Collaborative Group Project

Introduction

In lieu of a final examination, students complete a collaborative group project that rolls the course’s overarching goal and several of its major objectives into one creative assignment.  Students spend approximately six weeks working intensely with their four-person peer groups, developing an economically viable business that makes social and environmental concerns a part of its mission.  In such a way, students are given the opportunity to put into practice the ideas they have been discussing and reading about all semester.

Assignment

There are three parts to this assignment:

1) a two page prospectus, worth 12% of the project’s overall grade, in which student groups sketch out the general thrust of the business and detail how it will turn a profit while showing concern for the environment, its employees, and the society in which it is located.  Students receive graded feedback from me in ample time to make changes – even major ones – if necessary.

2) the oral presentation, worth 48% of the project’s overall grade, in which students have thirty minutes to present their business to a fictitious “board” in hopes of receiving a start-up grant.   The “board” consists of peers who grade the presentations according to a rubric that outlines the standards for excellent, good, satisfactory, and unsatisfactory presentations.  Effective presentations offer convincing explanations of the business’s viability as well as its social and environmental watchfulness.

3) an individual reflective paper, worth 40% of the project’s overall grade, in which students explain their thinking process in designing their business and pause to make sense of their semester’s work.  This last part of the final collaborative project, which equates to a fifth formal paper, is essential because it asks students to recognize their own intellectual growth and how that growth has served them in developing a business.  It also effectively closes the triangular learning structure of learning, applying, and reflecting.

For the full collaborative group assignment prompt, click here. 

Objectives

Students must work together effectively, prepare and deliver a professional oral presentation, and apply the theories and ideas they have learned and constructed in seminar discussions and assignments to their project.  To complete the project successfully, they must operate from a perspective critical of typical American business practice while at the same time design a business that will work (turn a profit).  Asking students to negotiate such cross-purposes professionally and effectively can be identified as a core value of the LAMP curriculum.

Results

I am very pleased with the outcomes of this project. Students routinely comment that they enjoy the project very much and express surprise as how well their team worked together. Having taught the course now three times, I have since learned to hold high expectations for the students’ presentations. Initially, however, I was astonished at the time, effort, and energy students put into their projects, and consequently, I was amazed at the high level of performance. Indeed, their work surpassed my expectations across the board. The success of the project in terms of student learning led me to reflect on reasons for its success.

First, I think students not only have fun creating a business, but typically create an actionable business. In one case, a student team met with an attorney at the conclusion of the semester to investigate whether their class project could actually be put into practice. Though I’m not sure the students actually started their business, I found it encouraging that they believed in their business to the extent that they did. As one might predict, when students have fun doing their work and can envision their very own project in the “real world,” they willingly put in lots of effort and turn out a superior product.

Second, because students know they will be presenting their project to peers, they wish to make sure their presentation is polished and professional. Even though it is the teacher who ultimately assigns the grade, students seem to worry more about what their peers might think than what their instructor might think. This social factor, in addition to the detailed rubric they receive, which lays out my precise expectations, helps to guide student groups toward highly professional presentations.

Third, students in L216 work in the same work groups all semester. They must complete quizzes together, lead discussions as a team, and perform other tasks throughout the semester. The result is that they bond closely as a team and know each other’s strengths and weaknesses by the time they must work on the final project. Students have often commented on how much they enjoy and appreciate working in the same groups all semester. It is not unusual for them to form close friendships than endure. In one instance, a group from my class stayed intact for a class they all took during the subsequent semester so that they could continue to work together.