1. The team engagement practices that were both used by my team and useful to the project were:
Synchronous collaboration and standup as opposed to asynchronous tasking, any in-person meetings that we could make happen, open discussion and debate about design ideas and technical frameworks, and documentation of work through tickets.
My team was very lacking in terms of engagement practices. There was some initial effort to organize team "fun" events to build community but these were met with some amount of push back or un-enthusiasm from the group. After the first two or so weeks these efforts were given up. Besides that my team communicated on discord, this worked for the most part, every once in a while I would get unresponsive, and sometimes my team mates would too. We would often schedule impromptu meetings a day or so before, and work together for several hours. When these did happen they were productive
We met multiple times a week as a forcing function to make progress. Full team meetings were held on Monday evenings, meetings with the professor were held on Tuesday mornings, meetings with the project owner were held on Wednesday evenings, and subgroup meetings were decided within those groups. Having so many meetings a week not only allowed us to remain on task, but allowed us to be continuously receiving feedback from each other and our mentors about our trajectory in the project.
I had a few chance to grab lunch with a few guys on the team but we never met all at once. When we had meeting how ever we often found ourselves all laughing a joking by the end of them.
Meeting weekly on zoom and discussing the tasks that needed to be done for the week. Constant communication on discord. Meeting at board and brew to get more comfortable with each other, making it easier to communicate. During the grind weeks of the semester, we each took turns on bringing in food for the group. Bonding over delicious junk food is always a great way to build stronger bond within a team. I feel like moments like these helped the team trust each other more and recognize every team member's individuality. Getting the team charter done when teams were initially assigned also helped the team ease into working with each other since creating a team charter is an easier team task that wasn't too technical.
Having weakly meetings even when we felt like there was nothing to discuss, and eating together for team bonding, which brought us closer socially, making it easier to communicate.
Meet at least one a week with the entire team and another time with a smaller sub-team. Have a discord, or other way of communication, and talk about other stuff (not just the project).
Meet twice a week with the group in addition to once a week with the professor. Meeting with the group helps group bonding and discussion usually leads to realizations about the project we didn't think about yet. Meeting with the professor regularly helps keep the project on track and usually gives insight to the project/grades/tasks.
Weekly meetings to go over where things stood with project.
utilizing Discord and having team meetings on Monday and Wednesday. While I do not think any of us thought about this initially, it worked out perfectly that we had our meetings on alternate days of class. It was first intimidating to think we should have a daily meeting, but we did end up have a daily meeting when we accounted for in-class discussions. By having these daily discussions, we were constantly thinking about what was the next step to keep the project moving forward, prevent procrastination toward the end.
Our team strongly prioritized frequent in-person meetings. We met every Tuesday and Thursdsay, from 6pm to 7pm. While we allotted about an hour per meeting, we often stayed as late as 11pm getting work done. We found this useful towards our project as in-person interactions helped expedite getting everyone on the same page as each other. Proximity is also helpful in keeping everyone aware of what's going on outside their immediate work domain. Being all in the same room, Paul overhears Preetham and Jake discussing database structure, Tucker overhears me and Quan discussing API interaction patterns, etc. This increased awareness improves project outcomes in countless subtle ways.
Our team also strongly emphasized specialization over the course of the project. While some specialization is inevitable in any large project, consicously seeking an optimal amount of it enhances outcomes. Specifically, I constructed our inital prototype with clear divisions between work areas, and made an attempt to formalize early abstraction layers around project components expected to have significant internal complexity. This intentional modularization made it natural for team members to fall into work where they were most comfortable. In the long run, where team members initially specialized was highly predictive of their long-term project contributions. Attempting early balance certainly helped keep labor well-allocated in the long run.
We used discord for communication and that was very useful to keep everyone informed about our current progress. Deviding up tasks among the team also helped a lot. using discord / setting up specific times of the week to meet and update each other. / Biweekly standup that were mandatory / Fun conversations regarding shared interests (for example the World Cup) beyond the scope of our project that made our relationships more friendly than just colleague-like. / Using discord and different discord channels in our servers to keep tasking and different topics very organized.
