Did you miss the first of our Teach30 programming? Elizabeth shared an activity called “Who is the Expert in the Room?” (also known by other names depending on how it is used). How might you implement and use the activity? Take a read through and see what you come up with for your classes:
“Who is the Expert in the Room?” or “How Can I Help?”
This activity is one that goes by various names, but can be adapted easily into almost any course. The activity is particularly useful in a course with either intimidating content or projects and assignments with anxiety-provoking components, such as speaking intensive and research intensive courses.
Purpose:
- Allows students to recognize their current strengths, as everyone has something to offer
- Allows students to see that there is a community of others that can help them where they feel least sufficient.
How It Works:
- After discussing the course or a particular assignment, brainstorm skill sets that would be beneficial to completing relevant tasks (ex: scholarly research skills, design skills, writing skills, group work experience, editing, etc.)
- Hand out index cards or scrap paper (1-2 per student)
- Have students consider the skills discussed—encourage them to consider that they all have strengths and they all likely have something they’re feeling less confident about.
- On the index cards, students write one skill they’re most concerned about or least confident about. Students then tape their cards on the walls around the classroom.
- Next, ask students to focus in on their strengths—look around at the cards on the walls and think about where they could offer assistance or encouragement on a skill. Ask students to write their names on at least 2 different cards.
- Once completed, everyone retrieves their original cards from the wall.
- Debrief the activity with a discussion of skills building, recognizing that we all have strengths we can offer and others around us can help us improve or balance the skills that we feel less confident using.
- If students don’t know each other yet, take time to let them talk to one another and meet the people who signed their cards.
Adaptations:
This activity is often used as a start-of-the-semester activity, but it can also be used to introduce larger assignments, to track skills building, and even as a consideration when forming project groups to balance out skills to best meet project requirements.
In an online course, this can be a way to build a sense of community and help students feel less isolated—an instructor might do this asynchronously through a tool like Padlet and then have students reach out to their “helpers” as part of the activity.