HomeBlogPodcasts Opportunities to Make Group Work Authenticby Matt WittsteinJanuary 16, 2023 Share: Section NavigationSkip section navigationIn this sectionPodcasts – Home 60-Second SoTL Limed: Teaching with a Twist Land Acknowledgement Limed: Teaching with a Twist – Episode 5 Derek O’Leary from Virginia Commonwealth University teaches advertising, a field known to require collaboration and cooperation with diverse teams, often remotely. David Buck, Gianna Smurro, and our producer Dhvani Toprani consider how to create an authentic group work experience in a remote setting. The panel provides advice on creating groups, providing support, and assessing group work. This episode of Limed: Teaching with a Twist is hosted by Matt Wittstein and produced by Dhvani Toprani and Matt Wittstein in collaboration with the Center for Engaged Learning. View a transcript of this episode. About the Guest Derek O’Leary is a full-time advertising instructor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. He is in his third year of teaching creative and strategy advertising classes, having previously worked in the advertising industry for ten years as an experiential director. Most of his classes are working with seniors to create work and build portfolios to build skills and impress their future employers. In addition to teaching, Derek helps run the school’s Virtual Mentorship Day, In-person Portfolio Show and co-chairs the Assessment and Accreditation committee. He loves the challenge of finding ways to use new tools in his classroom like Figma, Notion, Blender, AI, and Augmented Reality tools. He runs a small design business with his wife that sells at local Richmond stores and on Etsy: O’Fung Studios About the Panel David Buck is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at Elon University. He teaches courses on research methods and social psychology, and he has long been interested in using empirical research as a tool for informing pedagogical decisions. Trained as a social psychologist, his research is broadly focused on intergroup bias and social cognition. As a former CEL Scholar, he conducted research on the use of collaborative projects and assignments as high-impact practices. Gianna Smurro is a second-year student at Elon University studying Journalism and Cinema & TV Arts with a minor in Political Science. As a CEL Student Scholar, she is providing a student perspective on a three-year research seminar on Work-Integrated Learning. She is also a Communications Fellow at Elon and a communications and editorial intern for Bringing Theory to Practice. Dhvani Toprani is an Instructional Technologist at Elon University with a PhD in Learning, Design, and Technology. She believes in technology’s ability to transform teaching and learning if we learn to effectively collaborate with and around it. Her research focuses on integrating technology in learning environments to promote collaboration, design thinking, and other higher-order thinking skills. Her work at Elon University focuses on building digital fluency among university’s faculty and staff to support the design of technology enabled learning environments. CEL Blog Posts Related to This Episode Collaborative Projects and Assignments as HIPs – A Recap A recent eight-part series for the 60-Second SoTL podcast explored collaborative projects and assignments as a high-impact practice (HIP). The series, recorded by Elon University’s Master of Arts in Higher Education (MHE) students Stephen Gyan, Marie-Clare Ofoegbu, and Haley Turczynski, explored:… How do Collaborative Projects & Assignments Impact Student Learning and Experience? 60-Second SoTL – Episode 33 This week’s episode features an open-access article from the Journal of Effective Teaching in Higher Education and explores students’ perceptions of the values and learning gains of participating in collaborative projects and assignments: Ericksen, Kirsten S,… A Model of Collaborative Projects and Assignments 60-Second SoTL – Episode 32 This week’s episode, hosted by Haley Turczynski, features an article from Communication Teacher and explores an effective collaborative project model that provides students with lifelong transferable skills: Cresswell-Yeager, Tiffany. 2021. “Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing: Using… Peer Assessment in Collaborative Projects and Assignments 60-Second SoTL – Episode 31 This episode features an article from Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education and explores the nature and reliability of peer assessment in collaborative projects and assignments using students’ reflection and feedback: Bong, Jiyae, and Min Sook… Collaborative Projects & Assignments Outside the Classroom 60-Second SoTL – Episode 30 This week’s episode features an article from the Learning Environments Research and explores how study groups serve as a space for students to engage in peer facilitated collaborative learning: Micari, Marina, and Pilar Pazos. 2021. “Beyond… Team Dynamics and Challenges 60-Second SoTL – Episode 29 This week’s episode, hosted by Stephen Gyan, features an article from the Journal of Educational Psychology and explores contributing factors of social loafing as a challenge to students’ overall engagement in collaborative learning spaces: Gabelica, Catherine, Sven… 1 2 3 4 > Other Resources Related to This Episode Barron, Brigid. 2003. “When Smart Groups Fail.” The Journal of the Learning Sciences 12 (3): 307-359. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327809JLS1203_1 Barron, Brigid J.S., Daniel L. Schwartz, Nancy J. Vye, Allison Moore, Anthony Petrosino, Linda Zech, and John D. Bransford. 1998. “Doing with Understanding: Lessons from Research on Problem- and Project-based Learning.” Journal of the Learning Sciences 7 (3-4): 271-311. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.1998.9672056 Le, Ha, Jeroen Janssen, and Theo Wubbels. 2018. “Collaborative Learning Practices: Teacher and Student Perceived Obstacles to Effective Student Collaboration.” Cambridge Journal of Education 48(1): 103-122. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2016.1259389 [Open Access] Zhu, Meina, and Funda Ergulec. 2023. “A Review of Collaborative Assessment Strategies in Online Learning.” Distance Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2022.2150127 Technology discussed in this episode: Figma – www.figma.com Discord – www.discord.com Slack – www.slack.com
