There are many ways to format and structure a team activity in your class. This page outlines key steps and a variety of examples to implement team activities.
Tips for Implementing Team Activities
Regardless of which format you choose, we recommend building in the following into your implementation:
- Identify clear objectives and group-worthy tasks: A clear purpose is important for a team to remain focused and productive. It is also important that the tasks and their structure requires teamwork rather than it simply being completed by an individual student.
- Explain the purpose of using the collaborative technique (especially if is one of your learning objectives): Establishing why you have chosen to structure the project as a team activity and outlining the benefits of cooperation can be helpful both to situate students and increase buy-in.
- Observe and interact with groups throughout the activity: Monitoring groups can help promote good teamwork and catch issues early. While this may be more difficult when teams mostly meet outside of class, you can still implement small check-ins to continuously facilitate the activity.
- Structure report outs: There are many ways groups can share their findings, such as oral presentations, posters and written reports. It is useful to have a clear expected output for students to consolidate their learning and for you to evaluate their learning. Students may also take their work more seriously if they know it will be presented to their peers or even an external audience.
- Facilitate closure: It is useful to round off the activity for students to reach the full outcomes of it. This includes helping to synthesize and consolidate the content they are learning, clarify any misunderstandings and inaccuracies, and reflection on both the content as well as their groupwork experience.
Examples of Team Activities
Outlined here are some examples of team activities you can use in your classroom. Please reach out to an instructional designer if you would like to discuss how team activities might fit in with your teaching.
- Problem-based learning: In this method, a complex, real-world problem is used as the basis for an activity which students will need to engage with, discuss, apply and present answers to. See the basic guidelines at the University of Illinois’ page on Problem-Based Learning. Case Studies are one such example, where students are given a real or hypothetical field-related scenario to research, analyze, reflect and recommend solutions.
- Project-based learning: This method has students design, develop, build and test hands-on solutions to a problem. This would realistically mirror projects that professionals would conduct and complete in the field, culminating in an authentic final artifact. Learn more at Boston University’s Project Based Learning and University of Pennsylvania’s Core Practices for Project Based Learning.
- Classroom Debate: This method encourages students to approach a topic under different perspectives, organize their points of view and engage with each other in friendly competition. Read about two different formats Northern Illinois University’s Classroom Debates and Harvard University’s Classroom Debate.
- Fishbowl: this discussion-based activity has teams taking turns between engaging in discussion and observing discussions. See the outline of this method at the University of Wisconsin’s Fishbowl Discussion page.
- Jigsaw: This multi-part strategy begins with an initial round of groups gaining expertise in a specific subtopic together, followed by a subsequent round of re-divided groups that each consists of experts of each subtopic. Learn more about this method at Using the Jigsaw Method and The Jigsaw Classroom.
- Scavenger Hunt: This activity engages students in fact-finding in order to collect, familiarize with and process items on a prepared list. View examples at The University of Alabama’s Online Resource Scavenger Hunt and Where’s Hector? at Macquarie University.
Teamwork in Online Classes
Online classes come with a unique set of challenges, especially in regard to group work. While there are still fundamental components of groupwork that are consistent between face-to-face and online mediums, for successful collaboration in online settings, additional planning and facilitation is recommended to help start and set up the space for students to work together. You may find tips in this article on online teamwork from Penn State as well as this Inside Higher Ed article.