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Homework and Students with Disabilities 

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Homework and Students with Disabilities 

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Homework may pose as a significant challenge, for some it may be the students ability to maintain.

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Educators should use their creativity when creating assignments.

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Fortunately, for much of the time, Brown instructors and students are able to teach and learn as planned in the syllabus. However, whether due to weather, travel, or illnesses like COVID-19, there are times when these plans need to be adjusted. This resource offers approaches to making these adjustments, through both lower and higher-tech means. Recommendations from Brown's Office of Student and Employee Accessibility Services (SEAS) are also offered to address accessibility.

In times of significant disruption, the key goal is to help students get the support they need to meet your most essential course objectives. Teaching in times of disruption may involve thinking creatively about how to build up students' knowledge and skills in different formats to complete the same assignment. An example of this adjustment includes delivering a virtual lecture and then having students complete the original exam using the Quizzes tool in Canvas. Brown's Office of Digital Learning and Design has compiled a Teaching and Learning Continuity Guide that offers online and digital modifications for many teaching and learning practices.

However, instructors may also wish to think creatively about the assignment itself, through an approach that may not be intensively digital. For the purposes of inclusion, it is important to be mindful that some students have limited access to laptops and data plans. An assessment that relies on face-to-face interaction (e.g., discussion, presentations, debates) might be completed in Zoom, or it could be substituted with an assignment in a different format that meets the same course objectives. One example of a "low tech" adjustment includes asking students to write a pro/con issue comparison memo, in lieu of participating in a classroom debate.

Below, we describe the most frequently used assessments in Brown courses and offer low- and higher-tech options for helping students to complete them. If you are using an assignment type that is not detailed below, please contact [email protected] to talk through options specific to your teaching context.

Creative Approaches to Help Students Complete Key Assignments

Discussion/Participation
Brown's office of Digital Learning and Design's Teaching Continuity Guide offers a resource for using the Canvas discussion tool. Other possibilities for creatively maintaining discussions include:

Conducting discussions through a Google course group or through an email thread. In the case of larger classes, an instructor can assign small groups and ask those teams to communicate in their preferred modality, then email the instructor some outcomes of the discussion. Instructors who use email threads should note that sensitive student data can be shared easily and will wish to adjust prompts accordingly.

Holding discussions or office hours via conference call. Instructors can use a Zoom conference call number to procure a new number if they do not wish to share their personal one.

Using Piazza, a question and answer tool, to facilitate student problem-solving and review sessions.​

If discussions are held online (such as through Zoom), record the session to the cloud. The audio will automatically be transcribed with machine-based captions (more information about Zoom transcription is here.) You may edit the transcription after the meeting to correct errors. Having lecture capture or video captioned as soon as possible after production is important for students with hearing concerns. If you have students who require human-based captioning for accessibility reasons, please contact [email protected] for assistance from Media Services.

Writing
In many ways, papers are the ideal assignment during times of disruption because they require fewer adjustments compared to other types of assignments. However, because of the lack of peer or instructor contact to go over drafts or discuss expectations, ideas to creatively support student writing include:

For peer feedback, instructors can set up pairs or triads for students to email drafts to each other. Just as with any peer feedback process, it is most helpful to structure these discussions by sharing a rubric in advance, or asking students to annotate their draft with questions that ask for specific feedback from their reader. Instructors also can ask peer readers to answer specific, descriptive questions like, "What is the biggest unresolved question in this draft? What do you want to read more about in this essay? What are the draft's biggest strengths?" (Gooblar, 2019, p. 93).

Students can use Google Docs or an emailed Word version to share drafts with instructors. The wonderful aspect of this option is that it also allows students to use the comment feature to dialogue with the instructor, e.g., "Here's where I think my thesis statement is" or "Here is a section that I am struggling with" (LaVaque-Manty & Evans, 2013).

