Why does this add value for students?

Collaboration and teamwork are very important skills for our Carnegie Mellon students to develop in preparation for professional and personal endeavors before and after graduation. Although students are engaging in collaboration and teamwork across many contexts inside and outside the classroom, these activities are not always coordinated, leaving students with inconsistent access to training or explicit skill development and educators with limited evidence of student learning and data points to target systematic learning improvement. While students may develop their collaboration and teamwork skills just by engaging in these experiences, this inconsistency may result in lessons that are not correct, robust, or generalizable, thereby resulting in ineffective, inefficient, and stressful team interactions (Leonardi, Jackson, & Diwan, 2009). 

Learning Outcomes

• • • Participate in constructive dialogue to support both the process and product of the collaboration
    • Shape teams and navigate collaborations in consideration of individual differences and interpersonal dynamics
    • Apply skills and processes to resolve and manage disagreements in collaborative settings
    • Participate constructively in planning, leading and improving meetings
    • Plan, organize, and deliver coordinated work targeted to a project goal

References

Leonardi, P. M., Jackson, M. H., & Diwan, A. (2009). The enactment-externalization dialectic: Rationalization and the persistence of counterproductive technology design practices in student engineering. Academy of Management Journal, 52(2), 400-420.