Team-based Projects: Developing effective assignments and assessments

Facilitators:
Lydia Wilkinson, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Communication Coordinator: Chemical Engineering, Engineering Communication Program and Institute for Studies in Transdisciplinary Engineering Education and Practice

Team-based projects are becoming a common tool for teaching and learning in a variety of course contexts . In Engineering, students participate in team-based courses in every year of their undergraduate program. These courses involve team-based, and team-graded, deliverables that require the contributions of all team members. Although team-based assignments are valuable opportunities for professional skill development, they can pose challenges in implementation: ensuring equitable work distribution, assessing team process in addition to product, and ensuring students learn about how to structure effective teams (and not just learn that they don’t like them). Key to mitigating these challenges is not only effective design, but targeted support and feedback on team process.

In this interactive workshop, we will share our expertise in team-based project design and assessment from our years of experience designing and running team-based, project, courses in Engineering. We will work with participants to identify potential opportunities for team-based assignments, generate a preliminary plan for implementation, and address participant concerns around running team-based project learning.