To offer guidance to students about helpful writing conventions, online tools such as Purdue OWL offer resources about topics such as writing a thesis statement and discipline-specific writing expectations.

Research papers may be tricky for students to complete, especially if the assignment was originally designed to involve a lot of on-campus interaction, use of the library's physical collections, or data collection. Consider what the key goals for the research paper are. Bean (2011) lists seven, including how to ask discipline-appropriate research questions, how and why to find sources, how to take good notes, and how to write for audience, genre, and purpose. If your most important goal is source-related, an annotated bibliography might also function well as a substitute assignment. If asking and answering questions is most critical, consider if a research proposal -- laying out the key intended aims and approaches of the project -- might meet similar objectives.

The Writing Center offers face-to-face appointments to students who need additional support and, in times of disruption, will offer virtual appointments. In both cases, writers can schedule appointments using the Writing Center's scheduling system.

Labs
To help students complete labs and lab reports, consider:

Whether the key objective of the lab is (or could be) data analysis, rather than data collection. If the latter, instructors can share pre-existing/"dummy" data with students then ask them to analyze and submit via Canvas or email.

Can some aspects of the lab be accomplished if students watch them, rather than do them? For example, the Journal of Visualized Experiments (to which the Brown library subscribes) offers over 9,500 videos demonstrating experiments, mapped to key concepts and student protocols. MERLOT also serves as a repository housing 90+ virtual labs.​

Language Courses
The Center for Language Studies offers the following recommendations:

For highly-interactive classes, the instructor can host a Zoom meeting for the whole class and create breakout rooms within Zoom for smaller groups.

Instructors can organize smaller groups of students to complete speaking assignments outside of Zoom or Canvas using their technology of choice to talk with other members of the group.

Assign discussion prompts using the discussion board feature on Canvas. Consider choosing the option of "User must post before seeing replies."

Canvas allows you to create assignments that allow a media file as an answer. Choose submission type 'online' and 'media recordings' to assign recordings as homework.

Take full advantage of Google Docs to collaboratively write or edit a story. Create groups of no more than four students.

Presentations
For planned in-class student presentations, other options are below:

Ask students to record their presentation using simple technology (such as a cell phone or their computer) and send it to the instructor or full class.

A lower tech option is to ask students to submit a written script of their presentation to assess content knowledge and other skills like persuasive thinking. This substitution is most appropriate if oral communication is less of a core objective for the course.

Group Projects and Design Projects
Projects may be broken down into components -- such as data collection, writing, presentations -- that can be addressed by some of the ideas outlined above. However, other options include:

PhET offers a number of online simulations where students work through core concepts in physics, mathematics, chemistry, earth science, and biology. Students can work through the simulations and design a class activity, physical lab, or homework assignment that incorporates that concept.

For design projects, students can create prototypes at home using objects around the house. The prototypes can then be shared as a photo or video file through email or Canvas.

Students may still have access to computer software off campus to complete group projects. Check the Brown software catalog or contact your IT department to determine what is needed to give students access to specific programming.

Exams
The Teaching Continuity Guide offers a resource for using Canvas's Quizzing tool. However, other possibilities for creatively measuring student understanding of concepts include substitution of an in-class exam with:

A timed or untimed take-home exam. In the case of a timed exam, an instructor might distribute problems or prompts to students by email, then give students a certain amount of time to return their responses. If collecting responses by Google Drive or by email, it is logistically helpful to ask students to use a standard file naming format, such as Lastname_FirstInitial_Exam2.docx.

A final portfolio with revisions and annotations. For classes with significant writing (weekly responses, multiple papers, etc.), students could have the opportunity to revise a certain number of assignments and compile them into a final portfolio. The portfolio should then be annotated, where students explain their writing and revision process for each piece and include a brief introductory statement about the work as a whole--which elements of their growth in the class does the portfolio highlight?

A series of smaller assignments that can be completed remotely in lieu of comprehensive exam.

