Michael Palmer

I have assigned this collaborative, video-based digital media project in a large-enrollment (110 students) chemistry lab course to pique students' curiosity and wonder by allowing them to explore their ideas and questions about a chemistry topic of their choosing. The project is highly scaffolded and is easily adaptable for other teaching contexts. I've annotated the description to help other instructors understand my decisions.

Michael Palmer

This is a wonderful example of one group's project exploring the chemistry of grease, a topic not discussed explicitly in class. It is informative, highly creative, and aesthetically pleasing. (Shared with permission.)

Michael Palmer

Having students develop a storyboard is an essential step in the project timeline that helps them organize their ideas and plan out key segments of their project. Without it, they often have to re-film scenes, collect new footage, or re-record audio, all of which are time-consuming activities. Seeing the storyboard earlier on in the project also helps me head off potential problems.

Michael Palmer

This is the storyboard for the "Grease" project listed above and is a good example of what a completed storyboard might look like and how it leads to a well-conceived and well-developed final project.

Michael Palmer

One of the challenges of assigning collaborative projects in large-enrollment courses is the logistic complexity of assessing students' work and the amount of time assessment takes. I developed a process and set of feedback forms to greatly simplify things.

The first form is used during presentations and allows 2-3 other groups to provide peer feedback during another group's project presentation. The second form collects anonymous peer feedback from members in each group about each person's contributions to the project. The third form solicits the group's self-assessment of their project, including suggesting a grade. In about five minutes, I'm able to collate all the feedback into one document and add my own thoughts.

Michael Palmer

Using all the information from the three student feedback forms and my own observations of the project, I'm quickly able to fill out this form, which includes my overall assessment of the project. Cutting and pasting from student feedback and adding a few of my own comments takes about 5 minutes per project. Before developing these feedback processes, each project would take me at least 30 minutes to assess (and the feedback wasn't as helpful).