In-person meetings where we all were working in the same room together on the code were so useful. These meetings lasted a few hours, but it allowed all of us to disconnect from the outside world and really put our heads together to get things done. We talked about any problems we were having as they came up, and we could use each other as guides and moral support.
Weekly meetings on mondays where we discussed what needed to be accomplished that week and then on fridays we would often have a client meeting to show off what we had been working on.
Regular meetings. We met twice a week, Tuesday and Thursday, and made it clear that it was an expectation to attend the meetings. These meetings were productive not only in what we managed to do during the meeting, but also as motivation for everyone on the team. We also made a point to ask input from people during the meetings and make sure that everyone is on the same page.
I think the most important engagement practice that we had were our Tuesday and Thursday weekly meetings. The most important reason was that they were in-person and I feel like that definitely made us infinitely more productive throughout the semester. These meetings helped us keep each other in check and also gave us crucial time so that we can work on the project together and resolve any issues right then and there.
First, we had a clear list of agendas coming into every meeting, and we almost always found solutions toward those agendas when the meeting concluded. Second, we used Discord to communicate with each other and track and report our workng progresses. We had a designated channel for every portion of our architecture, so that meaningful dialogue can take place without distraction from other topics.
The team breakfast session at Board and Brew was great for team engagement and moral boosting. This definitely helped increase productivity on developing the software by making everyone feel more invested in finishing the project.
Daily meetings between group members helped maintain the accurate status of the project and ensuring that we were meeting deadlines. I also think that the weekly peer mentoring was especially helpful as it pushes the team members to complete their respective tasks and thus allowed our project to be completely in a timely manner. Further, our discord was also extremely useful in communicating between each other, as well as documenting any changes/bugs/errors/etc.
We used a Trello board to delegate tasks, a Discord server for general communication and posting meeting notes, and we met up for lunch once to get to know each other better.
Using discord as a primary form of communication. Text and voice communication in one, we could have meetings and easily follow up to clarify stuff with each other without setting up anything too complicated. We organized conversations into various channels and kept each other updated on important class events and doing peer mentoring. The only mistake we made with using discord was let things get too disorganized. Some text channels ended up getting used like general where there is no attempt to keep things organized or keep conversations in threads, which makes trying to track the conversations and tasking difficult (could've fixed this by being stricter with use in our charter).
Team meetings/meals. I wish we had more. Talking over Discord helped us organize.
Having team breakfasts/meetings. Having weekly synchronous meetings. Having code reviews and approvals on important changes. Communicating actively through discord.
Discord for live communication. ie the ability to message members of the team to coordinate specific issues and get a response within the hour. / Trello for weekly communication. Explain the task once on Trello, make a detailed issue that includes things like function arguments and expected use. / Meeting recaps (posted in Discord) which allowed people who were absent to get a brief summary of what the meeting was on and what it decided.
We held weekly meetings online for discussions and to be updated on the developments of the week and also communicated frequently over Discord for small matters.
2. If I could make ONE change to CMSC435 to make it a great class, it would be:
Integrating the calendar for assignments into ELMS so that deadlines for the class are in the same place as everything else. Don’t have much to say in terms of the course material as I thought it was effective, although perhaps I will have ideas a year from now.
While I understand that the class leans towards "learn from failure", I wish it was more clear what was expected of us. I don't really mean make projects less vague, but more generally organizing the class assignments more. As an example during the first few weeks of the class I was always struggling to understand what was due, because assignments would be communicated through either: the class Dashboard, the blog, or in class. Because there was never a consistent place, it was never really clear what had to be done.
To have Dr. Purtilo post his powerpoint slides in the class repository for later reference.
I think you should require students to meet with you one on one at least once during the project. I think a lot of the students did not make the time for this which means they never got the chance to really understand what your teaching style was. After our first meeting I had vastly different perception of you and what the goal of the class was. I think students would benefit from one on ones.
