| INTRODUCTION - Sample Seminar Overview |
Each honors seminar is unique. However over the past three years, DHC faculty and students have been able to identify eight steps that each seminar seems to have in common. The steps are designed to help give you a general idea of how a seminar might be run. This overview also highlights the areas where students may need extra help, encouragement and a little prodding in order to solve a complex, contemporary problem in ten weeks. Many of the links in this section are to the "Group Work and Collaborative Writing" handbook by John Vohs. His handbook also provides and excellent outline of the stages group projects follow. Reading his book will help you to anticipate and recognize typical problems your seminar may encounter.
Step 1: Set seminar goals and encourage student interaction.
Students are more motivated and increase their level of commitment to the course the more they develop personal relationships with classmates. Ask that they learn each others names. Play an icebreaker or team building activity on the first day. The first two weeks follow-up with a few other short activities that encourage team work and give students the opportunity to get acquainted. Offer an incentive like food for everyone, after the entire class learns all the names.
Seminar instructors report that after the students knew every person's name and got to know each other, class discussions improved, there was increased inter-group communication and students were more committed to the class.
In addition to increasing motivation and commitment, team building activities will give students the opportunity to practice the skills they need to run meetings and work together as a team rather than as a group of individuals. These activities can be related to the topic, and have aspects that include building trust and practicing team decision making and meeting skills.
Step 2: Introduce the topic.
In order to deal with the complex problem seminar students need to be introduced to the topic. After performing one or two of the first day activities you should have an idea of the students' level of exposure to the topic. Based on their level of exposure you may want to identify several resources where students can easily obtain background information on the topic. These resources can be listed or linked to the class Web site or you can make copies of articles and books available in class. Some seminars have arranged to watch an educational film together outside of class as an introduction to the topic. Other seminars have arranged for an introductory tour of a particular reference desk at the library or how use on-line data bases. Asking an expert in the field to come as a guest speaker is another way to quickly communicate background information to the students.A jigsaw activity is useful for quickly introducing students to articles about the topic and getting them to start thinking about the issues. For many topics it may be most important to activate any background knowledge students may have and connect some of their past experiences to the seminar topic. In other words, let students brainstorm and discuss the topic and help them to realize they know more about the topic than they think they know.
Define the task/clarify the problem:
Once students have some background information on the topic the next step is to make sure everyone in the class understands the problem. One of the most important aspect of a successful group project is a clear understanding of the class goals and objectives. Identify the sub-topics or background information that needs to be researched in order to develop a solution.
If the topic or problem needs some clarification, split the class into several small groups and have groups brainstorm the questions or issues surrounding the problem. Then clarify and combine these ideas into a list of subtopics to be initially investigated.
At this point, it is very important the class is in agreement and the problem is clearly defined so that everyone understands the problem to be solved. Misunderstanding the problem can lead to serious problems latter in the seminar.
Step 3: Forming teams and gathering information.
If you have not already created student teams, you can allow students to separate into teams based on the sub-topic they would like to research or you can separate them into heterogeneous teams.
Each team is first assigned to identify possible resources then gather meaningful information about the subtopics. Teams should plan their method of attack by asking themselves questions such as: Where can we find the best information? Which resources are reliable? Are there experts who we can interview or invite to class?
As teams gather information, encourage them to make full use of information technology, ranging from electronic searches of library catalogs and periodical indexes to navigation of the World Wide Web. Students should also contact knowledgeable individuals directly or arrange for observations of relevant sites. Instructors can arrange for an "expert" in the field to be interviewed during class time. Class field trips are also a nice way to introduce students to the topic or to excite the students about the topic of the seminar.
Step 4: Analyze and interpret information.
Set class time aside during the next two weeks for each team to analyze and interpret the information they have gathered. This process involves eliminating useless data and organizing information into a report or several mini-reports for the entire class. This is probably the most time consuming step. It is important to monitor each teams progress and assist teams in determining what information may still be missing, assumptions they may have made along the way and any other holes in their research.
