Group self-assessment surveys as a tool to improve teamwork

Teamwork is an essential ingredient in all levels of the engineering profession, but more importantly, it is critical to achieving success in academia, and ultimately in the workforce. Group work provides an excellent forum for students to engage in collaborative learning, thereby enhancing the ability to accomplish large-scale tasks. Unfortunately, techniques for improving group performance are rarely taught in the curriculum, so that the success of any given group is merely random. This work-in-progress is concerned with eliminating the randomization of group success by creating a model which will teach group members to effectively perform as a single unit. In this study, we are attempting to learn why and how group self-assessment aids in improving student teamwork skills and to decide if it is an effective learning tool in general.