According to SEAS, if faculty will be doing timed examinationsonline, such as through Canvas, two or more versions of the exam must be made available for students requiring documented accommodations. One version would be established for the standardexam time. Instructors can then create copies available to specific students to allow 50% and 100% additional time accommodations.

General Considerations for Assignment Re-Design

In making any significant adjustment during times of disruption, it is also helpful to consider four overarching questions:

1. Key Objectives: What are my most important course objectives, or the knowledge, skills, and capacities a student in my class should achieve? This resource offers support for identifying course learning goals.

2. Accessibility: How can learning materials provided to students be accessible? SEAS recommends that materials be distributed in an accessible format such as Word or a tagged PDF. Stylessuch as headers should be used so that students who use screen reading technology can navigate the structure of a document. Generally, accessible documents are first produced in Word, converted to PDF and then checked for accessibility. (SEAS notes that, in many classes, TAs can collaborate with faculty to help with this task.) Additionally, faculty should be willing to provideaccessible lecture notes to all students, especially for those courses where a SEAS note provider has not been implemented. Please see this link to accessibility guidelines for more specifics on accessibility standards.

3. Transparency: How can I support students in understanding new assignments or expectations? The Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) framework offers three core areas that instructors should intentionally communicate to students in any assignment (Winkelmes et al., 2016):

1. Purpose, or goals of the assignment

2. Task, or what you expect students to do and how they should complete the task

3. Criteria, or models of how students can be successful at the assignment, such as a rubric or examples of past student work (which students have given you permission to share)

A template for designing transparent assignments can be found here.

4. Student autonomy: In rethinking key assessments that align with those objectives, what are ways to give students a sense of control to mitigate anxiety about unforeseen disruptive events? This newsletter offers several ideas for heightening students' sense of flexibility and choice, but other options include allowing students to choose formats (e.g., a cell phone-recorded video or a written script of a presentation) or grading proportions (e.g., drop your lowest grade).

Please contact the Sheridan Center ([email protected] ) to talk more about these or other options specific to your teaching context.

To subscribe to the Sheridan newsletter, please click here.

References

Bean, J. (2011). Engaging ideas: The professor's guide to integrating writing, critical thinking, and active learning in the classroom, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Gooblar, D. (2019). The missing course: Everything they never taught you about college teaching. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

LaVaque-Manty, M., & Evans, E. M. (2013). Implementing metacognitive interventions in disciplinary writing classes. In M. Kaplan, N. Silver, D. LaVaque-Manty, & D. Meizlish (Eds.), Using reflection and metacognition to improve student learning: Across the disciplines, across the academy (122-146). Stylus Publishing.

Winkelmes, M., Bernacki, M., Butler, J., Zochowski, M., Golanics, J., & Weavil, K.H. (2016). A teaching intervention that increases underserved college students' success. Peer Review, 18(1-2). Available: https://www.aacu.org/peerreview/2016/winter-spring/Winkelmes

Updated 3/18/20

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Inclusive Approaches to Support Student Assignments During Times of Disruption

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Fortunately, for much of the time, Brown instructors and students are able to teach and learn as planned in the syllabus. However, whether due to weather, travel, or illnesses like COVID-19, there are times when these plans need to be adjusted. This resource offers approaches to making these adjustments, through both lower and higher-tech means.

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The key to success in a classroom is having the proper adaptations, accommodations, and modifications.

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Center for Parent Information and Resources

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Supports, Modifications, and Accommodations for Students - Center for Parent Information and Resources

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Your Central Hub for Parent Centers Serving Families of Children With Disabilities

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Making students accountable for their success is not easy, but there are some approaches to help them step up to the plate.

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First me must educate our students on what it means to work together.

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written by: Amanda Smith * edited by: Elizabeth Stannard Gromisch * updated: 7/12/2012

Accountability is one of the most important concepts to teach a child. Teaching students how to respect one another and work together as a team will help them succeed throughout their academic and working career. Here are seven steps to help create an accountability system in the classroom.

