Our research shows that students learn more and generally prefer to work with other students to complete in-class activities. Moreover, in your professional career, you will almost certainly need to work collaboratively with others, and we need to provide opportunities for you to practice and learn collaborative skills. Thus, learning to work in a team is one of the learning objectives of this course.
Students will complete group activities (GA) every Tuesday, either during lecture time or at another designated time selected by the group (option for students in section M). Students will be assigned to teams of 2-3 students. Each team will complete one instance of a GA assessment in PrairieLearn, and the grade will be shared by all team members. We expect that most students will be able to finish the GAs during class time, but these assignments can be completed by 10pm of each Tuesday.
At the start of lecture on Tuesdays, we will give a brief 5-10 minute introduction to the group activity. This introduction is not essential for completing the activity, as all necessary information is included in the PrairieLearn assessment. Online students who prefer to work on the activity later will not miss any important details. However, those who wish to attend the introduction can join the Zoom Meeting at 11 am.
Since many students will not know other students in the course, we want to give everyone a chance to meet others to work with. During the first 2 weeks of class, you will complete the GA with a random team. At the end of week 2, you will be given the option to choose your team or to be assigned to a random team. You will be given the option to change your team at about the halfway point of the semester.
Selecting your group: you will have the opportunity to select your group submitting a survey in PrairieLearn ("Select your group and time to meet (not for credit)"), under the constraint that each group should have 2-3 students. You can still work with a larger number of students (let's say two groups of 3 students all working together), but you will need to open the GA with only the members assigned to your team. If you don't submit your selection, course staff will randomly place you in a group. The group selection survey will close on Friday of week 2.
Students that do not make their selection by the deadline will be placed at random groups. You will be able to check your assigned group by Monday of week 3 via PrairieLearn.
Working with your group - in-person section: Your group will receive a table assignment. Each table can have 2-3 groups, and you are free to discuss the GA with all students sitting at your table. However, each group will have to submit their own GA.
Working with your group - online section: Your group can choose how they will be meeting: in-person or remotely, during class time or outside class time.
In-person section: We will have course staff in the classroom to help students during class. Raise your hand and someone will come to your table.
Online section: We will have course staff available on Discord during class time to support you via chat or voice. Read more information on how to use Discord in this class on our Support page.
Peer reviews will have 5 agree/disagree ratings per teammate. Any rating that is neutral or agree will be counted as satisfactory. You will complete two peer reviews during the semester, which will include the following statements about yourself and your teammates: 1) Makes high quality contributions to the team's work 2) Asks for and shows an interest in teammates' ideas and contributions 3) Demonstrates knowledge of course content or actively ask questions when lost or confused 4) Motivates the team to do excellent work 5) I would gladly work with this individual in the future.
Peer reviews are required for all students in the online section, and encouraged for students in the in-person section.
Attendance is required for all students in the in-person section. Students are encouraged to complete the GA during lecture time from CIF, however, the assessment will remain open until 10pm if they need more time later in the day.
Students who prefer an asynchronous experience and/or prefer to not be required to attend lectures at a designated time should register in the online section.
Collecting attendance: Course staff will scan your QR code from the Illinois App at the start of each GA. They will reserve the right to not award attendance points if you are physically present but mentally absent (even after collecting your attendance using the QR code). For example, if you are distracted by other things like social media or other assignments and course staff have to ask you to stop multiple times, you will not get your attendance points.
In-person section: If you are not feeling well or believe you may be ill, please do not come to the classroom. You have two options in this case: a) you can submit a request for excused absence (if you are not able to complete the activity remotely due to illness - check the syllabus for further instructions) or b) you can contact your teammates and make arrangements to connect with them remotely. We will collect your attendance once we verify you are indeed remotely connected and working with your team. Also, remember that your lowest score will be dropped, so you can miss one GA, no questions asked!
Online section: If you are not able to complete the GA remotely due to illness, you can submit a request for excused absence (check the syllabus for further instructions).
Students in each group will work together to complete an assignment delivered using a combination of PrairieLearn and Jupyter notebooks. The assignments are autograded (and corresponding) scores are shared among all the members of the group that participated in the activity.
A student who is not actively contributing to the GA must not join the group assessment. Note that participation should be a responsibility of the entire group. Do not provide the "join" code to a group member who is not actually meeting with the group (either online or in-person).
In-person section: A student who joins a GA but is not present in the classroom will receive a zero for that GA, regardless of the grade shown on PrairieLearn (which was earned by the rest of the group). We will use both the attendance record and the grade from PrairieLearn to calculate the final GA score, which will be uploaded to Canvas. Be sure to check Canvas weekly to ensure your expectations align with our records.
Online section: Grades in PrairieLearn will be uploaded into Canvas for most of the GAs without any additional checks, except for GAs 7 and 13. A student who does not submit the first peer survey will receive a zero for GA 7, regardless of the grade shown on PrairieLearn (both the peer survey and GA 7 are released in the same week). The same applies to the second peer survey and GA 13. Be sure to check Canvas weekly to ensure your expectations align with our records.
Final GA average: We do not grant extensions on GAs. You will get one drop of the lowest score before we compute the average (out of the 12 GAs that count for credit). If you have a valid reason to miss a GA, you can submit a request for excused absence.
We will use structured roles in this class to facilitate group work. You will be expected to alternate between these roles throughout the semester, ensuring that each team member has an equal opportunity to participate in every role.
Manager: Responsible for coordinating efforts of the team and making sure that all team members are contributing. For example, if a team member is silent for a while, it is the manager’s role to check in on the team member. The manager is responsible for indicating who took on each role at the start of a GA.
Recorder: The recorder is responsible for being the main “driver,” entering answers into PrairieLearn. For example, we would encourage the recorder to have PrairieLearn open and sharing their screen with other team members.
Reflector: The reflector is responsible for making sure that all team members understand what’s going on. For example, the reflector might ask whether each team member understands the problem before moving on to the next problem. The reflector is responsible for completing a short survey at the end of each GA.