On the first day of class I presented an overview of the course and all the assessment tasks. I decided to get the students started by having a collaborative activity where we could all share our current knowledge about the range of issues that were suggested for their first assignment. I put out large piece of paper for them to write ideas down and encouraged them to either work individually or in small groups. I also went around writing comments.
It worked well with everyone engaging with the task and making comments on most of the issue pages. The feedback at the end of the day was as follows: good to have diverse responses with many minds working together, Helpful to link issues with theories, Enjoed working with peers, Found it stimulated ideas.
I got permission to have a video taken of students participating in this activity but have not managed to load it. It shows engagement of students in groups and individually and the tutor sitting with her back to the camera busy writing comments.