"TEACHING TABLES:" Increasing Student Accountability in Group Projects

This talk will focus on strategies to promote student engagement, learning and accountability in student learning teams. In our experience, students frequently complain about an uneven labor distribution when working collaboratively on course assignments. In order to increase student accountability in teams, we implemented a number of interventions throughout the semester. Students were grouped students based on their availability for meetings, and demographic characteristics, thus promoting diversity while increasing student perceptions of procedural justice and control. The first project deliverable was a team charter, requiring groups to set clear norms for communication and conflict resolution. As the teams began working and norms were established, students completed “Team Experience Surveys” and an interim feedback activity that enabled students to reflect on their collaboration processes and adjust strategies for the second half of the group project. Finally, at the end of the semester, students provided self- and team member evaluations of their contributions which were used in determining an individual’s project grade, further promoting accountability. The session will expand on our experience in each of the areas described above and will provide practical strategies for implementing our methods in other student teams as well as discuss the technology that enabled our approach.