Once I started looking for it, I began to experience the magic of students learning from other students in my in-person and online courses. In our Integrated Approaches to Public Health course, we realized that we have a unique opportunity since our class is likely the only time all of our MPH students will be in one class together. We created Student Learning Groups and put students from the different public health disciplines together to work on a course project, which actually reflects what they are likely to encounter in their work settings. We are continuing this in our hybrid version, as we are confident this both requires students to build team skills and provides initial connections for their professional networks. I would like to extend this approach a bit by creating ad hoc small groups for discussions and assignments, so students get a chance to work with other individuals throughout the term. I also plan to explore more online tools to help these groups with communication and organization (both within and outside of Canvas). I will make sure to survey them at the end of the course to find out what tools they found most useful(!).
In a traditional format, when I have group projects, it seems as though students cannot find times to meet up and work on projects in-person. Often, I get a sense that students divide up tasks and then staple (or combine in google docs) their individual components together. When I read their group projects, it is often evident that they never truly “discussed” the topic. Such discussion is so important to generate new ideas! I like that you plan to learn about new ways that students can “virtually” meet up and share ideas. I wonder if students in hybrid courses will do a better job “discussing” their group projects and truly collaborate (rather than work individually on separate components). Maybe the tools you identify would also be useful in non-hybrid courses, too!
Nice that you are able to create groups from diverse disciplines so they can work together and learn from each other – and also get to know students from the other discuplines! Sounds like a great learning environment for your students!