Information sharing is a critical aspect of effective team functioning. However, it can be challenging to discern whether the information communicated is fact, opinion, or someone's best guess (FOG) due to the varied understandings, assumptions, and interests team members bring to any collaboration. In this article, we introduce a role-play…

Team experiences afford opportunities for students to expand their self-knowledge based on peer feedback, yet feedback processes tend to be cumbersome and difficult to manage. Thus, educators often provide feedback only on the team's work output. The purpose of this article is to introduce a simple, structured exercise in which team members share…

This article outlines a unique student activity designed to close the gap between students' perceived and actual communication and team behavior during virtual group meetings. The Communication Audit exercise requires that students record an online small group meeting and then review the recording while categorizing each verbal remark into…

Students are challenged to write papers and give oral presentations across disciplines. Yet, the audience for students often remains the same: college personnel and classroom peers. Communication classrooms are ideal places to learn about and practice audience adaptation, specifically modifying content for different audiences, contexts, and…

A constant challenge for faculty is to gain and to hold student interest so that substantive learning can occur. One way to achieve this is through the use of games. This article describes an escape room activity for the classroom that is modeled after commercial escape rooms. This fun, single-session team dynamics exercise can be used in an…

This article explains an activity that can be conducted to form teams in university business classes. It allows students to actively participate in the team selection process and learn valuable human resource management skills. Students are placed in the role of hiring managers. They have to identify the skills and characteristics needed to…

Courses: Any course that examines mediated and/or online communication, including but not limited to--Computer-Mediated Communication, Communication Theory, Interpersonal Communication, Introduction to Communication, and Organizational Communication. Objectives: In this single-class activity, students apply their knowledge of mediated…

As the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic spread throughout the world, universities were faced with extraordinary challenges. Shelter-in-place orders were given, in-person classes were canceled, and at the University of California Irvine, instructors had less than 2 weeks to convert spring quarter classes from a face-to-face to an online format. A team-based…

Courses: Strategic Campaigns, Advertising/Public Relations Campaigns. Objectives: The purpose of this semester-long project is student application of research-based strategic communication strategies and techniques used in executing a professional strategic communication campaign for a client.

Courses: Any introductory undergraduate public-speaking course, in particular in ESL/EFL contexts. Objectives: This single-class activity is intended to (1) build students' ability to communicate orally "off the cuff;" (2) foster students' understanding of the major organizational formats used in organizing speeches; and (3) increase…

The purpose of this study was to determine students' perceptions of team-building activities within a university Latin dance course. Students (N = 30) completed an evaluation of the team-building activities and wrote reflective essays about their experiences in the course. The course consisted of twenty 90-minute classes. In the third class…

Because of the ever-increasing demand by faculty for realistic, experiential-learning exercises easily incorporated into the marketing curriculum, this article offers a new exercise that is based on Parlin's early work in marketing research with Campbell's soup: garbology. Garbology is an entertaining, experiential learning activity that serves as…

This article describes a scavenger hunt for Business Law students. Specifically, students compete in this scavenger hunt to identify accessible design features on campus to undergird their study of Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Title III of the ADA prohibits public accommodations from discriminating on the basis of…

Positive experiences of teamwork in design contexts significantly improve students' satisfaction with teaching and their attitudes towards future teamwork. Thus, an understanding of the factors leading to negative and positive team experiences can inform strategies to support effective teamwork. This paper examines design students' perceptions and…

To teach collaboration and overcome students' aversion to teamwork, Pope-Ruark (2012) recommends the Scrum approach, which she has used to manage major client-based course projects in writing and publishing courses. The Scrum approach emerged out of the software development industry in the 1990s as a framework for improving team…