Increasing student engagement and accountability through team
structure, peer-to-peer feedback, and discussion boards
Students were held accountable for their participation in the course and
their contributions to the team in several ways. iRATs and
within-lecture questions ensured that students were individually
responsible for their own understanding of the course material. Each
team had a team leader whose role was to organize online meeting
schedules and was also the person in charge of submitting the
assignments. The team leader role rotated weekly among the students, and
by the end of the term each student took on the leadership role three or
four times.
In addition, students within a team provided each other with anonymous
peer-to-peer feedback by completing peer evaluations in Week 5. We asked
students to provide this anonymous feedback to their team members using
the TEAMMATES website (https://teammatesv4.appspot.com/ ). Our peer
evaluations consisted of 10 multiple choice questions (answer choices:
always, often, sometimes, never) such as:
- Our team functions well because this person is well prepared for team
activities.
- Our team functions well because this person makes sure everyone on the
team has a chance to speak and is heard.
They also wrote one or two sentences for each team member about:
- What is the single most valuable contribution this person makes to
your team?
- What is the single most important way this person could change their
behavior to more effectively help your team succeed?
Instructors reviewed the answers before sending them to the students.
These evaluations were essential in positively modifying student
behavior as peer feedback has a strong impact on students. We often saw
students that were not engaged prior to peer evaluations become more
responsible and involved after evaluations.
To facilitate teamwork and discussions, we created a Slack workspace
with a general channel for the class. Each team also had their own
channel to organize logistics, discuss lectures, and team assignments.
Slack has the advantage that it can be used in multiple platforms (i.e.
phones, computers, tablets, etc.) and it has been developed to
facilitate team communication and productivity. Students gained
participation points for actively engaging with other students on Slack.
All students were invited to participate in the Slack workspace during
the first week of classes. Once the students accepted the invitation,
they were automatically added to the class general channel where the
instructor answered commonly asked questions, provided logistical
information to the class, and included current events and news related
to course content. Students were encouraged to ask questions about
lectures and problem sets in this general channel. Each student was also
added to a private channel with their team members. The instructor
introduced all team members and provided an icebreaker activity to
motivate discussion in the team channel. Students were encouraged to use
the team channel to get in contact with each other, schedule meetings,
ask questions about lectures and sections, and to discuss questions
posted by the instructor on relevant topics. Every week, we had students
sending direct messages to contact the instructors and active
participation within team channels. The general channel was often used
by students when tests where getting closer to ask about test logistics
and clarifying course topics.