Team Expectations Assignment

TEAM POLICIES AND EXPECTATIONS

Your team will have a number of responsibilities as it completes Design Challenges and the Design Project.

• Agree on a common meeting time and what each member should have done before the meeting (readings, taking the first cut at some or all of the assigned work, etc.)
• Do the required individual preparation.
• Coordinator checks with other team members before the meeting to remind them of when and where they will meet and what they are supposed to do.
• Meet and work. Coordinator keeps everyone on task and makes sure everyone is involved, recorder prepares final solution to be turned in, monitor checks to make sure that everyone understands both the solution and the strategy used to get it, and the checker checks it for accuracy and makes sure the assignment meets the guidelines.
• Agree on next meeting time and roles for next assignment. Note to monitors: If you ask people if they understand something and they say yes, you've learned nothing. To check for understanding in a way that means something, ask for an explanation. If someone on a team misses a problem on a test that is very much like a homework problem, the monitor has not done their job.
• The checker turns in the assignment, with the names on it of every team member who participated actively in completing it and their roles. If the checker anticipates a problem getting to class on time on the due date of the assignment, it is their responsibility to make sure someone turns it in. If points are taken off an assignment for careless mistakes, the checker has not done their job.
• Review returned assignments. Make sure everyone understands why points were lost and how to correct errors.
• Complete and submit peer rating sheets for all team members when required. Ratings will be collected near midterm and near the end of the semester. They will be confidential, and will be used to adjust grades for every student.
• Consult with your instructor if a conflict arises that can't be worked through by the team.

FIRING AND QUITTING

If a team member refuses to cooperate on an assignment, their name should not be included on the completed work. If the non-cooperation continues, the team should meet with their course instructor so that the problem can be resolved, if possible. If no resolution is achieved, the cooperating team members may notify the uncooperative member in writing that they are in danger of being fired, sending a copy of the memo to the course instructor. If there is no subsequent improvement, they should notify the individual in writing (copy to their instructor) that they are no longer with the team. The fired student should meet with their instructor to discuss options.

Similarly, students who are consistently doing all the work for their team may issue a warning memo (copy to instructor) that they will quit unless more cooperation is forthcoming, and a second memo(copy to instructor) if the non-cooperation continues. The student who quits should meet with their instructor to discuss options.

Students who are fired or who quit must find a team of 3 willing to accept them as a member, otherwise they get zeroes for the remaining assignments.

As you will find out, group work isn't always easy: team members sometimes cannot prepare for or attend group sessions because of other responsibilities, and conflicts often result from differing skill levels and work ethics. When teams work and communicate well, however, the benefits more than compensate for the difficulties. One way to improve the chances that a team will work well is to agree beforehand on what everyone on the team expects from everyone else. Reaching this agreement is the goal of the following assignment.

Adapted from R. M. Felder and R. Brent

Your Task:

• Prepare an email with the rules and expectations you agree as a team to adopt. You can deal with any or all aspects of the responsibilities outlined above: preparation for and attendance at group meetings, making sure everyone understands all the solutions, communicating frankly but with respect when conflicts arise, etc. Send the email to each member of your team as well as to the TA for the course.
• Choose a team name and include it in your email. Please choose a name that is less than 12 characters since your will use this name when you submit homework electronically. Include your team name in the subject line of the email that you send with the rules and expectations. These expectations are for your use and benefit: we won't grade them or even comment on them unless you ask us to. Note, however, that if you make the list fairly thorough without being unrealistic you'll be giving yourselves the best chance. For example, "We will each solve every problem in every assignment completely before we get together" or "We will get 100 on every assignment" or "We will never miss a meeting" are probably unrealistic, but "We will try to set up the problems individually before meeting" and "We will make sure that anyone who misses a meeting for good cause gets caught up on the work" are reasonable.