Best Practices in Team Assignments – Teaching and Learning Seminars and Tutorials

Best Practices in Preparation for Group Assignments

Think about your teaching objective first: how does a group assignment help you achieve your teaching goals?
Establish clear milestones and specify the deliverables of each milestone.
Consider measuring individual contributions by incorporating teammate/peer evaluations or another evaluation method.
If the project requires your students to demonstrate some soft skills, consider requiring a video presentation as a deliverable.
Consider introducing some mechanism of competition, such as “ranking” team projects on various criteria. (However, be careful not to make the competitive factor count too much in the grade.)
Be sure to add student groups to the Team Assignment setting in Compass2g. Otherwise, students cannot see the team assignment.

Limit team size to 3-5 members.
Establish an Availability survey to help you form the groups based upon the learners availability for group work.
Pre-define roles and responsibilities for students, if applicable (especially for undergrad classes): Establishing clear roles and responsibilities and asking students to sign themselves up can help eliminate team issues and disputes.
Some members in teams might be unresponsive: be prepared to intervene if necessary.
In Compass2g, only one member can submit a Team Assignment. Ensure teams are clear on which person among them has that responsibility.
Be sure to add student groups to the Team Assignment setting in Compass2g. Otherwise, students cannot see the assignment.

Establish a rubric early on and share with students before they begin the assignment.
Ensure criteria are specific and consistent with evaluation priorities discussed within assignments.