Project Teams

• Download Project Team Log (PDF)
• Download Project Team Evaluation (PDF)

Project Team Group Concept

In order to meet the needs of its adult students, the adult learning program provides a combination of traditional instruction and the enhancement of non-traditional instruction and learning that take place within a study team. The adult students in the program have anywhere from two years to many years of on-the-job experience, with the accompanying knowledge, maturity, and talents that can be shared with other adult students. The project team concept involves the sharing of all of these and other available resources as well as the sharing of the varying interpretations of new knowledge resulting from past experiences.

Purpose of Project Teams

Project teams in the adult degree completion program serve several purposes for adult students:

• Minimize classroom time while achieving the required instructional hours for a course.
• Each course includes four hours of in-class instruction per week and four hours of project team interaction per week. The project team meetings take the place of half of the required number of in-class instructional hours. Therefore, project team attendance is required just as classroom attendance is, and the project teams are required to be diligent in completing all assignments for each week.
• Give students responsibility for self-management of learning.
• Adult students are expected to be mature and to assume responsibility for learning on their own in cooperation with other adult students. These are people who are in responsible positions in the work place and who should be able to manage their own learning.
• Provide an opportunity for sharing knowledge, experience, and talents.
  Through project teams, adult students have an opportunity to transmit to other team members their expertise, learning, and ideas and in return learn new professional concepts from their fellow students. The groups are major learning resources for all involved. Some of the most successful project teams are made up of individuals who bring diverse backgrounds to the groups.
• Help students learn teamwork.
  Teamwork has become vitally important in today’s world of professional management. Students in ASPIRE cooperate in preparing assignments and group oral and written presentations and learn to work in teams. They must blend their strengths and weaknesses into strong, cohesive units, just as they will be required to do in future management positions. Project teams provide mutual support through which students can learn efficiently.
• Increase development of certain other skills:
  • Problem-solving skills
  • Leadership skills
  • Follower skills
  • Interpersonal skills

Policies

• All students in the adult degree completion program will be required to be a part of a project team that works together on oral and written projects and presentations and provides support to all project team members.
• Project teams should consist of four to five members. Occasionally, a group of three will be allowed under extenuating circumstances.
• Project teams are formed in the first course of a new block of courses. The instructor assists students in this process.
• Project teams meet four hours each week, and no student may miss more than 20 percent of the project team meetings. This attendance is considered part of the attendance for the course.
• All project team members are expected to participate in all group assignments, projects, and presentations.