Teams require a great deal of "coaching" during this phase. Most students have not had any experience analyzing and interpreting data. They often have the false impression that more research is always better. Try not to let students spend more than a few weeks researching background information. This is not the most effective use of their time. As the facilitator remind students that they will never have all the information on thier topic. Then help them decide when they have enough background information to make informed decisions about the topic. As the instructor you need to encourage the class to make decisions based on the research they have after a few weeks and move on to the next step.
You can help students to focus on analyzing and interpreting by reminding them that their classmates are relying on them to do the research in their sub-topic, and to consolidate it into something everyone can understand. They must be able to draw conclusions and make recommendations to the rest of the classfor the project to be successful. Let the class know that this will be a very valuable skill for them to take with them to the work place.
Step 5: Reporting to the class.
The team reports should communicate the results of each team's investigation and any recommendations or action plans. Each of these reports should serve to educate and inform the rest of the class about the sub-topic they have researched as well as help move the class toward a decision about the topic's solution.
A format for team presentations should be developed by the instructor, as many students may not have experience giving oral presentations. Depending on the topic you may want the teams to do several mini-presentations throughout the quarter or one formal presentation around the sixth week.
Format recommendations:
(Cottel, 1998)
Team presentations should be in both oral and written form in order to help develop better oral and written communication skills. These presentations can be evaluated by both the instructor and other seminar students.To keep students actively involved in the presentations handout an evaluation form for students to complete during the presentation and direct students to take notes an write down questions during each presentation. Collect the evaluation forms and use them to help with your evaluation.
If you choose to do a question and answer session following the presentations encourage the audience to think critically about the presentation and question presenters about, assumptions, missing information, or conclusions that are not well supported.
Step 6: Class Deliberations : Addressing the Problem.
Moving the seminar from Step 5 to Step 6 is one of the important jobs of the instructor. Many teams may get caught up in the endless search for information on their topic, it is important that you help the teams understand when they have done enough research and help them move on to the developing their proposal, or designing their project.
During step the class may choose to consolidate solutions, identify the most viable solution, or decide that they need to explore other alternatives based on the information they have from the mini-reports and the team presentations.
Step 6 can be large group discussion that answers the question "Where do we go from here?", or "Based on what we know now which of the possible solutions do we want to pursue?"
Another way to approach step 5 with the class is to do the following group activity:
Focusing Exercise
If it looks like the class is not going to be able to come to a consensus, you may want to table the discussion until the next class Meantime, ask students to send you an email listing the idea they would support and why. This may allow students more time to think through their thoughts and feelings.
Step 7: Work on the Final Products
After the class has wrestled with the possible solutions and decided on one to pursue they are ready to start putting together their final products. There are several ways do accomplish step 6, use the original research teams, use the newly created jigsaw teams or let the students create teams based on the portion of the final product that interests them or where they have the most expertise.
The kind of final products seminar teams work on will vary greatly depending on the topic. In the past seminars have had one team work on the poster for the Convocation, a second team develops the presentation for the Convocation, and a third team creates the final class project which may be a Web page, grant proposal, video, position paper or what the seminar decides best fits their purpose and topic.
Step 8: Convocation, Evaluation and Closure
During the last week of class after the Convocation you may want to spend some time reflecting on the quarter. Ask students to evaluate the effectiveness of their poster/presentation. Ask them to look back over the quarter and decide if the problem solving process used was effective, are there things they would do differently next time. This is a time when a great deal of learning can take place. Encourage students to ask critical questions and be specific when they make recommendations for what could have been different.
The last class is an excellent time to congratulate students on all of their hard work and talk about goals that were met. Ask students to brainstorm a list of skills, processes or other items that they learned this quarter. Or give students a post-test where they have the opportunity to demonstrate what they learned.
In a class like the honors seminar it is very important to have some kind of closure activity like one of the ones mentioned above. If the topic or project did not work out as students had planned they may not have a sense of accomplishment, however you can point out all of the positive things you learned as a class and help the students see they have accomplished a great deal.
References:
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