More openness with what we are allowed to do and which project we do. I think it would have been cool to be given options for our project and be able to choose out of those options. After the demos, I felt that were much cooler things I could have been working on this semester such as the LIDAR or the vulnerability detector.
The one change I would make to CMSC435 would be to add in technical components into the lecture such as how to host a website in a old UMD VM. This was something that my scrimmage team was not too familiar with and had to figure out on our own. Professor Purtilo mentioned that there should be a class prior to 435 in the UMD CS curriculum that would go over these types of things. I think adding a class like that to the CS curriculum at UMD would be amazing, but a close second would be to include a brief overview of the technical stuff that would have been taught in that class, in CMSC 435.
Give more depth on the "how" of risk assessment/cost prediction.
The scrimmages at the start felt a bit rushed.
Try to make a harder deadline on the proposal. Many teams are deadline oriented and the proposal process dragged on. Alternatively have deadlines to start code development and allow the proposal to be developed simultaneously (as we should have been doing).
Allow students to rank which projects they would be most interested in working on and take that information into account during project tasking.
to make written assignments' criteria more clearly stated. Everything went well, but it would have been nice to have clearer expectations for the project proposal. I am thankful for the past examples, but it was clear that they were different each year. Some had more sections and significantly more detail, so it was tough to gauge the expectations for us.
Make the goals / resume / strengths assignment worth less than 4% of the total class grade. At the very least, split it into small assignments a day apart, so students don't lose such substantial credit for one instance of misunderstanding svn commands. This being worth 40% as much as our final deliverable feels extremely disproportionate.
I feel the class could use some instrument to encourage crystalization of what's presented in lecture. I won't attempt to prescribe a solution to this issue, as those with more teaching experience are certainly more qualified to do so.
Change your teaching style. We mostly relied on our own knowledge but not a knowldge we get from a professor.
Unsure, I know some people shit on the class and others praise the class. If you really think about it, there really isn't any other way to run a class like this. I think any difficulties just come from the unfortunate circumstance that others learn differently + personal preference.
Make slides available to students after the class
A dedicated lab period once a week so that students have an opportunity to work together. Many students were extremely busy during the semester, and it was hard to meet. If everyone's schedules aligned at least once a week, at least *something* could be accomplished.
More guidance on preparing the proposal. The proposal is an important place to work out details of the project, but since we don't cover and good practices for proposals before writing it, we ended with a document that was not as helpful to us.
Making some course materials available to students (something along the lines of class notes). Particularly if it contains what the instructor thinks are the most important takeaways. Slides can contain loads of information, and note taking is imperfect. Engaging with the content is also difficult if one is taking very detailed notes. I feel like I am unable to get as much out of the course as I could because my notes are inaccurate or incomplete.
If you asked me this same question at the beginning of the class I would definitely would have had an answer for this question. However, looking back I definitely see why we did what we did each week and every assignment, meeting helped us deliver the best possible product in the end. So, I personally wouldn't change anything 435.
I would make the scrimmage projects' directions a little more specific. Purtilo posted in the Blog that there might be an addition to scrimmage 3 where we add a feature to check if a rectangle lies on a curve. We implemented that part correctly, but still got a 0 because the solve-for-rectangle portion did not work. The rubric for grading scrimmage 3 was never given to us, so we had to guess what features to include.
Release the slides to the website so people can go back and look at them. This would be useful since there is a lot of specific information we are given and it can be difficult sometimes to know exactly what we need to write down since each textbook talks about stuff differently.
I think that there could be more in class guidance on the projects, especially during team time so that teams can flush out problems with you and ask about your opinion. For example, in our group, we have on multiple occasions been talking for a while during group time, to realize you have left and without a place to ask our questions until the next class, weekly meetings, or email.
Be more specific about deadlines. I think SOB and COB can mean different things to different people so providing a more specific time would be helpful.
