This past week, I decided I’d try taking the class outside of the zoom room to create something collaboratively. So, in class, I shared a tiny url of a google document that I had set up before class (with permissions so anyone who had the link could edit). We were working on research questions and hypotheses for their research paper. I had created a table before hand with their names in cells in the first column, and an example of what I was wanting them to do in the first row.

I gave them a few minutes without interrupting them to write, but as each one would finish their row, I would start providing feedback on it. I told them I was going to start commenting in the comment boxes, and they could adjust them. You can see how this looked below.

It did get a little chaotic in that they did not finish in sequential order, so I was having to remember whose I had commented on, and whose I hadn’t. From time to time, when I saw repeat mistakes, I would say “I’ve seen this a few times – in general, you want to avoid…”. It took about 30 minutes to do the activity, but they responded well to it. I’ve gotten feedback that the students are learning a lot not just from hearing feedback on their own projects, but are learning from my feedback to other students and conversations with each other. Helping the students hone in on their passions and translate those into viable research projects is also personally fulfilling to me. It’s a lot like career counseling, helping people give voice to their dreams and then working with them to translate those dreams into reality.