One-minute Paper - Online Engagement and Teaching Hub

What is it?

The one-minute paper is a versatile and easy to implement assessment technique that involves asking learners one or two quick questions on the material covered. This task takes about one minute to complete and is usually conducted before class time ends and this helps to prompt students to reflect and identify the most significant (useful, meaningful, challenging etc.) points they have learned during a particular session. Through these questions, students are encouraged to conduct self-evaluation of their learning and one-minute papers provide students with the opportunity to receive manageable amounts of timely and useful feedback from their peers.

Why use it?

As a mode of feedback, the one-minute paper, provides a level of input and control to the students and this helps to encourage motivation and active engagement (Chizmar and Ostrosky 1998).
It is more than mere recall and it is a useful way to evaluate decision making where students are required to select the most important or significant information. Students must also self-assess and ask themselves how well they understand what they have just learned (Angelo and Cross 1993).

How do I do it?

	Synchronous face-to-face	Synchronous online	Asynchronous	Tools
Student preparation	No specific preparation is required other than engagement in the session	No specific preparation is required other than engagement in the session	If this activity is run after concepts have been covered, ensure that students are aware that this activity will be run
Your preparation	Set aside 5-10 minutes to facilitate, as well as time after the activity to discuss the results. Prepare questions – questions can also be associated with groups	Set aside 5-10 minutes to facilitate, as well as time after the activity to discuss the results You might want to consider setting up small groups (3-4) in breakout rooms to provide students with opportunities to provide feedback to their peers Prepare questions – these can also be associated with groups	You might want to consider setting up small groups (3-4) to provide students with opportunities to provide feedback to their peers Prepare questions – questions can be associated with groups	LMS (to set up groups)
During activity	Students present their ideas Students provide feedback – this could be in the form or a quiz or poll or orally	Students present their ideas Students provide feedback – this could be in the form or a quiz or poll or orally	Students present their ideas and record them in Zoom Presentations are uploaded in discussion board Students provide peer feedback in the discussion board	LMS Zoom
Artefact	Presentation – most likely this will be a text-based presentation but it could be recorded	Presentation – most likely this will be a text-based presentation but it could be recorded in Zoom	Presentation recorded in Zoom

After the activity

Set aside 5-10 minutes to facilitate, as well as time after the activity to discuss the results.
Before the session ends, invite students to record their response (paper or digital tool) (synchronous students).
Collect the responses before students leave (synchronous).
Tabulate the responses and make notes of any useful comments (synchronous).
Respond to the students’ feedback/comments during the next class session (all modes).

Considerations

Works well at the end, or the beginning of class sessions, serving either as warm-up or as a wrap-up activity.
Well suited for use in large classes because it is quick to administer and analyse/interpret student work.
Can be used to assess what students have learned from discussions, lab sessions, study-group meetings, field trips or watching video content.
Provide clear and explicit information as to what is expected of students, including, how much time they will have, what kinds of responses you are looking for (words, bullets, short sentences), and when they can expect feedback.
You may use:
- Go Soap Box
- NearPod
- Socrative
- One Note
- Online tools to allow for reflection e.g. vUWS Journal or Blog tools

Resources

Angelo TA, Cross (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers. 2nd ed. San Francisco; Jossey- Bass Publishers: 148-53.

Chizmar, John ; Ostrosky, Anthony L. (1998). The One-Minute Paper: Some Empirical Findings, Journal of Economic Education, 29(1):3-10.

Stead, David R. (2005). A review of the one-minute paper, Active Learning in Higher Education, 6(2):118-131.

Vonderwell (2004). Assessing Online Learning and Teaching: Adapting the Minute Paper. TechTrends. 48(4):29-31.

Edutopia – One-Minute Papers: A way to Further Design Thinking

Glasgow University – One-Minute Paper