The 5th International Conference on

Computer Science & Education

Hefei, China. August 24–27, 2010 ThP2.17

Improving Undergraduates’ Teamwork Skills

By Adapting Project-based Learning Methodology
HUANG Jun
Department of Computer Science and Technology
China Jiliang University
Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
[email protected]

Abstract—Since the capability to work in teams has become a the popularization of China higher education and the
key requirement on computer science graduates, computer increasing quantity of graduates since 21st century,
education not only embraces technical skills of computer undergraduate employment becomes more and more severe,
development but also necessitates communication and interaction which has influenced the implementation of the national
among learners. In this paper, it is proposed to adapt the PBL strategies of "prosper the country by talent and education",
methodology that is especially designed to be integrated into which need communication, problem-solving and team
computer curricula in order to promote collaborative learning working skills in graduates[4].
environment, which can greatly help computer undergraduates
better understand the significance of social aspects and improve Although in recent years many universities have
their teamwork skills and innovation. Results from our first 3 recognized the need to assign group projects and have begun
years indicate the methodology is manageable and effective for efforts to improve computer science curricula in this regard,
increasing students’ teamwork capability, which has led to a students seldom receive any specific training on how to
dramatic increase in the amount of undergraduate involvement function collaboratively before such assignments are given,
in the teamwork project in our department and resulted in the and little attention is given to how teams are formed.
employment rate of our graduates and student employability Consequently, teams often fail to function effectively. More
confidence being increased greatly. importantly, students do not learn much from participating on
dysfunctional teams and often develop negative views about
Index Terms—Computer Science Education, Teamwork Skills,
Project-based Learning
the value of teamwork [5].
The fundamental question is, therefore, how do universities
I. INTRODUCTION effectively teach team working skills? The main goal of this
Teams are the basis for the organization of computer paper is to adapt project-based learning method to promote
application and development today, since the increasing strong collaboration among students in computer science
complexity of projects has made them unachievable for education within the department of Computer Science and
individuals. Developing teams commonly distribute the work Technology (CST) at China Jiliang University. We hope that
among their members by following well-defined structures of our experiences can throw some light on the potentialities,
interdependent responsibilities, with typical roles like limitations, options, and effects of promoting aspects of
designers, testers, architects or project managers [1]. In this developing undergraduates’ computer team working skills.
setting, professionals are not only required to have state-of-
the-art knowledge and technical abilities, but also to be able to II. ADAPTING PROJECT-BASED LEARNING METHODOLOGY
cooperate successfully inside teams. Effective teamwork TO COMPUTER EDUCATION
requires mastering specific abilities, such as leadership, Teamwork is the actions of individuals, brought together
coordination and conflict management. This implies that if for a common purpose or goal, which subordinate the needs of
higher education wants to meet the requirements of the the individual to the needs of the group. In essence, each
students’ future professional lives, it has to address the person on the team puts aside his or her individual needs to
acquisition of such soft skills and has to have the technology work towards the larger group objective [6]. The best approach
to support them [2]. It is vital for successful industrial hires to achieve teamwork ability is project-based learning, which
today to have the ability to understand user needs, work within places greater emphasis on targeting the learning of complex
a team framework, and participate in the overall process of the experiences, geared to a specific goal or objective, in place of
software engineering development [3]. the traditional academic approach strongly focusing on rote
However, traditional courses do not seem to succeed in memorization of multiple information items alienated from
helping students to acquire this sort of skills in China. Most of their practical, real-world uses [7].
them are mainly focused on teaching technical contents and In traditional education, the undergraduate students of
they are usually organized according to teacher-centered computer often work alone, write for the teacher alone, and
approaches where the teacher plays the role of information rarely make presentations and seldom receive any specific
dispenser while the students act as passive receptacles. With