1. Redefine Group Work

Almost all students have had some experience working in groups. They have most likely worked in groups to complete large projects or worked with partners to complete smaller assignments. As the first step in creating a classroom accountability system, it is important to educate your students about what it really means to work in groups. Teach them how working with others holds them accountable. It is also a good idea to set up standards for group work in your classroom. Encourage students to hold each other accountable by limiting the amount of teacher facilitation. This will help students find ways to solve problems on their own and support one another during the process.

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7 Easy Steps for Creating a Classroom Accountability System

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Check out these seven easy steps to teach your students how to be accountable in the classroom. This is essential in helping students grow and succeed in their future endeavors. It is also a great way to create trust and team building in your classroom and may even cut down on bullying.

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Building accountability requires understanding dynamics; effective leaders know they need to understand the culture of accountability.

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From a leadership perspective, there's a real thirst for increasing leadership accountability. Executives have recently asked me various questions that linger over the concept of building team accountability to help them achieve their strategic plans while creating high-performing teams:

"How do I build accountability in teams? "

"How do I increase accountability in leadership and employees?"

" What else can I do to get people to do what we need them to do?"

"How can I hold a team member to be held accountable and still be seen as a good leader?"

"How do I balance leadership accountability and personal accountability when building a team of engaged employees?"

"Creating a culture of accountability is hard, how do I provide constructive feedback without being the bad guy?"

Building team accountability requires understanding a few dynamics because it's more complicated than we might recognize. It goes beyond the responsibility for the outcomes, which is obviously important. Still, effective leaders know that they need a culture of accountability in their teams that provide the input needed to achieve the expected team performance. Holding people accountable is one of the most important things that a successful leader does for organizational alignment, but it is also one of the hardest. It is one thing to outline your strategic objectives during team planning, but you need to create the culture to implement it.

First of all, teams - by definition - are made up of individuals. We can't forget that. An understanding is needed that society tends to truly value individual contribution while also (and separately) valuing team contribution. This interesting contradiction causes much confusion about which should be valued the most. The secret alchemy, then, is to simply sort out the confusion to start building accountability in the workplace. Without accountability in a team, it is much more difficult - and stressful - to achieve your quarterly plan. Each team member needs to be responsible for - and take ownership of - their actions, so the team can achieve results as laid out in the plan.

Team Accountability

We can do this if we recognize where the individual plays a more vital role and where teamwork plays a more vital role. For instance, when there's sudden chaos or an emergency of some sort, you want one or more individuals to step up and take the lead. On the other hand, teams are better when you need smart thinking to solve a problem or transform a process. Successful strategy execution must allow each of your team members the flexibility they need to make decisions and be held accountable for the results. Accountable leaders at all levels are responsible for holding people accountable and regularly reviewing goal progress with their teams to win the talent war.

That said, though, the individuals placed on a team matter. In an HBR article, Gratton and Erickson noted that the "greater the proportion of experts a team had, the more likely it was to disintegrate into nonproductive conflict or stalemate." These kinds of teams are not teams. They are groups of individuals coming together under the façade of working as a team. They're still a group of individuals.

Yet, most individuals in team formation want to do what they're supposed to do. Their intent is good. The missing link is that what the team is supposed to do gets lost in translation. It's assumed that they just know what to do, which is why our leadership development program is so popular as it provides actionable advice to develop accountable leaders and teams. Accountability training for leaders provides a positive return on investment as it builds accountability and trust throughout the organization.

Hopefully, your company isn't full of one crisis after another. If it is, then celebrating the individual might be your default solution. But for most companies, the continual journey is around improvements, innovation, and problem-solving. With that said, we can see the relevance of accountability in a team environment. Lack of accountability spreads quickly through the organization, limits productivity, kills morale, and destroys trust.

