How to Conduct Student Team Exercises (STEs)
Office of Educational Development
April 25, 2006
Course directors and faculty may use Student Team Exercises (STEs) as an alternative to standard
faculty-developed lectures and exams.
What are Student Team Exercises (STEs)?
Student Team Exercises are faculty-developed small group (2-15 members) activities in which students
use course content to complete a graded team task such as a case or problem set. The primary purpose of an
STE is to teach course content while encouraging students to hone their analytical and communication skills.
Students receive three scores as part of their participation in the Student Team Exercise: a score on a short pre-
exercise online Readiness Exam, a score for the performance of their team as a whole on the group task (as
recorded on the Team Task Report), and a score from their fellow team members for their contribution to
accomplishing the assigned task (as reported on the STE Peer Evaluation Form).
What’s so good about Student Team Exercises?
Student Team Exercises involve students in teaching one another course content and applying the
content in solving realistic problems. They motivate students to read and organize assigned course materials in
preparation for a public discussion based on their knowledge. They require students to apply communication
and problem-solving skills among their peers.
Student Team Exercises prime students for subsequent course lectures and assignments. Students arrive
better prepared, ask more profound questions, and “get it” more quickly. This allows instructors to lecture on
more advanced concepts and make more subtle distinctions.
How do instructors develop Student Team Exercises?
During course and syllabus planning
• Review course learning objectives, and create a team task that relates to specific course learning
objectives not covered by other lectures or exercises. The task may be a case, set of problems,
standardized patient, or action plan. D