Collaborative Assignment examples

Creating, investigating, critiquing, and gaming

3-step interview

Students interview a partner and report to a larger group.
Good for: Introductions and icebreakers; helping students cover a lot of material (e.g., sharing what they learned from readings); starting class discussion¬; allowing all students to speak without taking a lot of class time.
How to: Have students split into pairs. Each person interviews the other, with questions provided by the instructor. Then the pair finds another couple and forms a quad. Each person takes turns introducing his or her partner and a summary of his/her responses to the group.

Round table

Students take turns responding to a prompt or question.Good for: Brainstorming, collaborative writing prompts, identifying key points from a reading/lecture; defining a key term; midterm/final reviewHow to: Have students form small groups. Then give the students a question or problem and have them state their ideas aloud as they write them down, each taking turns. Ideally, students will not skip turns, but if one is stuck, he or she may “pass.” /

Jigsaw

Small groups of students work on different aspects of one problem, then present their findings in a logical sequence.

Good for: Allowing students to become “experts” in subtopics; giving students opportunities to learn from one another; letting students get up and moving about

How to: Break students into small groups. Each group is tasked with solving some aspect of one problem or prompt. After working on the assigned matter, each group takes turns explaining their piece of the puzzle. Note: if there is a large whiteboard, each group can have its own space to report their work.

think-pair-share

A quick activity that allows students to think before sharing their responses with a nearby partner.
Good for: Giving students time to think independently before responding to prompts or answering questions; efficient group activity (i.e., all students can speak without taking a lot of class time)
How to: Give students at least 30 seconds to think prior to responding to a question or prompt you give them. Then have students turn to a partner and share their responses.

Group Quizzes

Students collaboratively take an exam or quiz. These can be either quantitative or qualitative
Good for: Expanding the reasoning skills; team-building; giving students opportunities to learn from one another; reinforcing concepts and ideas; shedding light on missed concepts and ideas
How to: Groups are responsible for coming to consensus on each answer, which will require them to discuss and debate course material. Students’ grades are calculated by weighting both the individual and the group assessment.

gaming

Students participate in a game scenario as either collaborators or competitorsGood for: Team building in groups; building critical thinking skills or exercising quick-response skills; adds levels of complexity to content; gives students opportunities to learn from one anotherHow to: Can be done as either small groups, whole class, or pod-based teams. This activity can either be an adaptation of a commercial game (such as Jeopardy, Taboo, Pictionary, etc.) or a game developed by the faculty member. /

Case Studies (team research)

Small groups of students work on a specific case example or research problem

Good for: Allowing students to research real world examples; giving students opportunities to learn from one another; seeing different perspectives

How to: Break students into small groups. Each group is tasked with solving an overall problem or prompt. Students can be assigned roles to adopt when looking at the problem. Students should be asked to present their solutions either to the room or as a deliverable product.

Knotty Problems

Individual students get feedback from peers on resolving obstacles to complex problems.
Good for: Identifying obstacles or roadblocks to solving complex problems or assignments; giving students opportunities to learn from one another
How to: Divide students into small groups. One student in each group has two minutes to explain the obstacle he/she has encountered. During this time, no one is allowed to interrupt with comments or questions. Then each of the other group members has two minutes to share ideas about possible solutions. After the first person’s problem has been discussed, another student can go next, and then another, repeating the same process until each student has had time to discuss their obstacles (time permitting).

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