Have some form of announcements (preferably through ELMS or email) for important class events/assignments. Even if it's just a script that emails whatever is posted on the blog, that would make all the difference for engagement from new students. The class page is a bit of an unfamiliar environment for students and can be tough to keep up with when it is required to check a blog daily (which now that I think about it, might be an intentional design choice to see who is most committed to the class).
Don't use svn... It is no longer the right tool for the job.
More time to work on the project. Less politics. Less stress around the grades (especially for the scrimmages) and pop quizzes. The main point of the class should be learning how to build a product, not read a book and take a test. Less blog stuff, more in class announcement stuff. I really disliked having to refer to the blog for tasks, especially because it's different from all of my other task tracking applications.
It would be great if we could indicate our preference in the selection of a project.
3. The one thing that most gets in the way of me doing my best work in CS (CE) here at UM is:
The lack of more practical classes leading up to classes like this. Had there been mandatory classes on full stack development in the curriculum or classes that used version control systems, things would have been a lot smoother doing work in classes like this. More generally, I think more professor engagement and well-defined exam preparation materials would help me better do my work in a lot of classes in my curriculum.
Time: There is always something else happening, it could be from school, my job, or just life. I wish I could dedicate more of my time to everything, but that is not always possible without working 12 hours a day and burning out eventually.
Time constraints and burnout, but this is mainly dependent on how ambitious any one student is with their course load. If you are not careful about which classes you take together, and you don't take into account responsibilites outside of school, you will be much more susceptible to rushing work and burning out.
Im gonna talk about being CE. The biggest issue, poor communication between the two departments. CE students should get priority over CS students for classes as they have to schedule between two schools for major requirements. Also the CS department should make away for student to learn software engineering. CS school at UMD prepares you for graduate school more than for industry. All the skills I learned that help me on the job or in interview outside of programing come from the engineering school. Also, teach relevant technologies. Java needs to go. Lectures that are a bore. I've only had three computer science classes where I felt excited to listen to the professor teach the material. These three classes were the only ones where I felt that what I was learning from the professor would stick in my brain and that it wouldnt just be better to read slides or notes/self learn.
My other 4 or 5 classes that I am taking that semester. Most of the time, I am not able to invest as much time into beneficial classes such as CMSC 435 because I have work due for my other classes. I feel like if I didn't have piles of work from other classes while taking a CS or 435, I would invest a lot more time into these classes. There is alot of really valuable information and experiences that can be learned from these classes, that unfortunately, a lot of students don't have the time to fully invest into.
Instrumental rationality/lack of intrinsic motivation. I've found that even if I am in a class that I'm passionate about or find fun, as soon as I start looking at the grades my instinct is to do the bare minimum to get an ok grade because it feels as though I'm wasting time/resources to do otherwise.
Probably time.
Projects that are private and are just to pass tests given by the professor. When projects have goals extending past the class that incentivices better work. Goals extending pass the class refers to being extensible and intended to be worked on by future teams or made open source. Any project with clearly defined tests that isn't allowed to be posted I submit as soon as it passes the tests. Projects with future goals are developed with modularity in mind and with better practices to ensure it can be extended.
Outside obligations such as work and family commitments.
the difficulty to understand the purpose of some project and assignments. For example 424, it was a very impactful class in the start and we rushed through learning most of SQL within the first 2 weeks. Luckily this prepared me for the taking care of the database aspect of our project, but the projects later in the semeseter are focused on more technical concepts around recovery methods and implementing it ourselves. Its unmotivating doing these projects when it feels like I wil never have to implement such methods since are already built-in features. Sure it is nice to know, but it sometimes feels like busy work.
Most classes' projects treat us like code monkeys. I feel we'd be better off with more open-ended projects that encourage students to explore their passions and gain practice with the soft skills of engineering.
Time. Taking different class and not having enough time to study and practice.
money. during my time at umd, especially last year, I've been at crossroads between prioritizing a higher gpa vs making enough money to be able to have a roof over my head and food to eat. I think even though it's less so now, I'm trying to figure out life in general.
