2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Motivation
This Strategies for Hands-on Activities, Resources, and Engagement (SHARE) paper outlines a set of activities to help students work collaboratively. Collaborative learning, in which students work together to accomplish shared learning goals, leads to high achievement and productivity; caring, supportive relationships; and self-confidence and sense of social competence. In addition, teamwork is among the most commonly identified desirable professional skill listed by employers of biomedical engineering (BME) students. BME courses ranging from first-year design to fourth-year Capstone often assign projects to be completed in teams, suggesting that scaffolded activities to support development of teamwork skills would be beneficial.
Learning Objectives
The objective of these activities is to help students intentionally develop and apply teamwork skills in course projects and elsewhere.
Implementation
Students complete a set of activities throughout the semester to introduce, review and revise, and report out on teamwork skills. Activities include (1) a team expectations worksheet, (2) reflection questions, (3) self-reporting of teamwork strengths and challenges, (4) reporting of examples of peer teaching and learning in the team, and (5) learning assessment activities designed to require synergies among team members. The learning cycle consists of spaced repetition (i.e., distributed practice), beginning with the team expectations worksheet. Each activity is revisited and/or revised multiple times during the semester, culminating in the summative learning assessment at the end of the semester.
Situational Factors
When implementing these activities, instructors may consider situational factors relating to the course, student experiences, and instructor preferences. Course type (e.g., lecture, lab), pedagogical approach (e.g., problem-based learning, flipped classroom, interactive lecture), and size impact methods for implementing each activity. Implementation may depend on students’ previous experiences with teamwork or collaborative learning (e.g., in previous courses). Instructors may choose to implement activities verbally, in writing, or using technology tools.