Breaking learners into small groups is a common task for training delivery professionals. Whether it's to create small discussion circles for reflecting on the day's activities or teams for game-based activities, most trainers have a few tricks for dividing up their learners. But you can always add another.
One tool that can spice up how you break learners into groups is Team Shake, a mobile app available in the Apple App Store and Google Play. Designed for teachers, coaches, and adult learning professionals, it enables you to create groups for any situation.
After downloading this app, it's easy to get started. Begin by manually entering the names of everyone you'd like to include in your groups, adding them to the app from your phone contacts or importing them from a CSV or text file. Next, tell the app how many teams you'd like to create and using which parameters. You can select between one and 64 groups, and you can divide your learners randomly or with a more balanced approach. For balanced groups, you can choose to divide learners along (or evenly across) gender lines or user strength, which you can change after uploading the participants.
Now you get to the fun part. Just shake your phone and the teams come out—complete with assigned colors.
Once you've created your groups, saving and sharing them is easy. Team Shake enables you to export groups as CSV files, XLS files, Facebook posts, or emails.