Personally I felt that there was not enough support for me as an individual student, I understand its quite difficult in a department with thousands of students but (1x a semester non mandatory) advisor check ins did not feel like enough, the program feels too individualistic.
Bonus: Myself, there have been a lot of times where I could have been a better student by studying ahead of exams, working on projects earlier etc. So I have definitely gotten in the way of myself.
Time management. A lot of CS/CE classes are very demanding, and if you take multiple, your schedule becomes very overwhelming. Some CS professors aren't understanding about busy schedules, which makes it worse. If I had more time to spend on my project-heavy classes, I would do my best work.
Other courses workloads.
Unclear instructions and expectations. If I can't understand what the expectations are, then I can't efficiently plan how to spend my time. Ambiguity is ok, as long as it is made clear that ambiguity is what is expected. CMSC435 had some frustrating amibiguity, but that was clearly expected and I was able to work with that.
I mean for me planning to go into the Software Engineering field, I wish there were more classes like 435 that would help guide me towards becoming a better Software Developer. I understand the reason why we are forced to take other classes as they help broaden our approach and develop other crucial skills. But I fell half of my courses, especially a lot of non-major courses were a waste of money.
Coursework from ENEE313, which contains quantum mechanics concepts that bear little relation to practical applications of semiconductors. Gaining a better understanding on the material for said class took a massive amount of time and hindered my ability to do work for other classes.
Bad professors. A professor can make or break a class and there is a clear distinction between professors on this campus. I am taking CMSC 421 currently and my engagement level during lectures between this class and 421 is astounding. Having a professor who makes the class interesting and cares about the well being of their students makes a class astronomically better. I enjoyed coming to 435 because it was interesting. Having a professor just read off slides and not explain anything and then talk in circles just reiterating the slide instead of actually answering the question makes students not care about both the class and the professor. It is not just the other CMSC class I am taking now but a problem with CS Professors at UMD themselves. Just because someone is smart does not mean they can teach. Having the ability to understand a topic is not the same as being able to communicate that topic to someone who has no experience in what is being talked about.
I think that for CE, the curriculum gets in the way of me doing my best work. I admit that introductory courses are useful and broaden a new student's perspective on the available career paths, but I think there isn't a good way for students to figure out what might interest them. For example, only this semester did I find out about how fun reverse engineering could be, and I would consider it as a future career path.
My time management skills and work speed. I am usually working into the early morning and have poor sleep quality, which probably affects my ability to function and remember information. While I am taking full courseloads of difficult classes every semester as my scholarship requires it, I do think my own slowness is also to blame. I do think that being perpetually tired also contributes to my inability to work quickly.
Myself. The school provides ample resources to succeed and branch out into nearly whatever a student wants to do, it's up to the student whether or not they want to take the time to pursue that. I have struggled finding an interest in anything that UMD has provided.
I usually don't like the teaching; it is often boring and grading is not transparent.
Other time constraints. Lack of motivation. Weak support from TAs. It is fairly well known that in many classes talking to a TA is practically useless, and is better to just make a Piazza post or speak directly to the professor in class.
Striking a balance with other commitments and managing my limited time well.
4. The obstacles that prevent me from knowing what is expected of me in my degree program are:
Piggybacking off of my last response as it responds to both questions, more professor engagement and well-defined exam preparation materials within classes would help me better understand what is expected of me. In classes where this is done well, I feel that I learn a lot and am less confused. However, I think it is something of a lesson in itself for the real world to have to figure things out on my own. I feel that besides this, I know well what is expected of me in my degree program, but this is due to personal effort I have put in from the beginning to lay out my coursework for all four years and constantly make sure I am on track.
