Teaching Tips and Questions

Hello! In trying to figure out how I am going to keep my undergraduate students engaged in my Research Methods course, I am struggling with the decision about what to do with their Research Team Projects. Originally, the 100 students in my class were broken up into Research Teams (they came up with Research Team names and missions and everything!) and then they were to conduct 3 mini research studies together (a naturalistic observation study, an interview study, and an experimental study). This meant that there was some ease on me with regard to only grading approximately 25 mini research papers as opposed to grading 100 mini research papers.

However, with going online and trying to provide understanding and flexibility for this class (having students be able to just access and watch my lectures weekly when they can instead of having them meet online during our class time) -- I am just not sure if doing these Research Team projects as group work is feasible anymore. I have polled my students about access and connectivity and for the most part it seems that students have what they need to be able to communicate with one another. However, I hesitate to make them try to coordinate with one another to get their assignments done.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to help facilitate this continued group work remotely or should I just scrap this idea all together?

------------------------------
Fantasy Lozada
------------------------------

Hi Fantasy,

This is a tough call. It sounds like you have some really valuable collaborative projects. 

I teach a large online class every semester (~250 students). I haven't actually attempted a group project like this, but I have thought about how it might work. Would it be possible to assign students in each group to different jobs (e.g., student A drafts the intro, student B drafts the method, and so on)? They could work in a shared document (e.g., Google Doc) to easily view/edit what other students wrote, but they could work asynchronously. Perhaps instead of having the groups come up with their own mission, you could just assign a mission, or give them a small number of options to vote on, or have them sign up for one of the missions that you choose. It's probably not quite as fun as getting to come up with their own research question, but it would cut down on the need for synchronous communication. 

If you choose to do individual projects instead, would peer review be an option? I haven't tried this myself, but I've heard of different tools to facilitate student peer review. This probably isn't worthwhile if you don't have an easy-to-use tool built into your learning management system. 

What about having students sign up individually to do just one of the projects (one-third sign up for project 1, one-third sign up for project 2, and so on)? Is there any value in that? They would miss out on the collaborative aspect of the project, and they wouldn't get to experience all study types, but at least the grading would be manageable.

Of course it's also completely OK if you just can't find a way to make this work for you and your students this time around. These are extraordinary times!

------------------------------
Heather Kirkorian, Ph.D.
Laura M. Secord Chair in Early Childhood Development
Associate Professor | Human Development & Family Studies
School of Human Ecology | University of Wisconsin-Madison
4105 Nancy Nicholas Hall | 1300 Linden Drive
Madison, WI 53706
kirkorian@wisc.edu | 608-263-4020
https://sites.google.com/site/kirkorianlab/
------------------------------

Hi Fantasy,
 I think it depends on what platform you have to work with students, I know that with my students being primarily at a commuter school, group projects become intensively hard. What I've noticed that some of them have used is they utilize Google docs and Google groups. Some would choose adding me on if they felt they had questions on the feasibility of the research project. So in utilizing Google Groups/Docs they were able to work on parts of their project to get them online and running. 

Another thing that I was able to work on with the department is giving access to Qualtrics to one student in the group as we have a limited site license. So one of the things that I would do is I put together a document on "How to get your project online"; in one way it trains them on online data collection and two it allows for their skill sets to increase. If they aren't able to reach out to other students as a way to get data; you can decide as the instructor if you want to be able to use the platform (e.g., Canvas, Angel, Blackboard) to post their studies up. In pilot testing, I would have students utilize others in the class. This at least gave them the experience in collecting data using online format as well as seeing what are the challenges/benefits in online vs. real time.

------------------------------
Meeta Banerjee
California State University Northridge
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-20-2020 01:17
From: Fantasy Lozada
Subject: Continue or Discontinue Group Projects in the Online Format

Hello! In trying to figure out how I am going to keep my undergraduate students engaged in my Research Methods course, I am struggling with the decision about what to do with their Research Team Projects. Originally, the 100 students in my class were broken up into Research Teams (they came up with Research Team names and missions and everything!) and then they were to conduct 3 mini research studies together (a naturalistic observation study, an interview study, and an experimental study). This meant that there was some ease on me with regard to only grading approximately 25 mini research papers as opposed to grading 100 mini research papers.

However, with going online and trying to provide understanding and flexibility for this class (having students be able to just access and watch my lectures weekly when they can instead of having them meet online during our class time) -- I am just not sure if doing these Research Team projects as group work is feasible anymore. I have polled my students about access and connectivity and for the most part it seems that students have what they need to be able to communicate with one another. However, I hesitate to make them try to coordinate with one another to get their assignments done.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to help facilitate this continued group work remotely or should I just scrap this idea all together?

------------------------------
Fantasy Lozada
------------------------------

I think that's a great question. In my classes, I'm not doing group work so I'm going to suggest something that I'm not doing! I think there's a real advantage here to keeping the groups, particularly if the students feel comfortable. It seems to provide some degree of continuity in what they've been doing and will also keep them connected with their classmates. Also, learning the skills to do group work via remote means seems to be a valuable skill in and of itself, both in these times and in general in today's connected economy. We often collaborate with research colleagues that aren't at our own institution.

The students have so many means to connect with each other. I might specifically address virtual collaboration strategies with the students, including some of the good ones that have been suggested here. I would show them maybe how to connect a google doc or share a word document. I would probably also ask them to provide a breakdown of the group work of their fellow students, maybe even early in the process.

On a very practical basis, there is also the benefit of keeping the number of papers to grade small and not having to come up with another project. It also just sounds like a great project that you've had a lot of success with in the past so I think with some flexibility and going in knowing there will be some anticipated hiccups, it sounds like it could be a great learning experience.

------------------------------
Matthew Mulvaney
Syracuse University
Syracuse NY
mmulvane@syr.edu
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-20-2020 01:17
From: Fantasy Lozada
Subject: Continue or Discontinue Group Projects in the Online Format

Hello! In trying to figure out how I am going to keep my undergraduate students engaged in my Research Methods course, I am struggling with the decision about what to do with their Research Team Projects. Originally, the 100 students in my class were broken up into Research Teams (they came up with Research Team names and missions and everything!) and then they were to conduct 3 mini research studies together (a naturalistic observation study, an interview study, and an experimental study). This meant that there was some ease on me with regard to only grading approximately 25 mini research papers as opposed to grading 100 mini research papers.

However, with going online and trying to provide understanding and flexibility for this class (having students be able to just access and watch my lectures weekly when they can instead of having them meet online during our class time) -- I am just not sure if doing these Research Team projects as group work is feasible anymore. I have polled my students about access and connectivity and for the most part it seems that students have what they need to be able to communicate with one another. However, I hesitate to make them try to coordinate with one another to get their assignments done.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to help facilitate this continued group work remotely or should I just scrap this idea all together?

------------------------------
Fantasy Lozada
------------------------------