Collaborative Assignments to Enhance Student Engagement

Amy S. Osatinski, PhD. 
Associate Professor of Theatre History 
Head of the BA in Theatre Innovation and Entrepreneurship
School of Theatre
​Oklahoma City University

The Need for Active Learning

For many years, there has been a shift happening in the students who are entering our classrooms. They have shorter attention spans and many of them struggle to sit through lecture-based classes. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this trend, and since returning to in-person learning, many students not only struggle, but will simply not do the work. Rather than trying to entice them to participate in old models of instruction, I began to devise ways to actively engage them in their own learning. One strategy that has led to a great deal of success is collaborative assignments. These assignments are simple to set up, and as long as there are specific and clear guidelines, make sense to students and meet them where they are at. The following are several examples of simple, collaborative assignments that I have created using Google Docs, a platform with which most students are familiar and that is free and easily accessible. 

The Context

I teach in the School of Theatre at Oklahoma City University. Here is some info about the program and my students:

• We have about 180 undergraduate students in four programs: Two BFAs in Acting (Screen Acting and Stage and Screen Acting), A BFA in Design and Production, and a "Choose your own adventure" BA program designed for Directors, Dramaturgs, Arts Admin., Teachers, etc.
• I see most of the BFA students (the Screen Acting students take film history rather than theatre history) for two semesters in their third year and most of the BA students for two to three semester in their second and third years. I teach four sections of up to 20 students each semester and each section is a mix of students
• The students are VERY busy and consistently complain about the course workload. They are often working on multiple productions each semester and though the School of Theatre says that classes come first, that is not often enforced and the culture says otherwise.
• The students come from all over the country and most of them were high-achieving students before coming to OCU. 
• Many of them have to have jobs on top of classes and productions to be able to afford to go to OCU. 
• 98% of my students have laptops or tablets that they can bring to class for activities. Two of our programs require students to have a laptop or tablet. There are a few students in our BFA acting program who use their phones to complete the activities. The activities are set up to be completed on any device, though using a phone is not ideal. I am currently exploring ways to get some devices that students can check out for class when needed. Access to a device that they can use in class is a requirement listed in my syllabus.

I have tried to meet my students where they are at by reducing the out-of-class workload for the Theatre History courses. That means more material that might have been assigned out of class has to be covered in class. That's led to an investigation of creative ways to engage with material other than lectures.

Examples

Example 1: Black Theatre in the US Activity

This activity comes from the Theatre History and Historiography course. It is a part of our exploration of Black Theatre in the United States in our Historical Excavation unit (we start with a contemporary play - Hamilton - and then "excavate" it to find its antecedents. For more on this and to see the final assignment in which the students do their own excavation, see last years presentation at this link.

Learning Outcomes:

• Students will begin to understand to breadth of the contribution of Black theatre artists and companies to the development of theatre in the United States.
• Students will apply their knowledge of research techniques to quickly find valid sources on a topic. 
• Students will apply citation skills.

This activity is by no means comprehensive, but it begins to share how prolific and important the contributions of Black artists are to the development of theatre in the US. The last part of the activity asks the students to reflect on/respond to what they've discovered through their own research and looking through the contributions of their classmates. This serves two purposes:

1. It forces them to read through their classmates entries to complete the assignment (you'll see, some of them didn't do the second step, therefore, they didn't full credit for completing the assignment). Having them read through and respond again allows students to work at their own pace. They are not rushed to complete the activity because they can complete it at home later if they need more time.
2. It closes the "learning loop" by having students revisit what they learned and why it matters.

​Students are consistently surprised to learn that there are so many Black theatre companies and artists that shaped theatre in the United States and this activity shows them that there are hidden histories just waiting to be uncovered, all they need to do is look!

For this activity, I provide detailed step by step instructions to help students complete it. They have done other activities like this when they encounter this activity, but as it is their first semester with me, I still provide detailed instructions. I also model the expectations for them by doing an entry for them. This is a great way to help them see what is expected of them. 

Click to visit the activity

Example 2: Queer Theatre Activity

This activity comes from the Contemporary Theatre class. It is the introduction to the Queer Theatre Unit. Student complete this activity after reading an article about the latest revival of The Boys in the Band that discusses the play's position in the history of queer plays in the United States.
Learning Outcomes:

• Students will know about some important plays in the canon of queer theatre in the United States.
• Students will understand the timeline for queer theatre and that openly queer plays are a relatively recent occurrence.
• Students will understand how the queer play we are exploring in class (this semester it was Fake Friends' Circle Jerk) is an evolution of/is indebted to the queer plays that came before it.
• Students will be introduced to some queer playwrights.

Unlike the last example, for this activity, students are asked to complete it during class time in order to share what they learned at the end of class. This is why students are not required to do full MLA citations for this activity (that's also not a learning outcome for the activity) and students are encouraged to copy in a synopsis of their play (as long as they cite it).

After completing this activity, many students shared that they were surprised to learn of the early queer plays and of the fact that most of the plays are by and about gay men. This always leads to a great discussion about queer theatre and queer history. 

For this activity, my instructions are less detailed. This is partially because the activity is simpler and partially because this activity is from the second course students take with me and was done toward the end of the semester. They are experts at completing these assignments by that point! I do still do an entry as a model for them. I also often do additional entries as they are doing entries if the class is smaller and there are more plays than students.

Click to visit the activity

Tips and Tricks

1.  Specific and detailed instructions are the key to success, particularly the first few times students do these activities. 
2. Modeling the expectations goes a long way toward helping students understand those expectations. 
3. It's important that there is a mechanism for students to share their work and/or read each other's work. Otherwise they are only learning about what they researched.
4. If you have multiple sections of a course, I have found it best to create a document for each section of the class. 
5. I always keep a blank template of the activity so I have it for next time and/or can quickly set up multiple documents for multiple sections! This also allows me to make changes semester to semester without having to change multiple documents. 
6. Check the permissions on the document! It has to be set to "anyone with the link can edit" for students to be able to edit and participate.
7. House the links to the activities in your learning management system (D2L, Canvas, etc). That way all students will have access. I may also put up a QR code or a short link in class for students to access quickly. Remember, the QR code is only good when students are using a tablet or phone for the activity.
8. I always let students know the class period before we do an activity that we will be doing an activity so they can plan to bring their devices. 
9. These activities also work well for asynchronous class sessions, however, I am always even more mindful of the instructions and modeling if students are working on them on their own. 

Parting Thoughts

There's nothing earth-shattering about what I've shared today, but incorporating these kinds of assignments in my courses has had a huge impact for my students. This is one way I've tried to build engagement in my courses, but it is by no means the only way. I hope that by visiting my presentation you might think about ways to build active engagement in your course in ways that work for your students and the context of your institution. If doing what I do is it, great! If not, what is? What simple shifts can you make to help students be active participants in their learning.