An Online Resource for High School and College Educators
By Tim Franz and Lauren Vicker
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Video Introduction to Our Instructor Handbook
Everything you need to know about Using Team Projects and Working in Teams Effectively. Contact us for professional development programs that are tailored to your needs. For information about speaking engagements, email us at MakingTeamProjectsWork@gmail.com
This Week’s Blog Post
We’ve all had the unfortunate opportunity to work with a difficult team member. In this post, we discuss they typical problem members and how a team should deal with each situation.
Blog Posts (Updated Regularly)
Coming Soon
How do you manage your team leader? Lauren and Tim provide eight tips for how to improve the team presentations on Zoom in your classroom!
Team presentations on Zoom require additional sills. In this blog, Lauren and Tim provide tips for how to improve the team presentations on Zoom in your classroom!
Team presentations are different from individual ones. In this video blog, Lauren and Tim provide tips for how to improve the team presentations in your classroom!
The fastest growing demographic is students learning English. We talked with Jennifer Wheeler-Ballestas about incorporating students who have a different primary language.
In last week’s post, Lauren and Tim discussed how to evaluate team projects in the classroom. This week’s post discusses evaluating team projects in the workplace.
Evaluating team projects in the classroom takes a little more planning than evaluating individual ones. In this post, we discuss some tips about how to improve evaluations of team projects.
In this week’s blog post, we discuss how to conduct peer evaluation in teams. In our corresponding video blog, we talk with Dr. Ellen Monk about how she conducts peer evaluation! Some of her resources are below.
Many teams struggle at times, but online teams struggle the most. Here’s three tips to make your team work better online.
Conflict is one of the most difficult problems that many teams face. In this post, we talk with Karen Clinton Jones. She gives some tips for the best ways to resolve team conflict
Want to improve problem solving on your team? Join us this week, along with our guest this week, Mark Bowers. Providing your team with some structure will definitely help them better solve problems.
Team decisions require dialogue . But, teams can also get side tracked. This week Lauren Vicker and I had Rob Elkington as a guest on our video blog. He talked about one tool that helps teams to make a better decision.
In this post, we discuss ways to improve creativity on your project team. The suggestions are great for students as well as those who work on teams as part of their job!
Do your students work virtually on their team projects? In this video, Tim and Lauren give some tips for student teams to communicate better when online.
Need to improve verbal communication in student project teams? We give three tips here.
Want to hear the real story about nonverbal communication? Tim & Lauren talk about it here
What help motivating team members? In this blog post
Want to improve team leadership on student teams? 5 tips from our guest expert, Dr. Seth R. Silver
What role will you play on your team? How does it affect your team performance?
Need to improve your teamwork and team projects? Consider setting team norms.
In this blog post, Lauren and Tim discuss how to create the context that will better support your team projects
Have you ever had social loafing on your team? Here are some tips to reduce it.
Creating a good team task is much harder than creating an individual task. In this post, We discuss how to create a better team task.
What are the best ways to form your teams for a project? The answer might really surprise you! Read this post to find out.
Are you considering a team project? Here are three good reasons that you should.
Want to learn more about the inputs to team projects that your students will need?
Wonder how to help your team reach consensus? Try these practical tips.
Resources (Updated Regularly)
This is a peer evaluation form from Drs. Ellen Monk and Ryan T. Rodalunas discussed in Blog Post #20
This is the corresponding peer evaluation instructions from Drs. Ellen Monk and Ryan T. Rodalunas discussed in Blog Post #20
Chapter 1 of Our Book
Use this resource if you’d like a preview, or as a preread for some of our professional development session
Sample Peer Evaluation Form
This is a sample (jpg) of the peer evaluation form that is in our book
Survey for Forming Teams
In a blog post about how to form teams, we refer to a survey of expertise. This is an example that is relevant to psychology.
The Franz Group IQ Test
We use the Franz Group IQ Test as an icebreaker. You’ll find the test here in Word format so you may modify it as necessary.
Wilderness Survival Task
This is a link to one of the wilderness survival exercises, the Winter Survival Game.
Instructions: Franz Group IQ
This provides instructions for how to use, analyze, and explain the Franz Group IQ test as an icebreaker (and the answers!)
Top 10 List
Our top 10 tips for making your team projects in class successful!
Survey to Assess Leadership
In some PD sessions we’ve discussed how to use an online survey like this one to assess team membership and leadership
Sample Presentation Evaluation
This is a sample (jpg) of the presentation evaluation form that is in our book
Videos and Podcasts
You may use these videos as brief lectures within your class. They cover certain content areas from our book, Making Team Projects Work!
Podcast for LectureBreakers
This is a two-part podcast for LectureBreakers that discusses some of the details from our book. Part 2 is here.
DEI Expert Panel for TBLC 2021
Lauren hosted this Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion panel at the 2021 Team-Based Learning Collaborative Conference, March 4, 2021
Foundations of Teamwork for TBL
This presentation, for TBL Virtual 2021, talks about how teamswork is the foundation for TBL
tea for teaching Podcast
In this podcast, we discuss strategies to help students develop their teamwork skills while addressing complex problems.
How To: Peer Evaluation
Do you use peer evaluation? Have you ever taught your peer evaluators HOW to evaluate each other? Watch this video for ideas.
Better Team Presentations
In this video, Lauren gives 7 tips for students that will help them learn how to give better team presentations .
Contact us at MakingTeamProjectsWork@gmail.com
Copyright © 2023 by Timothy M. Franz & Lauren A. Vicker
All rights reserved. Any redistribution or reproduction in part or in whole in any form (paper or electronic) is prohibited other than the following: 1) You may print, download, and/or modify any of the worksheets in this book or on the associated website for your personal teaching and non-commercial use only; and 2) You may print, download, and/or modify any of the exercises in this book or on the associated website for your personal teaching and non-commercial use only. You may not, except with our express written permission, distribute or commercially exploit any of the content of the book or from the associated website other than the use of brief quotations for use in a review or scholarly journal.
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