ITEAM integrated teamwork enablement and management

• Authors: Zhixiong Chen;Delia Marx
• Venue: Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges - Papers of the twelfth annual CCSC Northeastern Conference
• Year: 2007

This paper reports our new approach towards teamwork in advanced Computer Science courses in an online learning environment. The approach, Integrated Teamwork Enablement And Management (ITEAM), uses Course Management System (CMS), Source Configuration Management (SCM) and public teleconference services. Through CMS, team members are able to brainstorm, plan, do a project summary, maintain implementation logs, keep checkpoints of code development, and present a final report asynchronously but within predesigned time frames. Using SCM, team members are able to work on a single source code version in a well-managed code development system. Each team member can see the source code change history and the reasons for the changes. All activities within the CMS and SCM are closely monitored and supervised by the instructor. The instructor serves as an educator and a facilitator as well. Lastly, since all students contributions are logged and are traceable, assigning grades to each team member is easier than using traditional team grading techniques. Our pilot trial has demonstrated that the ITEAM approach facilitates the design of meaningful team projects, enables the instructor close guidance and surveillance, and helps to assign grades to team members more objectively. This approach also encourages team members to work in a more systematic, constructive and effective manner in an online learning environment.