Replacing traditional sections with Teams-based groupwork: Remote learning and beyond

Abstract

The sudden shift to online teaching and learning brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic provided an opportunity to consider alternatives to entrenched teaching practices. Making use of the private channel function in Microsoft Teams, I replaced traditional sections in an introductory linguistics course with asynchronous groupwork. This enabled students to form learning communities that facilitated peer learning and support in spite of remote learning, while unexpectedly connecting students with instructors in more personalized ways than typically witnessed in traditional sections. The medium allowed the teaching team to provide tailored feedback on each group’s work, as well as point out errors that were common across groups. I reflect on some of the problems encountered and consider how these might be addressed in the future.