skills Add Group Work to the Equation
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching and Learning
Problem solving is “what you do when you don’t know what to do.”
What a simple, straightforward definition for something often defined in much more complex ways. But problem solving doesn’t always mean the same thing. It might be the solution to a specific problem, like those that appear on math quizzes, or it might be a collection of possibilities that respond to a complex open-ended problem. But however it’s defined, problem solving is one of those skills all teachers aspire to have their students develop.
July 1 - Group Work: Should Your Top Students Work Together?
By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Instructional Design
One of the common objections to group work is that bright, capable students are held back when they share group activities and grades with students of lesser ability. This is of concern to teachers and students. Often very good students strongly oppose group work. They worry that an ineffective group with weak or nonproductive members will compromise their grades. Many openly express the belief that they can do the activity, project, paper, or presentation better on their own and would prefer doing it that way.
June 30 - Online Group Work: Making It Meaningful and Manageable
By: Mary Bart in Online Seminars
Group assignments are slowly finding their way into online courses and bringing with them incredible opportunities and big challenges. Integrating group work in the online classroom requires tailored content, a well-defined structure, and a change in student perception. This seminar will guide you through the entire process.
