Collaboratively Engage Students

We discussed the importance of clarifying the purpose and benefit of conducting active learning activities and being explicit regarding the expectations of that practice. The next step is to collaboratively engage the students with their own learning and to help them take ownership of the process by partnering with them throughout. This can be achieved in many ways by involving partners at various phases of the learning transaction, such as co-constructing guidelines and expectations for class assignments, projects, and other aspects.

1. Assigning specific roles to students or asking them to choose their own roles in a team can help them increase responsibility for their tasks.
2. Breaking down big complex group tasks into smaller manageable tasks, scaffolding all the way and providing meaningful feedback (Darby, 2019). Provide a checklist and incremental deadlines for the group to submit their bigger task. This will provide time to review the completed task, provide timely feedback to improve. Frequent interactions among students for incremental tasks facilitate healthy group functioning.
3. Releasing content strategically and conditionally for group assignments (can be applied at individual assignment level too) where the instructions on the assignment or other group activities only become available after the attainment of a minimum score. This may provide another point of engagement with group members where they must work together to fulfil these expectations.
4. Assigning bonus points for trying out or helping others with online group communication tools. This may encourage students to embrace tools.  It may help establish communication and appeal to altruists and those who seeking this type of reward.
5. Planning out low-stake tasks that require the students to share appropriate personal information amongst themselves. This may help in building trust and establishing peer-to-peer connections. The tactic may require monitoring.