I see the degree program as something I make for myself, I can take whatever classes interest me as long as I fill the broad guidlines. I wish that most of my CS classes worked more on building critical thinking and knowledge. All of my math classes were amazing because it was stuff that complex and difficult to understand, while the majority of my computer science classes have all been about topics I could learn from youTube (and often better)
Lack of communication from the department is the main obstacle. In my experience, students are given a rough four year plan, a vague acknowledgment that different tracks exist, and the rest is for them to figure out. Even academic advisors do little other than sign off on classes a student decides to take. Sometimes there will be a mild warning if a desired work load is heavy, but that's about it. I think I know what expected of me. ECE has great advisors.
I wish there were classes or maybe parts of the intro class that covered what all of this stuff would like in career.
I feel like I know what is expected from me. I don't think there are any obstacles for me that prevent me from knowing this.
The lack of guidance. I feel as though, throughout the CS major, theres this implicit expatiation that we're supposed to be pursuing our own side projects, but its in no way a requirement and nobody will tell you what to do or how to do it, just that you "should" be doing it.
Having to check testudo before 11:00pm.
The best courses to take for what I wish to do. Most courses explain what will be taught, but very few have information available about what the lessons will be useful for in the future. Information about how each course will assist in future goals would be useful.
The CS department website design is very difficult to navigate and makes it hard to find relevant information. My academic advisor leaving and not being assigned a new one for months.
That it is hard to know until you are near graduation of what classes would have been most beneficial to me. It is great that the department offers many upper-level classes, but for most people, you do not know which classes would teach you the skills to be valuable in an industry job. For example, 433 was a waste of a class after the professor/curriculum change in Spring 2022 which majority of student agree with. Upper-level students only have a few CS slots in the their schedule and the department offering classes that have no impact on the students' skillset prevents many people from growing.
I don't feel I've encountered any substantial obstacles to knowing what I'm expected to do for my degree. UMD makes it pretty clear what the exact requirements for graduation are. That said, I feel I would have better applied myself over the last 5 years had there been more resources for exploring class options. Specifically, something like a job fair but for courses seems appealing. I often discovered classes I'd want to take through friends or by chance conversations with professors. These in-person interactions also put professors on the stand to "sell" me their class. How well they can do so has consistently been the only strong predictor of how much I would enjoy any particular class.
Professors not teaching the course very well.
I'm not aware of any obstacles preventing me from knowing what is expected.
N/A not too sure
Classes that aren't instilling any practical skills. I find myself having to learn a lot in internships and jobs because my education didn't set me up with the right knowledge or skillsets. Our classes focused on abstract theory and pretty simplistic coding, but there were no opportunities to learn or practice effective team and project management skills outside of 435. As a graduating engineer, I feel like I still have so much to learn and I am going into my job with just very basic knowledge of how to program something in C, Python, etc.
I know mechanically what is expected, but I've never know what the overall learning objectives of the degree (on the general track) are.
There is a slight amount of ambiguity as to whether as a programmer my job is to understand the foundational algorithms and mathematics, or whether to understand high-level tools and systems. For some classes, this is not clear in the description, and makes choosing the correct courses difficult at times.
I think the inconsistency in teaching over the courses definitely sets my expectations all over the place. There are some very hard and involved courses that I am spending most of the day on. Then there are courses where you spend one hour per week. At times I am not sure why some of the courses even exist. It also varies significantly by professor. I have taken a certain course and passed with flying colors. However, students who have taken the same course with a much harder professor may have scored less but have taken a lot more out of it. In situations like these, I wonder what is truly expected from a student in this degree, to learn or to pass.
The obstacle that makes me confused is the fact that three quarters of the requirement for CE majors are EE classes, which makes no sense. It should be a 50/50 distribution between CS and EE.
How varied the classes are in CS. Two people can both graduate with the same degree but the differences in classes could dramatically change what each person gets out of their degree, and how competent they will be in Industry.
I think that the advisors in the CE program do a great job in letting us know what is expected of us, with mostly planned out schedules with the expected courseloads. But one obstacle is that the classes are not advertised well, and I am unsure of what specific classes I should take and what I may or may not like.
