As our courses evolve from resident instruction to online instruction many curricular components become challenging. Probably one of the most challenging is the team based project. Studies show that learning in groups is an effective practice and employers seek students with good team skills. These skills often range from organizational skills to written communication skills and can be developed in a team project. This is a challenge in the online classroom due to a number of reasons to include educational level, student's time zone, and the professional level of the student. When an instructor chooses to incorporate a team based project in his or her class they immediately take on the responsibility of managing several projects and gain the title of "program manager". During my 12 year career in higher education, I have run projects of varying sizes in a majority of my classes at Penn State and Penn State University's World Campus. A pattern has emerged with the poor teams and with the successful teams. Teams that succeed appear to be much more organized and communicate effectively throughout the duration of the project. Teams that do not do well tend to put work off until the end of the project and not maintain communication throughout the project. During my presentation I will discuss the effective practices employed by the successful teams and how the audience can facilitate and foster these practices in an online environment. A variety of web based tools and templates that will aid the instructor and the students during the project will also be presented during the talk. The presentation itself takes place within the context of an academic project I have conducted in my class. As we pass through each phase of the project, the presentation will hi-lite the tools available to the instructor for that phase. Even though most instructors may not have a project management background they may recognize the stages of formal project management. These stages include initiation (introducing the project), planning (knowing what needs to be done and when), execution (doing the work), monitoring (interacting with students during the project), and sign off/closure (turning it in and assessing the team). All of which appear in a student project but maybe not so formally. During an initiation phase, tools such as a Google Documents can be used for the crafting of the initial team document called the "memorandum of understanding" or MOU. The template that I will provide collects key information such as the team member's expectations of the project, team member meeting availability, and how the team intends on communicating. During this stage and throughout the project if needed, teams can make use of a website such as Doodle.com for determining availability for team meetings. This free online collaboration tool replaces many emails going back and forth to identify a suitable meeting time and ensuring maximum participation. As they approach their team meeting, once again, they can utilize Google Documents or a similar collaboration tool to craft a "team meeting agenda and tasks" document. The provided document template will guide students on how they should build their shared agenda, conduct their meeting, and determine the frequency of meetings. For the instructor, they begin to set the stage for status reports. The report built with Google Forms, collects brief information on a frequency of the instructors choosing and stores it in a spreadsheet for assessment purposes. This tool allows the instructor to check on forward progress so that students do not put it all at the end. It essentially is the pulse checker that ensures forward progression. This particular instructor tool can also serve as an assessment for grading purposes. As the team begins to move forward they will enter the planning stage. At this point instructors can assist students by discussing a variety of ways to manage the project tasks and timeline. If Microsoft Project creates too much of a learning curve or is unavailable to the students, alternative websites are available such as www.timetoast.com or www.wrike.com that will allow teams to craft a timeline of events pertaining to their project. At this point the instructor guides students in creating project milestones. It is here where projects can succeed or fail. By breaking up the project into manageable sections, teams can work towards goals as they progress towards the final due date. Over time at Penn State we have seen our younger students learn this practice and apply it other related courses where projects are introduced. They achieve a consistent level of success with delivering their projects on time. It ultimately keeps students from trying to complete a major course project all in a few days. This "rush job" typically results in submitting a poor quality deliverable and reinforces poor teamwork often at the expense of one or two hard working students. As execution of the project continues, these milestones are met. The online instructor is then encouraged to engage the teams when these milestones are achieved. If schedules permit, instructors can conduct live chat or video chat sessions with the entire team or in groups of two. This meeting allows for a free exchange of information, addresses any team issues, and keeps the team moving forward. As the team completes its project deliverables whether it is a document, presentation, or other item, "closure" of the project begins. In an academic setting this is often achieved with a project team evaluation. Team evaluations come in a variety of styles and complexities. One such comprehensive assessment is CATME (catme.org) offered through Purdue University at no cost. Here teams can assess their performance at various intervals during the project, at the end of the project, or both. In summary, the presentation described above will give the audience member an understanding of the cycle of events pertaining to a course project, apply a variety of collaborative tools to improve communication, keep the team better organized, and ultimately assess the team as they deliver their final solution.
