Online Teaching Techniques: Using Team Challenges in an Online Class

(M June 29, 2-3:30 pm EDT)

Whether for STEM, foreign language, arts, or humanities, applying information is one of the most effective ways for a student to increase their level of understanding and for a teacher to assess mastery of knowledge and skills. Team challenges include any activity that asks a cooperative group to use what they have learned to accomplish a goal. For my own purposes, I will differentiate challenges from competitions by defining a challenge as an outcome that is assessed with a mixture of subjective qualitative and quantitative measurements. Team challenges result in a wide range of solutions rather than predictable and comparable outcomes. Participants in this workshop will break into groups to work on a challenge that requires knowledge and aid from each member of the group. Solutions will be presented to an audience of workshop peers (our “class”). Outcomes will be judged using a rubric that is created by the class, so personal knowledge of the difficulties facing those presenting their solutions will be inherent in the final assessments. As a final step we will return to our roles as teachers and help each other think through ways that this teaching structure can be used in our own classes.

This 1.5-hour workshop is open to teachers of all grade levels and subject areas. As is the case in all CLC workshops, participants will experience this technique firsthand and then collaborate to create an application of this teaching practice to cover their content, skills, and learning objectives.