The missing link is that this 'team' of individuals needs to know what they, as a collective whole, are accountable for accomplishing. Personal accountability doesn't always translate to accountability in a team. As a leader, it's your job to provide them with a definition of what it is you're holding them accountable for doing and increase your communication to increase accountability. Consider implementing skip-level meetings to bridge the gaps between levels of management, start with our best skip-level meeting questions.

To do this, consider using The Five C's Framework for Building Team Accountability:

1. Common Purpose: Set the stage for any team initiative by talking about the 'why.' Why are they here? Why are they working on this project or this special task force? Connect what you need the team to do with why you need them to spend valuable time doing it. What's the point? Why does it matter? We always tend to tell a team of people what to do; many leaders are good at that. As a result, the 'why' gets completely ignored. The sign of a high-performing team is the ability to rally around a common purpose.

2. Clear Expectations: What is it that you ultimately need the team to do? These are the accountability questions leaders to set clear expectations for the team. You need to tell the team repeatedly so that all team members are clear on what is expected of them. It often takes several repetitions before the entire team can communicate them effectively.

Clarify: Are you looking for one specific viable solution to a company-wide problem, or are you asking the team to jointly agree on three potential solutions to present? Do you expect them to define a roadmap for the one (or three) solutions or not? Do you need them to present a list of pros and cons with their solution(s)? How do you want to be kept informed along the way? An email every Friday afternoon? A white paper three times a week (Side note: Please don't do this last one), or what? Whether it's an intact workplace team or a task force, use the Job Scorecard as a tool to help prompt your thinking as to what you need the team to be responsible for doing. Clear expectations are the cornerstone of accountability.

Accountable Leadership: If it's a special task force (vs. an intact workplace team), who's the person who's driving the train? In other words, who's ultimately accountable for making sure that what the team needs to do gets done? It doesn't mean this person is the only one doing the work; it simply means s/he is on top of it. The same would hold true for a new initiative for an intact team. You, the leader, shouldn't think you have all the power to check how things are going. Instead, who on the team can take the leadership role to ensure the transition gets moving and keeps moving? Who's accountable for driving the train? Do you accept responsibility when it is required?

In your mind, what does success look like when you achieve a goal? Setting up a metric for what success looks like clarifies the degree to which people are supposed to do something. Otherwise, you can get a checkmark that says, "We did it." But was it done relative to the expectations you had in your head? Define (clearly) what success looks like. (Side note: Avoid having a due date as a success metric. Any of us can produce a ton of mediocre work by a deadline.)

3. Communicate & Align: As time passes, as part of their leadership development, it's a leader's job to keep a team focused and aligned so that everyone's involved and moving in the same direction. How are they going to do what you need them to do? What resources might they consider using? Keep everyone focused. Over and over, communicate with them, ask questions, remind them why what they're doing is essential, etc. Your job as a leader is to keep them rowing in the same direction, especially when rolling out annual and quarterly plans. Communication and alignment are what provide life to any team because it's what fosters longer-term sustainability.

4. Collaborate and Coaching: Set the stage for collaboration all along the way so that adjustments can be made in real time. You can monitor progress and coach your people. Don't tell them what to do. Coach. Listen to them (80%) and talk with them (20%) to increase your team's performance. Nurture them to talk with each other. Be a resource for them. What roadblocks must be removed, and how can you help remove them? If what you've tasked your people to do is essential, then it deserves your support. Collaboration is at the heart of a great weekly team meeting, where the accountability rubber meets the road. Did everyone do what they said they were going to do? How are you coaching employees to take ownership of their commitments? An effective leader must first keep your commitment to building trust with the team, or they're doomed to failure.

5. Consequences: Most people see consequences, and they immediately think of a negative connotation. We overlook that consequences can also be positive, and every organization should use positive feedback. Make results and consequences visible. Talk to your team strategically vs. tactically, usually done through questions vs. statements. Secondly, for some reason, leaders are the first to let people know when something's not right or if it's gone awry. But when things go well, it's as if success is glossed over. The consequence of that, though, is that you help create a remedial culture. People are only noticed and given attention at weekly team meetings when things go differently than expected. So work to provide equal (or more) weight to what's gone right. Celebrate!

