Using Messagegrid to Promote Student Collaboration

It is now commonplace to see laptop computers in the classroom. Some colleges and universities have mandated that incoming freshmen have a laptop computer when they arrive on campus. What is not obvious is that, with the right software package, these computers can serve as powerful tools for collaboration among students both inside and outside the classroom. This paper describes one such package called MessageGrid. With MessageGrid the instructor can construct grids that allow students to contribute to a large analytical piece, compare their results and learn from their peers, interact asynchronously with their teammates on a team project, or prepare extensive supplementary materials and make them conveniently available to their instructor and classmates. A capability to poll students can provide the instructor with class opinion on any topic, assess student understanding quickly during class time, in general provide feedback to the instructor on his or her effectiveness in conveying the lecture content. We briefly describe MessageGrid and ways that instructors and professors from very different disciplines have used it in their courses. We conclude with lessons learned and plans for future development.