Initial Questions for Developing Learning Teams
In some courses, you may want to explore the developmental process for setting up groups with students, making sure that you know what parameters you need to work within when allowing for their input. But, you may find that setting up the groups yourself saves some valuable time, and that you can do so in an informed, useful way that best supports your students and their learning.
To move forward on developing groups for class learning teams, start by making sure you know the answers to questions such as:
- What is the purpose of the group?
- What are the specific goals of the group?
- What specific techniques and strategies will be used or recommended?
- How will I determine each group's members, and how many members will there be?
- Will the group be expected to meet outside of class? Will they utilize group pages on Blackboard?
- Will I hold students accountable for the work they do outside of class via minutes on their group pages in Blackboard, a written log, reflections, etc.?
- Will I assign roles, or will I expect the group to assign roles?
- What will be the group rules? How will these be conveyed?
- How will I prepare participants for the group?
- What problems can I expect to run into, and how will I deal with those?
- How will I handle dropouts?
- Under what circumstances will I remove a member from the group?
- How will I assess outcomes of the group?