Need some help getting started? Rhythm Systems has programs that can help you execute your strategy with less drama!

Team Accountability Vs. Personal Accountability (Video)

Leadership Accountability: How Good Leaders Hold Their Team Accountable

Which of the Five C's do you find the hardest to do?

Which is the most important, and why?

You can take our team accountability assessment to see where you stand and how to improve.

Need help getting your team aligned to achieve your growth goals? Rhythm systems software was ranked the #1 easiest software to use, highest ROI, fastest implementation, and highest adoption rate on G2.

Additional information on accountability in leadership:

The Power of Systems and People: Accountable Leaders and Teams leadership development program to improve team performance and avoid being part of the great resignation.

You can take Our Team Accountability Assessment to see how your team stacks up.
Why You Need a Peak Performance Plan for Your A-Players Leadership Accountability Definition in Management
Level 5 Leadership - How to be a Level 5 Leader with examples
Team Accountability Begins with Personal Accountability How top CEOs Close the Strategy Execution Gap Follow-Up: The Key To Leadership Development Building Team Accountability: Job Scorecards 10 Signs of an Accountable Culture [Infographic]Growing Team Accountability in Your Organization 5 Steps to Having an Accountability Discussion [Video]
You can learn more about accountable leaders and teams.

Photo Credit: iStock by Getty Images

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Leadership Accountability: Build Accountability Leadership in your Team

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Building team accountability through leadership development requires that we understand a few dynamics because it's more complicated than we might recognize. Accountability in a team starts with personal accountability and accountable leadership.

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Teachers spend too much time distanced from their colleagues rather than working together and encouraging collaboration.

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Teamwork is better than working alone. Leaders rely on their team; which makes collaboration essential.

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Team collaboration achieves more than a single individual can on his or her own. As new disruptions shake the market and processes grow even more complex, work tasks are becoming increasingly challenging, leaving you dependent on different people with a wide range of expertise.

But here is the catch. This kind of workplace diversity can also create barriers to efficient team collaboration.

According to research published in Harvard Business Review by Lynda Gratton and Tamara J.Erickson, team members collaborate more easily and naturally if they perceive themselves alike. Meaning, the greater the diversity of background and experience, the less likely the team members are to share knowledge or show other collaborative behaviors.

Here's the disturbing controversy: On one hand, it's proven that similar people work well together. On the other hand, as work tasks continue to get more complex, people with different kinds of expertise and background are forced to work together.

How do you overcome this challenge? Here are five techniques to try:

Leaders rely on the knowledge of their team members, which is why collaboration is becoming an essential ingredient for success. Therefore, your leadership style should reflect this. In general, collaborative leadership is all about the skillful management of relationships that enable the team members to succeed individually while also accomplishing a mutual objective. Although it's easier said than done, it's clear more focus should be directed toward resourceful relationship management.

To move toward one direction, people need to clearly understand the destination. Objectives and Key Results (OKR), a technique used by Google to define and track objectives and their outcomes, is worth a try. Its main goal is to connect company, team, and individual objectives with measurable results. A great value in OKR is its ability to clearly communicate leaders' expectations and connect different-level goals into one whole. Since these goals are kept public in front of everyone, the teams can move in one direction and know what others are focusing on.

According to a survey conducted by Microsoft Office, professionals waste up to 3.8 hours a week on unproductive meetings. No matter what you call them-status updates or team gatherings-these meetings will be seen as a waste of time if there is no value in them. You can turn this around with thorough preparation, because if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.