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training on how to function collaboratively. To address these done and by whom. Each student then determines what he or
problems and create an environment where undergraduates can she needs to do and takes responsibility to complete the tasks.
be systematically exposed to the teamwork process and given They can be held accountable for their tasks, and they hold
opportunities to become involved with different group, the others accountable for theirs. It was clearly established that
CST have put forward a model in the program for carrying out the project would be “a required condition to pass
undergraduate computer courses. By adapting project-based the course” and that just a design and report wouldn’t be
learning methodology, the students can be guided to work on accepted. The project had to be filished. Later, each team
long-term challenges that involve project problems. This helps group got to shape and define their own ideas of solution
students see the complexity and interdisciplinary aspects of influenced by their interests, their capabilities and their
any job or activity in a more realistic fashion, helping them analysis of the problem. In order to follow up and support to
prepare more effectively for the real challenges ahead. the teams, the professor met with the teams frequently, mainly
to be informed about the individual and group performance, to
The first step of the model is to present a one-semester promote reflexive thinking about their actions and decisions,
introduction to computer science as a selective course to first- and to analyze the technical and operational aspects of their
year students. The course is intended as a broad introduction to ideas. During the meetings students also defined new tasks and
computer science research for students who wish to know goals, received orientation, materials and information, and
research knowledge in computing and presented particular fixed the goals and date for the following meeting. The way
emphasis on computer project problem solving. Project applied by the professor was fundamental to achieve real
problems are selected from a variety of interesting areas such progresses at this stage.
as hardware and computer architecture, operating systems and
computer networks, high-level languages and their compilers, At the end of the project work, the students handed in a
databases, computer graphics, software engineering, scientific final report, included the portfolio of evidences and make self
computing, artificial intelligence, algorithm analysis and and peer evaluation and made public presentations of their
complexity, social and legal issues, which can enable students projects to the entire class and their teachers. The teacher
to become well rounded in these areas, have proper evaluated the project teams’ learning achievements according
background and knowledge to carry out interesting project. In team project work and individual contribution to the teamwork
addition, in introduction to computer science, an emphasis is through interviews, surveys and focus groups meetings.
also on the knowledge about design of algorithms and
implementation of those algorithms using the computer III. EXAMPLE OF TEAMWORK PROJECT
programming language. The outstanding students are required In this section, we describe experiences from an example
to finish assignments which include writing programs to of a teamwork project - Digital Game Design at CST. As is
recognize sentence boundary, identifying each word and well known, game design project in CS curricula usually
writing simple pattern matching. Our experience is that if a served as the foundation for project-based and capstone
student lacks serious programming skills, then that deficiency courses [8, 9]. Within these projects Computer Science curricula
is difficult to make up, and hard to participate the computer developers have sought to prepare students for industry
project . employment by providing training in teamwork skills.
The second is to let students choose the project topics and In process of developing game project, to achieve the
select their own teams based upon one another’s computer desired team balance, the project is cross-listed in the other
science background and the type of project each student departments. Each team was composed of 4 Computer Science
wanted to develop at their second-year. Selection of project students and 2 other department student who is good at digital
topics is a key step to produce student creatity and innovation. media knowledge. The expertise from each discipline plays an
In the chose of topics, we first should make sure that the topic integral part in development of the game. The digital media
is placed within the student’s field of interest. In addition, goal student’s scripting coursework is completed in Flash and
of topic is presented with little definition, giving much place to Action script and includes the concepts of time, states, and
many ideas on possible solutions. After finishing chose of user interaction. The primary task of the Computer Science
project topics, we begin introduction of the project. To students was to develop the software to manipulate the assets
motivate students to start their projects, the teacher presented created and package the game into an application that could be
videos and photos of devices related to the topic. The teacher executed on computers in the schools. The code written by the
also analyzed model of the project key problems with the Computer Science students integrated these assets using
students. The main actions include showing related programming constructs such as variables and if-then
information and solutions found in the web and starting statements drawing upon their prior coursework in computer
developing a personal solution sharing his ideas and advances programming. This structure was imposed to provide the
with the students. In addition, the teachers will help students computer students with a team environment comparable to
recognize and make the most of their own and one another’s what is desired by the game development industry.
preferred roles, outline with them a list of team roles, have
them determine which role(s) suits them best, and give them The project development process was divided into three
time to discuss within their groups how their particular roles phases. The first phases are design. In the design phase,
will complement those of other group members. students were provided with an opportunity to formulate their
game ideas and learn about game design and able to develop
The third is to start the project action in team. At this step, the game concept prior to writing any of the actual code.
the team members are required to agree on what needs to be Students were able to develop the game concept prior to

