Student Groups Tasked with Creating Course Content

Some faculty have great success tasking student groups with developing meaningful lessons that complement the readings and course content. This should be more than a simple "chapter report." Instead, provide students with your goals or outcomes for the chapter, concept, or topic, and ask them to come up with a way to teach that to the rest of the class.

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Here's an example:

In a Business & Professional Communication course, students were put into groups based on their professional interests and career aspirations (medical, technology, business administration, education). They were then asked to represent their branch of an imaginary company and teach the rest of the class--the rest of the company's "employees"--about a concept related to good communication practices.

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  • The future doctors and nurses did an interactive demonstration of how to communicate effectively with emotionally distraught patients and family members.
  • The technology team provided tips on good "netiquette" skills for inter-office emails.
  • The administrators taught the class how to set up and utilize social media in a professional way.
  • And the educators did a clever presentation to teach the "teachers" how to use non-verbal communication to add meaning and interest in their classroom lessons.

Each group was given 15 minutes to teach their concept. They had PowerPoints, handouts, content pages, and one group even created a video. The students really enjoyed the project, especially as it meant something to them in the "real world" and in their future careers.