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Module 4: Developing Group/Team Assignments

Aims

Participants will review and discuss effective practices for creating assignments in online courses, focusing specifically on strategies that will support them in designing team-based assignments and activities.

Two notes:

  1. We’ve deliberately used the word “team” to indicate a focus on long-term, formally organized, cooperative learning Links to an external site. assignments that can be completed at high levels when multiple people work together on a shared task, responsibility, and/or interest. We also use "team" to distinguish this work from “group” work with its more ad hoc, informal, shorter term, and collaborative characteristics that bring people together as supportive partners for individual projects and/or for quickly allocating roles and work to complete a moderate task.
  2. You may find yourself wanting to try out some of the group workspace options within Canvas. For this, we recommend that you request a sandbox/non-academic demonstration Canvas site rather than experiment in an existing or future course site. A good thing about having a sandbox/demo site is that it's a space you can use in the long-term of testing ideas.

 Resources 

Team-Based Learning Resources

  • The drive folder Online Team Assignments Links to an external site. includes the following, which we recommend reading in the following order - from big picture to specific examples:
    • How-to Make Group Work Collaborative In Online Courses-Four Strategies
    • Five Essential Skills to Facilitate Online Group Work & Collaboration
    • Strategies for effective group work in the online class
    • Characteristics of a successful team project - review especially the examples links, which highlight UMinnesota team-based projects
    • Peer-Led Team Learning with Controversial Issues

Canvas Group Workspace Guide

  • Email Ilene (alexa032@umn.edu) if you'd like to explore ways to use Canvas Groups & Collaborations via a two-module self-paced guide to creating, managing, and working in Canvas Group workspaces; the first module frames resources for a teacher's perspective, with the second written with an audience of students in mind.

Webinar Resource

Recording - forthcoming

Follow Up Resources