A New Group-Formation Method for Student Projects

Autor/inn/en	Borges, Jose; Dias, Teresa Galvao; Cunha, Joao Falcao E.
Titel	A New Group-Formation Method for Student Projects
Quelle	In: European Journal of Engineering Education, 34 (2009) 6, S.573-585 (13 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0304-3797
Schlagwörter	Engineering Education; Student Projects; Undergraduate Students; Teamwork; Profiles; Active Learning; Selection; Grouping (Instructional Purposes); Methods; Grades (Scholastic); Information Systems; Database Design; Comparative Analysis; Foreign Countries; Portugal + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ingenieurausbildung; Schulprojekt; Charakterisierung; Profilanalyse; Aktives Lernen; Auslese; Grouping; Gruppenbildung; Method; Methode; Notenspiegel; Ausland
Abstract	In BSc/MSc engineering programmes at Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), the need to provide students with teamwork experiences close to a real world environment was identified as an important issue. A new group-formation method that aims to provide an enriching teamwork experience is proposed. Students are asked to answer a questionnaire to evaluate their teamwork profiles and are assigned to groups by an algorithm aiming to achieve maximum diversity within groups and homogeneity among groups. The profile diversity/complementarity within a group is an important factor to promote members' commitment and coordination in order to achieve the proposed goals. The proposed method is compared to a standard self-selection method for three engineering programmes in three academic years. The results show that, with the new method, there are a higher number of medium ranked groups which surpass the expectation and that, contrary to some students' beliefs, the method does not have a negative impact on the overall final marks. (Contains 4 tables and 6 figures.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10