Student Created Teams?

Is there any way students can pick their own teams in ANGEL?

Comments

Jennifer Mullen's picture

Yes, but with caveats

This is possible using the action editor, though it has drawbacks.

First, please read over the action editor documentation if you never have. I would also look at this example of using an action to enroll students in teams.

Scenario 1: An instructor creates the teams and students enroll into them.

In this scenario, the instructor first uses Manage > Teams to create each team. Then, you would need to create a content item or items that students will use to enroll in the team. A survey with a question that asks students to choose a team is the most common, but you can set this up using other content items as well. For this example, though, let's use a survey.

Create a survey with one question that asks students to choose a team. Each choice on the question should be the name of one of the teams you created exactly as it appears in Manage > Teams, including any punctuation. Make sure you use upper and lowercase letters exactly as shown in Manage > Teams as well. If students can only enroll into one team, use a drop-down list or option list question. If they can enroll into multiple teams, use a check list question. In the survey settings, select the action tab, then create a new Team Enroll action. In the team(s) text field, enter $Q1:RESPONSE$. For the event, choose submit. Don't use the default, grade, as this will require you to grade the survey for the team enrollment to occur.

Once this is done, students will be enrolled into the team they choose in the survey question once they submit the survey. You may want to go through this a few times yourself to make sure it is working as desired.

Scenario 2: Students choose their own teams

This is configured the same as scenario 1 except that you use a text box question instead of a check list, drop-down, or option list. Students type in the appropriate team name. Make sure that you include text in the question telling students not to use any of these characters in the team name: [;:',"]

Once this is done, students will be enrolled into the team they provide in the survey question once they submit the survey. You may want to go through this a few times yourself to make sure it is working as desired.

Caveats:

  1. In scenario 2, students must take care that each team member type in the team name exactly the same way. Failure to do so will result in multiple teams being created and students being assigned to different teams. For example, a student who types in "Team A" and a student who types in "Team-A" will be enrolled into two different teams.
  2. The action editor allows the creation of teams with disallowed characters in their names. The characters [;:',"] are not permitted in team names, but the action editor allows them to be used. This may cause problems with some class tools. As the instructor, you should keep an eye on team names in Manage > Teams and rename any that have these problem characters.
  3. If the team does not exist before the action enrolls the student into it the team will be created but will be set to be hidden. This will prevent its membership from being shown in Communicate > Roster > Teams or from being available to send mail to in Communicate > Send course/group mail. As the instructor, you can monitor Manage > Teams and change affected teams to be visible if you desire. This will affect all teams in scenario 2 and any team you have not created before the survey is taken in scenario 1.
Mary Janzen's picture

Re: Student Created Teams?

I can see how that could be a useful feature. However, I believe the answer is no, because teams are created on the Manage tab, and that tab is only available to course editors.

As far as I know, the best you can do is have them pick teams offline, or or else reply to ANGEL discussion forum threads that have been set up to indicate their preference. Then the editor would have to manually add the right students to the right team. Perhaps someone else will have a better work-around.

Syndicate content