A lack of established rubrics/guidelines/standards. Not necessarily the case for this class particularly, but I have had several assignments where it's not clear what exactly is expected of us.
A curriculum that includes many project-less classes. I find it hard to understand how I am supposed to apply the knowledge and skills I learn at UMD if there is little to no introduction to their applications within the classes I take. A lot of what I learn in engineering is math that I promptly forget how to do come next semester since there is no reinforcement of the things I learned. Also, there are many classes that are deep dives into specific topics, but not many that tie everything together. ENEE350 is the best class I've taken so far at connecting the topics of various classes, and even that isn't comprehensive. I understand that there are many different classes with various focuses to give students options when it comes to figuring out what they want to do, but there is a lack of real world applications shown within those classes that makes it hard for me to decide if that's something I want to learn more about. Funny enough, ENEE101 does a good job of introducing various engineering applications to students, but it is done too early for students to have a decent understanding of the fields being displayed. It seems that the burden of figuring these things out is mostly on the student independently looking for projects and research opportunities.
The CS degree audit program is very messed up.
Time contraints and obligations. Internet outages, usually. Alternatively, lack of recorded lectures or published reference material to double back on when trying to study or review.
I think I knew what was expected of me in my degree program.
5. The best way to predict when students will be compatible members of a successful team is:
Each individual having good ability to collaborate, the presence of leadership qualities in at least a few members, the lack of inflated pride or ego across members in critical roles, at least most of the members having time management and planning skills, flexibility and adaptability, and belief in the product at all levels.
I would say personality, but personality can be a hard thing to gauge and match up well. I know you (Purtilo) have used engagement for a long time and have been happy with the results.
I think the scrimmage exercises definitely showed the work ethic and areas of excellence for individual students. The exercises allowed students to show how much work they were willing to put into a project and how they interacted with team members, which is important in determining team compatibility.
Im not sure but I think you did a good job with my team. This one is hard and I would think personality and background are good indications.
When you detect consistent communication. If a student doesn't respond and put their ideas out I don't think there is any teamwork happenning.
If they things in common. I feel like in order to gain the trust of your teammates, you have to be socially compatible with them. By socially compatible, i'm refering to the ability to have casual talks about each other's lives, hobbies, and interests. I believe that the highest factor of a successful team is the communication and trust between a team. As long as a team is commited and communicates, they will be likely to succeed. I found that the teams I have worked the best in are team with members that I have befriended due to similar interests or hobbies such as music tastes. Once you befriend your team, everyone is more likely to communicate when they run into a problem or need help. This also allows the team to give more constructive critism, since they will be more comfortable with each other and won't take this critism in the wrong way. Please be as specific as possible in answering the following.
I think scrimmage team evaluations are probably the most accurate source of information for this class, simply because it provides you with better data on how two specific students will interact with each other than any personality assessment possibly can. The issue with this is that it only provides data on the compatibility of students who happened to be in scrimmage groups together, but maybe its possible to do some sort of comparison, ex: person A is incompatible with person B because they find person B to pushy. You can then predict if person A will be compatible with person C based on what person C's team members said about them.
Most of us are nerds, so if we play similar videogames.
The breakdown of how much effort each team member committed to the first task. If a team is unable to equally support the early tasks they are unlikely to be able to work effectively together in future tasks. This is hard to track because it involves external factors about engagement such as going to team meetings and being actively involved, not just adding to a paper or program.Please be as specific as possible in answering the following.
If team members already know each other ahead of time. to figure out which students have most care of the class. The limiting factor in any group in school is how much each student values a particular class. Of course, this is very difficult to figure out before the semester and GPA could be a controversial estimator. For example, in my group, some cared alot about the project and they were very active in the meetings. For others, it was clear they cared more about other classes, and knew they did not have to put their full effort since it is a group project. Sure everyone contributed, but if everyone cared equally, our product could have been even better. If everyone cares enough, they will take the time to learn new skills to help out the total group, so initial skillset does not matter too much.