If there is one effective process that can be easily taken from companies like eBay and Skype, it is the Progress, Plans, Problems (PPP) process. This process is a management technique for recurring status reporting. The PPP process provides a great overview of how everyone on the team is doing. It communicates three essential parts about every team member: biggest achievements, current goals, and major challenges.

Working in a team should not feel like an obligation. Integrating a little bit of fun and humor to all of this can only make the team collaboration more efficient. Socializing and getting to know each other makes the team more dynamic and connected.
-Külli Koort is a fierce proponent of achieving more with less frenetic effort. That's why she works at Weekdone, a startup that builds status report software for managers who wish to gain more insights to their teams. You can connect with her on Twitter.

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5 Techniques To Make Teamwork More Manageable

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Team collaboration achieves more than a single individual can on his or her own. As new disruptions shake the market and processes grow even more complex, work tasks are becoming increasingly challenging, leaving you dependent on different people with a wide range of expertise. But here is the catch.

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Collaboration is the key factor to building relationships.People work better in environments where they naturally feel apart.

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7 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Collaboration is a key factor in building a small business because it works. People thrive in environments which free them to communicate and work together. When the company environment is focused on collaboration, team members naturally feel a part of something bigger than themselves. The best way to transition from an individual to a collaborative mindset is to equip each team member for active participation in the group dynamic.

Here are 10 simply ways to cultivate team cohesion:

1. Create a clear and compelling cause.

To create a cohesion, team members must be provided with a convincing reason to be a part of the company mission. The more compelling and exciting the mission, the easier it is to inspire team members to want to be a part of what the company aspires to accomplish. When they are given a clear and gripping cause to be involved with, team members naturally become as passionate about the goals and objectives as their leaders. If team members do not care or are unclear about the goals and objectives presented to them, they will find all kinds of reasons not to work together. For collaboration to work, the vision and purpose must be clear.
Related: 10 Elements Needed to Create Effective Collaboration Between Your Brand and Your Influencer
2. Communicate expectations.

Collaboration must be communicated to team members as the minimum standard. To foster this, team members must be provided with defined individual and collective roles and responsibilities they will hold within the team. When they have a clear understanding of their position, each team member will work more effectively and without accidentally stepping on another person's toes creating unforeseen conflicts. In a collaborative environment, each team member experiences what it means to take part in the shared responsibility of results. With this type of focus, what starts out as a goal becomes a crusade with the experience of success changing from an individual achievement into a bonded group experience building comrade and morale.
Related: 4 Ways Co-Working Spaces Inspire Innovation and Collaboration
3. Establish team goals.

To drive success in team members it's important to set measurable goals for each on a quarterly basis. The purpose of these goals is to provide team members with achievable wins. These wins have a magical way of breaking down barriers and creating positive momentum individually and collectively. Further, it's imperative to re-evaluate goals and redirect whenever necessary. At each quarter's end, the outcomes of quarterly goals must be made available to the whole team as a way to measure and celebrate progress, and to determine where improvements need to be made. Working with this type of transparency decreases confusion, finger-pointing and the disintegration of team cohesion.
Related: Genius Loves Company: 4 Ways to Cultivate Creative Collaboration
4. Leverage team-member strengths.

To empower each team member, it is a great strategy to work with their strengths rather than working around their weaknesses. It is a good idea to have each member take a personality test such as the Myers-Briggs, and hold a team roundtable to share results. This is a great bonding exercise because the results allow each person to get to know themselves and their team members in a much deeper way. It also gives team members information about who to go to and for what based upon each person's individual strengths. When teams are connected in this way, each member is set up for success because they are each assigned tasks that play to their respective strengths.
Related: Build Your Business on Your Strengths, Hire Your Team to Cover Your Weaknesses
5. Foster cohesion between team members.

