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Ranking tasks for active online learning

Ranking tasks are active learning activities that “engage the brain in a different way than any other task” (Lasher, 2022); moreover, they are easily adaptable for online and hybrid learning environments. In this post we look at how ranking tasks can be used in different subject disciplines and some of the ways they can be implemented in online environments.

Introduction

Ranking tasks offer a ready source of active online learning opportunities which, with a bit of creative thinking, can be used in almost any subject area or topic. According to Donna Lasher:

Ranking engages the brain in a different way than any other task. Consider the power of this strategy in the classroom. Students must clearly articulate ideas, explain and justify their reasoning, and consider others’ viewpoints.

(Lasher, 2022)

For non-science subjects, Nancy Flowers notes how ranking activities are “an excellent method for defining values, discussing conflicting points of view, and building consensus” (Flowers, 2000). In language teaching, collaborative ranking tasks can be used to challenge “students to use language persuasively and gives them lots of practice at genuine communication” (Te reo Māori, n.d.). Among the sciences, ranking tasks have been found “to offer significant results” in “concept mastery” (Pujani et al, 2018) and “significant student conceptual gains” (Hudgins et al, 2006).

Ranking tasks can be used as individual student activities, group activities or as a combination of the two. For example, O’Kuma et al suggest the latter approach in their physics teaching:

Students are given a ranking task. The student completes the task working alone. The student then compares their thinking with that of another student and tries to reconcile any differences in thinking. The ranking task serves as the focus for a small group or classroom discussion. The tasks can also be given … on quizzes or exams.

(O’Kuma et al, 2000)

Examples

Example 1: CO2 impacts

According to research by Lund University, the following personal choices can reduce your contribution to climate change may be ranked in order of impact.

TASK: Put the following items in order of impact, from smallest impact (1) to largest impact (5):

  • Recycle
  • Lice car free
  • Replace a typical car with a hybrid car
  • Have one fewer child
  • Avoid one roundtrip transatlantic flight

(For the correct rank ordering, see: https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/four-lifestyle-choices-most-reduce-your-carbon-footprint)

Comment: The above example has one correct ranking ordering. But not all ranking tasks have a single ‘correct’ answer like this. For example, ranking tasks can also be useful for exploring how different people prioritize different values, as we see in the next example.

Example 2: Values and priorities

In 2004, the Copenhagen Consensus produced a list of ten suggested global development priorities (some of these are similar to UN Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs).

TASK: In pairs, rank the following 10 global challenges in order of urgency and priority, from lowest (1) to highest (10):

  • Climate change
  • Conflicts
  • Financial crisis
  • Malnutrition
  • Sanitation/water
  • Communicable diseases
  • Education
  • Governance and corruption
  • Population
  • Trade barriers

For critical reflection on this ranking activity, see Pearce (2013); see also Lomborg (2007).

Comment: In my own teaching (at two UK universities), this ranking task can be particularly impactful with cohorts of international students: working in small groups, participants begin to discover why people from other countries may hold very different environmental or development priorities from their own, depending on their different lived experiences.

Examples from other disciplines

Ranking activities in other subject disciplines might include:

  • Medicine/healthcare. Rank the following factors which have benefited public health in order of their beneficial impact. Explain your reasoning.
  • Careers. Rank, in order of importance, your own career priorities.
  • History. Rank the following factors or ‘causes’ of WW2 in order of importance. Explain your reasoning.
  • Technology and society. Rank the following impacts of the internet and social media upon young people, from most positive to most negative. Explain your reasoning.

Introducing ranking tasks in online learning

Using tests for formative or summative assessment

Most virtual learning environments permit the creation of ranked order tasks within their online ‘test’ environments. These are appropriate for ranking tasks which have a single ‘correct’ answer such as Example 1, above. To create rank ordering test questions in Blackboard or Brightspace vle see:

MS Teams Breakout rooms for synchronous group ranking task(s)

Ranking tasks don’t necessarily need to take more than a few minutes for students to complete. For example, if you are running a live MS Teams workshop, as a short group activity you might ask students to work in pairs, with each pair assigned to separate Breakout Rooms, to discuss and agree upon their own chosen rank ordering in a given time limit (e.g.10 minutes). When students then return to the main class, they can each present and explain the ranking they agreed in their pair or group.

Discussion board for asynchronous group ranking task(s)

By creating small discussion board groups, you can set each small group a ranking task and then ask students to try to reach a consensus – as a group – on a rank order for that task upon which they all agree. As an extension, you might then ask each group to present their rankings in a whole group discussion board thread or as part of a synchronous teaching session/workshop.

Concluding remarks

Further elaborations on basic ranking activities include ‘diamond ranking’ and ‘paired ranking’. There are also further proprietary software options available.

Maths teacher Megan Hayes-Golding – noticing the use of ranking tasks for physics – sees no limit to the opportunities in her own subject:

I’ve seen a lot written about Ranking Tasks in physics … but why couldn’t these work in math? Off the top of my head: rank these fractions, rank these irrational numbers, or rank these radical expressions without evaluating directly … Global Math Department in 2013 is gonna be hot!

(Hayes-Golding, 2013)

If you’ve not yet tried ranking tasks in your own subject, why not give it a go?

References and further reading

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