We like to hear from instructors who find creative ways to use Respondus software in their courses. Here's one approach we'd like to share that uses our newest product, StudyMate Class.

University instructors often provide students lists of supplemental readings or reference materials that are then mostly ignored by students. Oftentimes there is simply too much material for one student to review. With StudyMate Class, students can engage with supplemental materials and spread the learning effort across the class.

To begin, the instructor divides the class into groups and assigns one or more of the supplemental readings to each group. In essence, the groups are responsible with becoming the class experts on the assigned readings and tasked with teaching the rest of the class the key concepts from those materials. The key concepts are then entered into StudyMate Class, providing other students in the class with an easy resource for learning the materials.

Here are step-by-step instructions on how an instructor facilitates this:

1. Break students into small groups.
2. Assign each group specific readings, reference materials, or research topic.
3. Within the Blackboard course, create a StudyMate Class instance for each group. (You may want to use "adaptive release" or "selective release" within the course management system so that each group can see only their project during the development stage.)
4. Students in each group review the assigned materials and determine which items are the most important. (Instructors may want to provide guidance on this, such as suggesting that 5 key concepts or facts should be culled from each chapter or reading.)
5. Logging into StudyMate Class, students in the group use each of the three templates from the Edit menu to create an appropriate item based on each concept. That is, each concept should have an item created with the Fact Template, the Term/Definition Template, and the Multiple Choice Template. In doing so, fellow students can learn the new materials from a variety of perspectives. The Fact Template is first:

   

6. Then the Term/Definition template:

   

7. And finally the Multiple Choice template:

   

8. The group repeats this process (steps 4-7) for each concept selected from the reading.

After each group has completed their work, there are several optional tasks the instructor might do:

• From the Grade tab in StudyMate Class, provide a grade based on a review of the statistical dashboard and the content submitted by each student.
• Review and edit items that are incorrect or need additional information or clarification.
• From the Settings tab, select "Once edited by the instructor, don't allow further student editing" to prevent further changes to each of the projects.
• In a traditional face-to-face course, consider having each group give a 3-5 minute presentation during class to summarize the key points of the reading(s). For a fully online course, this could be done with synchronous meeting tools or by sharing presentation materials in a discussion board.
• Within StudyMate Class, select the best multiple choice questions and copy them directly to Blackboard's assessment tool. (This feature is located at the bottom of the Edit menu.) The questions created by students are then available for use in a regular Blackboard assessment.

9. Finally, change the adaptive/selective release setting (removing the group membership criteria) so that each group project is available to everyone in the course. Since students need to first "learn" the materials before they do a self-assessment, it's best if they start with the Fact Cards activity, move on to activities like Flash Cards, Pick-A-Letter and Fill in the Blank, and then use the Multiple Choice and Challenge activities.

This is just one of many ways StudyMate Class can engage students and instructors with course materials. For more ideas, read the "Teaching Scenarios" section at the end of the StudyMate Class Instructor "Quick Start" Guide, available at http://www.respondus.com/products/studymateclass_guides.shtml.

Related Articles:
What Makes StudyMate Class the "Ultimate" Study Group?
The Top-10 Reasons to Use a Respondus Product
StudyMate Class Now Available

Source: Respondus, Inc. (www.respondus.com)
Originally Published: January 27, 2009

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