Abstract:
There is a reported competency gap between the teamwork skills
required by employers and those developed by engineering students
during their undergraduate courses. While project-based learning
increases the opportunities for team interaction, it does not necessarily
produce the skills required to function effectively in a team. Students
also report negative perceptions of project-based learning due to
problems with free-riding team members. Appropriately supported
assessment and practice activities must be included to motivate students
to learn and develop these skills. We report the impact of introducing
instruction (lectures), practice (team project) and more importantly
assessment (rewarding individual contributions) to develop team skills.
Oral team presentations have an individual component and the team
mark for written reports is adjusted for individual contributions using
self and peer assessment. A confidential online tool is used to collect and
collate the student self and peer assessment ratings used both for
formative feedback and improvement as well assessment purposes. The
online collection of assessment ratings and their automated conversion
to two assessment factors significantly reduced the administrative
burden of using self and peer assessment with large classes. We found
the method reported here improved student teamwork, engagement
and satisfaction. In addition, it facilitated students supporting each other to develop their teamwork skills in an engineering context while
requiring only a small commitment of academic resources.
