Though I'm teaching largely graduating seniors, they need a reminder of how to approach coursework. Rather than being well-accustomed to these norms by the time they reach me, instead many have grown well-accustomed to skirting rules, and so it proves essential to remind and reinforce these norms.

When class is in-person, I give a short multiple choice quiz promptly at the start of every class, with just enough time to complete it if you get there on time. This serves the dual purpose of discouraging tardiness and encouraging students to read the day's materials in advance. I can't put those quizzes into the public domain. But here, I can share with you my means of taking attendance. I hand out this "feedback memo" at the very end of every class to both encourage students to remain the entire time and to get continuous feedback. I respond to the feedback on the course website.

This is a general overview of what their team project is all about. I also provide detailed written guidance, though it is rather specific to my teaching setting, so I'm not posting it here. Contact me if you are interested in that.

This is not their first presentation, but they still need much guidance on what is acceptable and what makes for a strong presentation. This document provides general guidelines.

I provide students with the exact criteria on which they'll be graded, from the start. That doesn't always mean they take the steps necessary to maximize performance on all these dimensions, of course. But I think it increases the odds that they'll cover the bases. When they present, I pass out these score sheets to all the other students, and they also complete them. I take this student feedback into account when assessing the final score. In years past, I used to give 40% weighting to classmate scoring, but I found it too inconsistent and occasionally overly critical to use directly. Nevertheless, I give each team the completed feedback sheets from their classmates.

When students work in teams, there's always the potential, often realized, of weaselly mayhem. I can't prevent it fully. This report, that I remind them of continuously throughout the semester, is the only means at my disposal to offset shirking. It's a tool for ex post settling up. Said another way, if you screw over your teammates by not doing the work, they'll tell me, and your grade will suffer -- so be rational and don't screw over your teammates. It works to some degree, though its implementation can be awkward.

This is one of the exercises I use to give students a more tangible feel for the concepts -- in this case, competitive dynamics. Even moving at a fast clip, it takes 90 minutes to complete the exercise. I then take a break, calculate winners, and then spend another 15 minutes on the debrief. Most really enjoy it and fully engage, especially with bonus points on the line.

These are the payoff tables to go along with the advertising game.

The British system for undergraduate education is quite different from the US model. And Hogwarts, er, Oxford, well it's a whole other beast on top of that. I taught strategy to the undergraduates at Oxford, across a variety of the many colleges, basically like a doctoral seminar. The students read journal articles and wrote essays that integrated those articles. To help them out, I put together this structure for a persuasive essay. I persuaded them to use it as well.