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Project Management
February 19, 2013
Use Google Sites to organize and monitor group activity on a class project
Google Sites provides a simple interface to build a course web site and organize information for a course, individual team projects, or collaborations with a research group. Google Sites has a large number of templates to get you and your students started.
Create a collaborative space in which students can share materials, edit common documents, and communicate with one another about a class project. Create pages on the site to serve as document archives (file cabinet), make announcements, or host topical discussions. Google web pages on the site can include images, links, a table of contents, text boxes, videos, and other Google apps. You (and members of student teams) can track who makes changes to the site and when changes were made to hold students accountable for their individual contributions.
Need help? All Google Apps include comprehensive help pages. At the top right corner of the window, click the gear-shaped icon. The menu will allow you to change your settings (preferences) and will also direct you to the help pages, which are indexed and searchable.
This tip is based on a teaching strategy submitted to the Teaching Issues Writing Consortium by Francine Glazer, PhD, Assistant Provost and Director, Center for Teaching and Learning, New York Institute of Technology (http://www.nyit.edu/ctl ).
WKU Writer’s Consortium
January 8, 2013
Using electronic tools to organize your class
Faculty can choose among several options to remind students of course activities and deadlines and help students stay on task.
eLearning strategies
If you teach an online course or use eLearning to supplement a face-to-face course, you can create deadlines in the calendar function in eLearning. Students will see notifications of impending deadlines whenever they open the course in eLearning.
Create a News item to alert students to an impending deadline. Encourage your students to set Notifications in eLearning. Students can request eLearning to send them reminders of upcoming deadlines for the Dropbox or to notify them when a new item appears in their course News or a new message is posted to a discussion forum. Students can choose to receive their notifications in an e-mail or as a text message to their mobile device.
Encourage students to regulate their progress by creating a Checklist of assignments in eLearning. Checklist items include brief descriptions of assignments and the date each assignment is due. Students monitor their progress by checking off each item as they complete it. You can create multiple short checklists for items due in each module of a course or you can create a global checklist for all items due during the term. ATC provides details about the mechanics of using checklist in AskATC.
http://askatc.uwf.edu/FacultyGuide101/learningenvironment/checklist/about_checklist.htm
Google apps strategies
You can create multiple Google calendars in your UWF Gmail account. Create one calendar for each course you teach and enter class meetings, readings, and assignment due dates on the class calendar. Students in your class can subscribe to the calendar for your course. When you make a change to the course calendar, the change will automatically appear in the students’ accounts. Since student email at UWF is hosted by Gmail, students can access the Google Apps calendar whenever they check their email.
Create a Google site for your course. Add countdown gadgets (search on the public gadgets for countdown options) to remind students of the number of days to each assignment deadline.
This tip is based on a teaching strategy submitted to the Teaching Issues Writing Consortium by Francine Glazer, PhD, Assistant Provost and Director, Center for Teaching and Learning, New York Institute of Technology (http://www.nyit.edu/ctl ).January 18, 2011
Create activities that develop team skills and enable students to work effectively in groups
Students will work more effectively in groups on a major project if you provide them with explicit training on how to manage group dynamics and interpersonal interaction. If course learning outcomes include project management outcomes such as working effectively with colleagues, then include activities in the class that will teach these skills. An effective instructional activity for group interaction will
- Provide instructions and specific criteria that define effective interaction.
- Create opportunities for practice, feedback, and opportunities to improve performance.
Strategies for structuring and guiding group processes
- Describe the common problems that characterize groups that go astray.
- Provide clear guidelines for group work. Create a rubric that describes these expectations. Group members and instructors should use this rubric to evaluate group processes and interaction to provide formative feedback during the term as well as for grading when the project is completed. Examples of rubrics for team participation can be found on the Examples of Rubrics page on the CUTLA web site (http://uwf.edu/cutla/rubricexamples.cfm).
- Require that each group compose and sign a written agreement before beginning their work together. The agreement should describe in detail the responsibilities of all members of the group (for example, being on time for meetings, completing their share of the work by specified deadlines, communicating regularly with other group members), and tasks that individual members will complete (Mary will research this part; John will research this part; Ling-Chi will produce the first full draft; Jamal will edit the draft).
- Each group should appoint each member to carry out specific group process roles such as record keeper, convener, deadline manager, and any other roles needed to monitor group process.
- Require that each group provide regular and frequent feedback to you and to each other. At the end of each meeting, whether online or face-to-face, group members can write an email to one another and describe what they thought was successful about the group meeting and what they thought needed improvement. Alternatively, they could post these comments to a discussion thread. If the groups use email for this task, one group member should compile the responses and send the compilation to you, which will allow you to step in quickly if the group is struggling. Some instructors create a Google group or an area in D2L for each group in the class and require that all group planning and interaction be carried out in a dedicated discussion thread and post interim group work through a common drop box. The automatic tracking and time tags created for posts and document uploads in these electronic tools can be used as a way to evaluate and grade the effectiveness of group processes and document the contributions of individuals to the group effort.
- Schedule a face-to-face or synchronous online meeting with each group at intervals to check the group's progress and interaction. At these meeting, any member of the group who feels another group member is not doing his or her share should say so during this meeting so the issue can be discussed and you can facilitate.
This tip was based on a submission by Barbara Millis, Teaching and Learning Center, University of Texas at San Antonio.
http://www.utsa.edu/tlc/
Portions of this tip were based on Walvoord, B. E., & Anderson, V. J. (2010). Effective grading: A tool for learning and assessment in college (2nd ed). Jossey-Bass and circulated as a teaching tip by TOMORROW'S PROFESSOR(sm) eMAIL NEWSLETTER http://cgi.stanford.edu/~dept-ctl/cgi-bin/tomprof/postings.php.
Updated 01/08/13