Instructor's Guide

Quizzes, Reflective Questions, and Activities

Following are the assignments embedded in the Brainstorming tutorial:

• Activity 1: Reflective question in the form of role-play
• Activity 2: Quiz
• Activity 3: Brainstorming assignment to practice comparing ideas
• Activity 4: Reflective questions about experiences with brainstorming
• Activity 5: Brainstorming assignment to practice Nominal Group Technique

Relationship to Other iStudy Tutorials

This tutorial is related to other tutorials on personal effectiveness, including note-taking, active listening, active reading, time management, project management, academic research interviewing skills, stress management, conflict management, and peer tutoring.

Optional In-class Activity on Nominal Group Technique

Andrew Delbecq and Andrew Van de Ven developed the Nominal Group Technique (NGT) because groups encounter many problems when trying to generate ideas, encourage high member involvement, and maintain agendas and time schedules. This activity will demonstrate another way to approach brainstorming, by using NGT.

The instructor may want to choose (or let the students choose) a topic for this activity. The instructor should then guide the students through the following process:

1. Silent Generation of Ideas in Writing
2. Recorded Round-Robin Listing of Ideas on Chart
3. Discussion and Clarification of Each Idea on Chart
4. Preliminary Vote on Priorities
5. Discussion of Preliminary Vote
6. Final Vote on Priorities

1. Silent Generation of Ideas in Writing

Present the question or problem in written and verbal form. Give team members five to ten minutes to generate ideas in writing.

2. Recorded Round-Robin Listing of Ideas on Chart

Ask each member to read one of his/her ideas. Record this idea on a flip chart, whiteboard, blackboard, etc.

3. Discussion and Clarification of Each Idea on Chart

With each item, ask the team members if they have any questions, statements of clarification, or statements of agreement or disagreement they would like to share.

4. Preliminary Vote on Priorities

Ask each team member to silently pick five to seven of the "best" ideas, and rank them in order of importance. Members can use paper or index cards to do so. Then visually show these rankings on the flip chart, whiteboard, blackboard, etc.

5. Discussion of Preliminary Vote

Invite open discussion to examine inconsistent voting patterns and to provide an opportunity to readdress items which seemed to receive too many or too few votes.

6. Final Vote on Priorities

Repeat Step 4 to ensure the most important items are chosen and ranked appropriately.  Display the results on the flip chart, whiteboard, blackboard, etc.

Note: This is an excellent opportunity to utilize and reinforce the cooperative learning techniques found in the Cooperative Learning tutorial. Instructors may want to construct small groups for this activity.

 

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Key Points

These points are covered in the tutorial, but should be emphasized in any discussion.

• Brainstorming techniques and rules
• Factors for effective brainstorming
• Brainstorming checklist

Assessment Criteria

Through observing both the group's and the individuals' activities, the instructor may assess student performance. Assessment criteria are as follows (instructors supply the percentage weights):

 

Assessment Criteria

Where	Domain	Activities	%
iStudy Tutorial	Knowledge	The student can identify common brainstorming techniques and rules and factors for successful brainstorming.
iStudy Tutorial	Application	The student can apply brainstorming techniques and rules to new problem context during in-class activities.
			100%

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