2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This Work-in-Progress paper describes the initial implementation of activities aimed to enhance teamwork in a first-year design course. Teamwork plays a central role in the experience of students in this course since the majority of the course revolves around a team (typically four members) working on all aspects of a client-based project. Although most teams in the course function reasonably well, room for improvement has been observed in a few specific areas: respectful communication among team members and ensuring that the perspectives and skills of all group members are appropriately valued. A video and activities were developed to emphasize these areas. The video was created by two students who had taken the course in the previous year. It presented background information, some discussion of the students’ personal experiences in the course, and an introduction to the activities. The three activities that were developed were (1) a communication game, which allowed students to practice clear and respectful communication, (2) a teamwork and collaboration game, which aimed to show that each member of a team had something valuable to contribute, and (3) a reflection and discussion activity, which aimed to solidify ideas from the previous activities and allow students to think about how they could be applied in the course.

The video and activities were utilized in two sections of the first-year design course. Students watched the video in the few days after their teams were formed and completed the three activities in class during the week after their teams were formed. Surveys completed after this portion of the course indicate that students felt that the video and activities were effective in shaping how they thought about and approached teamwork and that addressing the idea of enhancing respectful, equitable teamwork should continue to be a part of the course in the future.