Cohesive teams are more successful. They are successful because each person on the team is included in as many large decisions as possible. When team members feel this type of inclusion, they feel the perceived significance of their role, causing them to naturally perform better. To be the most effective, teams should to participate in daily huddles where each member discusses their goals and objectives for day. This helps to avoid duplication of effort and competition between team members. These huddles keep everyone on the same playbook and enables team members to re-direct their efforts as needed.
Related: 6 Leadership Practices to Strengthen Virtual Team Cohesion
6. Encourage innovation.

For teams to grow they must be encouraged to brainstorm and question the status quo in an open and non-judgmental environment. Team members must be coached and led to believe the challenges and obstacles they face can and will be overcome. When a "can-do" attitude is instilled it motivates team members to live up to those "can-do" expectations. It is also important to ask team members for their thoughts, their reasoning and ideas on a regular basis. The more connected and understood they feel to their manager or leader, the more motivated they will be to perform, impress, be creative and to exceed expectations.
Related: The Lifeblood of Success: How to Encourage Innovation at Your Company
7. Keep promises and honor requests.

Most requests and promises are held sacred within a team, but considered optional between other company units or customers. Taking a request from a customer seriously and demonstrating that the team is working to do what they say they are going to do, goes a long way towards building trust and blurring boundaries. The question every customer and every business unit asks of another is, can I count on you? Will you be there when I need you? Do you care about this as much as we do? When team members and customers feel they can depend upon you and your team to deliver what they expect, business grows, relationships grow as does revenue.
Related: A Promise Is A Promise: Don't Bite Off More Than You Can Chew
9. Encourage people to socialize outside of work.

We all lead busy personal lives and the thought of having one more corporate event we are obligated to attend can add stress. However, socializing with co-workers outside the office is an effective way to open channels of communication, to create a better understanding and break down any walls of pre-judgemental or mistrust between team members. When team members learn they share common interests or wrestle with some of the same challenges outside of work as others, they experience their team members as more real, which helps to decrease individual bias, stereotyping and false objectifying. When we see our team members as human, it makes it more difficult to point the finger at them.
Related: 7 Ways to Create Harmony In the Office
10. Recognize, reward and celebrate collaborative behavior.

The legends of athletic dynasties or standout corporate successes consist of incredible collaborative efforts. Team members often sit in conversation reminiscing over how it all came together. Whether shared through video, newsletter, podcast, annual report or seminar, stories of great collaboration break down the walls of individualism and honor the collective accomplishment. Attaching performance rewards and bonuses to collaborative efforts sends the right message to team members about the values that are driving the business.

Establishing a collaborative environment is just the beginning of a more successful venture. For collaboration to work it must be consistent and purposeful, with resources and rewards dedicated to its success. You may have many standout successes in your company already; but you can increase your productivity exponentially by getting them to work as a collaborative team. When team members feel they are a part of something exceptional they are more than willing to work together to get the ball across the goal line. Collaboration works because there is nothing more meaningful, bonding or growth promoting than a shared win.

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10 Simple Ways to Build a Collaborative, Successful Work Environment

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7 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Collaboration is a key factor in building a small business because it works. People thrive in environments which free them to communicate and work together. When the company environment is focused on collaboration, team members naturally feel a part of something bigger than themselves.

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Capture the student's interest to get them engaged. Be enthusiastic about the subject to help get rid of fear and anxiety.

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Group work is used as a means of learning, the underlying purpose is in educational practice is to actively work together.

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Group work as an incentive for learning – students’ experiences of group work

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Group work is used as a means for learning at all levels in educational systems. There is strong scientific support for the benefits of having students learning and working in groups. Nevertheless, studies about what occurs in groups during group work…

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Educators must carefully consider how they place students in groups. Make the task challenging so students can work hard together.

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Implementing Group Work in the Classroom | Centre for Teaching Excellence

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Group work can be an effective method to motivate students, encourage active learning, and develop key critical-thinking, communication, and decision-making sk

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Teacher Collaboration: Spreading Best Practices School-Wide

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Sharing responsibilities according to RACI model

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The Reciprocation Principle - The Six Principles of Influence