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writing any of the actual code. This phase was longer than any individual teamwork skills and interacting ability. Table 1
other to allow groups to receive feedback from the project shows our evaluation criterion on student individual teamwork
instructor about their topic and idea. To align with the goals of skills.
the teamwork nature of this course and game industry
TABLE 1 Evaluation criterion on student individual teamwork
requirement, this phase emphasizes multidisciplinary
Aspect of well well
teamwork skills. Students are tasked with interacting with their team below
below
average
above
above
instructors, as well as each other in team to develop a game average average
functioning average average
design. Forming
good team -2 -1 0 1 2
The second is project development. The Integrated cohesion
Development Environment is Microsoft Visual Studio. As Leadership,
managing, -2 -1 0 1 2
with some other programs, we utilized cross-platform, non- meetings
proprietary APIs. Open Graphics Library (OpenGL) 3D Planning
graphics API was used for rendering and Open Audio Library /allocating -2 -1 0 1 2
(OpenAL) audio API was used for audio. The scripting tasks
language Lua was used for setting state variables. C and C++ Generating
ideas and -2 -1 0 1 2
were used for the programming languages. In the process of solutions
project development, Students were encouraged to use simple Tackling
OpenGL primitives to represent their virtual worlds. The aim team social -2 -1 0 1 2
was for students to concentrate on the programmatic elements problems
of building a game and not spend excessive time learning a
specific modeling program. Students were discouraged to IV. EVALUATION OF THE TEAMWORK EXPERIENCE
utilize modeling programs such as Maya, 3D Studio Max. The achieved learning of students was evaluated through
surveys, interviews and focus group. The results on creativity
During development, students were provided with several and teamwork are shown in Table 2.Other abilities developed
iterations of developing their game and receiving feedback on at levels ”intermediate” or ”high” are listed in Table 3
their game and were expected to use their prior knowledge of
design and programming in to implement their designs. To
TABLE 2.Individual and group creativity levels perceived by students
foster a connection to the broader community and give None Low Intermediate High
students an opportunity to observe their game played by users,
Individual 6% 32% 42% 20%
the users took a field trip. Prior to the trip all team groups were creativity
required to implement a working prototype and then let other Collective 2% 18% 34% 46%
group students play and give a feedback critique on the games. creativity
After receiving the feedback from the other users, the project
team is required to make change and submit the second TABLES 3.Students’ perception of abilities developed at
prototype. Along with new version, a document detailing how intermediate or high levels
the feedback was used in the updated prototype was needed.
Abilities developed Students,%
The last phase is product release which required students Engineering career 72%
complete all documentation and present game demonstration. Programming 65%
We dedicate 2 sessions to students to refine and release the Team work 85%
Knowledge and
games. A pre-release was submitted at the beginning to enable Comprehension Communication 61%
instructors to assess the progress of each group. The last
session was our show and tell day. Each group presented their Organization and time planning 68%
game to the class and was then allowed to play and critique Analysis and evaluation of options 76%
each other’s games. In lieu of a final exam, groups were given Overcoming their limits 93%
3 additional days to submit the final version of the game in Self confidence with their own 64%
Attitudes
DVD form, from which the game can be implemented and run abilities
automatically. The DVD not only contain team developing Responsibilities in the tasks 69%
game, but it would also include all the materials utilized in Friendship 77%
Values
making the game such as source code, documentation and Trust in their mates 72%
critical analysis of instructors, which will serve as memento of
the team’s work and could be copied and distributed to Conclusions expressed by students in their final reports
potential employers and serve as a portfolio for the revealed the following most frequent statements: a) Pride and
undergraduates. satisfaction for the work done in the project; b) Self and group
confidence to carry out any other challenge; c) Development
In order to motivate student to committee to working
of deep friendship among members of team and teamwork
together actively in game developing, in the evaluation on the
skills; d) autonomous learning and creativity to find solutions;
students of project team learning achievements and grades on
e) overcoming of their own limits and improvement of self-
how well the he or she met the design requirements, not only
esteem and planning and organization of work.
the quantity and quality of individual work are required to
assess, but the assessment would also include student

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We were very interested in the computer graduates of post- problems, encourage students’ active participation, integrate
employment attitudes and evaluations about the program, as diverse view points and motivate their team collaboration and
well as employing units evaluations on our graduates. Most enhance education quality.
survey respondents of the graduated agree on it's effect of
teamwork, with giving varying degrees of credit to our However, this is not to say that adapting PBL methodology
computer coursework for preparing them with teamwork skills. in improving teamwork skills is without problems. Initial
The following statement of a graduated revealed the effect in resistance to team-based approaches from individual students
general terms: “The teamwork skills gained from teamwork is quite common and can be discouraging to faculty members
projects is probably the best advantage I had over my who do not expect it and are not equipped with strategies to
coworkers. Although I was missing the some of the technical defuse it. Moreover, students are not born knowing how to
knowledge other people had, I could communicate and work work effectively in teams, and if a flawed or poorly
with other people to drive through to solutions. I feel like this implemented team-based instructional model is used,
skill helped me get promoted early in my workplace.” Another dysfunctional teams and conflicts among team members can
graduated who has been regional channel manager in the lead to an unsatisfactory experience for instructors and
South&Southwest Company in China wrote: “There are few students alike. The study of CST help shed light on things an
positions that don't require teamwork on some level. I work instructor can do to minimize the likelihood of problematic
with developers, producers, client operations, sales, and team situations.
executive leadership. My college education was OK for ACKNOWLEDGMENT
preparing me to participate in a team”.
Supported by the ZheJiang Education Scientific Planning
In addition, with the great improvement of awareness of Project (Grant No. 2009SC241).
student’s innovation abilities and teamwork skills, our
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