CS 1:  Cooperative Learning and Working in teams.

Team Roles

In this course you will work in teams/groups on some of the course assignments and all in-class (lecture section) exercises. One of the course objectives is to promote teamwork – inside and outside the classroom – and use a cooperative learning model. I have tried to implement some of the practices from the SCALEUP teaching model, with some adjustments to account for some unique features of the Computer Science curriculum.  Some of the material below is based on Prof. Beichner's SCALEUP project.

Some characteristics of a successful cooperative learning experience include benefiting from working with others, individual accountability, communication, decision making and leadership skills, and self-assessment of team’s effectiveness. To distribute the workload evenly, and to ensure that each team member gets the full range of team experience roles are assigned to each member in the team. For three person teams, the specific roles assigned are: (1) Manager, (2) Recorder, and (3) Skeptic/Discusser. For each team activity assigned (in class or outside class activities), the roles of each team member must be indicated on the submitted work (for example on the report or code submitted). Brief descriptions of the roles are provided below:

• Manager: directs the sequence of steps in the problem (for example, outline experiment procedure or direct pseudo-code outline), manages time, reinforces merits of everyone’s ideas, ensures that each group member participates, keeps team focused on task. Summarizes solution and team’s discussion of how the solution was attained.
• Recorder: writes down actual steps (for example, types the code), checks for understanding of all group members, makes sure all team members agree on each step of the problem solution (example, makes sure group agrees with the code typed), submits reports for the team.
• Skeptic/Discusser: makes sure all possible problem-solving strategies are explored, suggests alternative approaches or concerns with suggested solutions, provides reasoning and explanations of steps to team members if necessary, ensures problem and data interpretation is correct, debugs the program, thinks of alternative ways to code or express the code.

Cooperative Learning and Class expectations

Your role in this class will be very different than what you may have experienced in other courses. To help you see what is expected, take a look at the table below.

Traditional Classroom Students shift from...	Collaborative Classroom to...
Listener, observer, and note taker	Active problem solver, contributor, and discussant
Low or moderate expectations of preparation for class	High expectations of preparation for class
Private presence in the classroom with few or no risks	Public presence with many risks
Attendance dictated by personal choice	Attendance dictated by community expectation
Competition with peers	Collaborative work with peers
Responsibilities and self-definition associated with learning independently	Responsibilities and self-definition associated with learning interdependently
Seeing teachers and texts as the sole sources of authority and knowledge	Seeing peers, self, and the community as additional and important sources of authority and knowledge

Each team must sign the team contract and submit it no later than the second week of class. The contract is available and described below. You must provide the team name and your last names in the first sentence of the contract.

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CS 1 Team Contract: Team Name__

Definition of group and objectives.

Team  __ shall be comprised of and organized by _______________________________.

It will be the aim of said team to successfully complete CS 1 with the maximum of grade performance and to ensure the understanding of all tenets, facts, and errata connected with the study of the CS 1 curriculum for all group members. Each team member will be assigned specific roles (Manager, Recorder, Skeptic) and the roles will rotate during the course.To this end, the following terms and conditions will be obeyed.

Terms and Conditions.

1. I agree to come to class on a regular basis. In the result that I am unable to attend class, I will make it my personal responsibility to get any and all notes from my team.
2. Under any and all circumstances, I will get what (team) work I am allotted to do, done and turned in on time.
3. If I am sick and unable to make it to class on the date a team assignment is due, I will contact my team members to make other arrangements to get my work turned in on time. Should an emergency arise that prevents me from attending a team meeting, I will notify my fellow team members immediately.
4. The team will schedule weekly meetings. The time and place of team meetings shall be agreed upon unanimously within our team.
5. I will be in attendance and prompt for each and every team meeting.
6. I will do my share of the team work, there will never be an occasion where one team member does all of the work nor will there be a time when a member does none of the work.
7. Each member will agree on the answer for each team problem before it is turned in. When agreement is not automatic, each member shall explain how they arrived at their particular solution until a correct solution is clear. If no agreement can be reached, a vote will be taken on which result to submit.
8. I will do everything in my capabilities to help my fellow team members understand each and every concept and problem and I will not hesitate to ask my fellow team members for help. I will communicate with my fellow team members about any concerns I have with our group work. I will promptly report any team functioning problems to the instructor.
9. I will be an active member of this team in all aspects, agree to rotate team roles.
10. I will be responsible for individual assignments.

Acceptance: Each of the below signed team members agrees to abide by the terms and conditions outlined herein. Breach of this contract will result in a verbal warning the first and second offences. Third offence violation will result in dismissal from the team and resultant impact on their grade in the course.

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