Lock just about any seven people in a room with a common enemy for three months, and they're going to find compatibility.
That is to say, I don't expect much to strongly predict compatibility ahead of time. Much more important in my view is how well they fit that "locked in a room together" part. If the team members only communicate asynchronously and don't have opportunities to bond with one another, they likely won't find much compatibility. If they meet often and in-person, they'll learn to tolerate each other enough to succeed as a team.
I think this class is correct to group people based on effort. I'd expect that effort's effect on willingness to meet is at least a decent component of effort's overall correlation to success.
In my opnion, it is hard to predict beforehand whether students will be compatable with a successful team. So, I don't know a best way.
Hard to say for sure without having insight / experience in making teams. I really can only speculate.
I know the generic answer is to have a team that has a good mix of skills and personalities. But I think there is no one-size-fits-all approach to predicting which students will be compatible members of a successful team. There are many factors that can contribute to the success or failure of a team, and each team will have its own unique dynamic. However, I've been on many teams in my lifetime, where most if not all teams I've been on have been completely random - either just a group of friends, or through random guys in classes, or through random people on the internet. As far as I'm concerned, the other guys on the 435 team have been random, too. Because of this, I'm convinced that if a team has enough conviction, then the team will likely succeed. Sure, there may be some statistical trend between certain traits and team success, but I think it's insignificant. I think what matters more are the systems and processes/practices that are in place to ensure that the team is able to work together effectively.Please be as specific as possible in answering the following.
The metrics used in this class seemed to work pretty well for our group, so maybe shared interests, similar resumes, skillsets and work ethics? Not too sure, will have to think on this more.Please be as specific as possible in answering the following.
How effectively they communicate with their peers. It is hard to measure this, but something like peer reviews and team creation exercises can show communication deficiencies pretty well I think.Please be as specific as possible in answering the following.
If they are pro-active. Good group members will volunteer to take tasks that need doing and will communicate often about what needs to be done. They won't wait for someone else to ask the questions or take responsibility. (but they will ask if others have a preference for tasks before securing them.)
Engagement. If the team members go to meetings, are responsive on the team's communication service, and are proactive in looking for work to contribute to the group, the team is slated to be much more successful.
I think the first meeting all ways tells us right away how things could be going. You can learn a lot about your team members by whether a person wants to meet in-person or online, do they come on-time. Do they speak during the meeting. The best way to tell if members are compatible is by having them meet up.
The best way to tell is if they enjoy each other's presence. Each team has a personality dynamic, and it can be perceived by having the members meet together a few times. If they like each other, there is less filter and restraint in the output of ideas. They also are more likely to help each other when they run into problems. One way to tell if members like each other is if they share either similar interests or similar experiences. This allows for meaningful conversations.
If the team members get along. If a team has chemistry they will work well together. This is very difficult to gauge early on though so it's probably not helpful to the problem, so I will say if the team members have compatible personalities or a mix of introverted and extroverted tendencies. That way extroverts can do the communicating and introverts can do the thinking. (In a very general way)
I think for this class in particular, many groups had time conflicts. Thus, I think one of the best ways is to ensure each group has times that they can meet together (not early morning hours or very late hours), such that they are able to communicate and think properly during those times, leading to a successful team.
If they start working early, ask questions, and have open communication. Also, if they are able to resolve conflicts without issue and delegate tasks effectively.Please be as specific as possible in answering the following.
With the scrimmage exercises and resume comparison. I think what you already do with those is the best way of selecting synergetic teams. The scrimmage exercises help get a good sense of how each student is committed to success, and the resumes help group up student's with similar levels of experience.
They know all of the other team members' names.
Engagement
Whether or not they do their work on time, or even ahead of time. People who all turn in work early will tend to get along better with each other than those who are habitually late or procrastinators.
Good communication, enthusiasm and proactiveness. I think that really shows that the team is committed to the project and will give their best effort.