Students are posed a hypothetical situation to analyze. Active communication among the group of students on all of the issues is conducted to enable everyone to see arguments more clearly and from various viewpoints. In general, the right or wrong value of the situation is in question or a need for action must be proposed.
In group reports, students in groups of 3-5 collectively research a topic and then present that topic to the instructor or class in some way, usually in text. The topic difficulty is such that a group of students is needed to effectively report on the varied information sources. The topic complexity may also benefit from group synergy of thinking.
Students are given a problem to solve. This problem can be just about anything from esoteric philosophical issues to mathematics. The goal is to come up with a solution to the problem. In some cases, the solution will be tested and reported on.
Stern, M. (1995). Visions for a sustainable city: Owings Mills, MD. http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/stern/
One common technique in computer science is to debug a faulty computer program. In distance education, students can be brought together using a synchronous tool and by sharing a screen, work collaboratively to debug a computer program, just as they might in a real world situation.
Primarily computer science, but it could be modified to group problem solving using online application sharing.
Although still somewhat controversial, gaming involves the use of interactive feedback generating computerized gaming programs in order to educate. Interactive and immersive virtual worlds are a key.
Usually used in elementary education, but can be adapted to higher levels. Useful in management, business, military, and social science education as examples.
The core components of educational gaming reflect the following objectives.
Fishbowl activities allow a student to practice a skill under peer review and audience. In the fishbowl activity, a group of students are chosen to discuss a given topic. The rest of the class watches, listens, or reads the transcript of the discussion. A secondary discussion occurs concerning the outcomes and process of the first. Another technique is to remove one student from a discussion who is then responsible for providing a summary.
Just because a course is online, does not mean that the work has to be. Just as in traditional education, fieldwork is the placement of students in real-world situations in which to learn about specified content. Examples can include botanical data gathering in a field, library research, student teaching, etc. Apprenticeships can also be considered a form of fieldwork. This category is very broad.
This category of assignments does not refer to the essay question on an exam. Rather, it is referring to well developed essays that the students construct over a period of time with the occasional guidance and feedback of an instructor. Students are given a topic on which to write the essay. The topic may be self-selected, instructor-selected, or from a list of acceptable topics. The length of the essay can vary greatly as can the type of essay. Essays can be fictitious as well.
Drill and practice is a behaviorist aligned technique in which students are given the same materials repeatedly until mastery is achieved. In each iteration, students are given similar questions to answer or activities to perform, with a certain percentage of correct responses or actions moving the student to the next level of difficulty.
Most common in Kinesthetics, Coaching, Music, Mathematics, Language, Typing, and Biological Sciences. Not as common in adult education.
In a document analysis activity, students are given a single document or group of documents with the same category/author/design to thoroughly analyze. The activity can take several forms. The document analyzed can be text-based or a photo. In forensics, the item might be analyzed for handwriting or linguistic style (note that fingerprint analysis would be considered a laboratory exercise in the OTAI). In linguistics, the document could be studied for style. In poetry, it could be an explication of a single work.