Developing and disseminating team skills capacities using interactive online tools for team formation, learning, assessment and mentoring: final report 2011

Teamwork is intrinsic in higher education. It allows for: larger real-world projects to be set, teamwork skills to be improved, collaborative learning, and the establishment of student social networks. However, in order to ensure that learning objectives are achieved, it is imperative that higher education teachers implement student team projects effectively and professionally. This project was concerned with a multifaceted approach to creating effective, productive and happy student teams and minimising team dysfunction and poor project outcomes. The PETS (Proactively Ensuring Team Success) process, which addresses team dysfunction and social loafing, has been tested, evaluated and continuously improved across a range of disciplines since 2002. This project has produced a printed manual available online, an interactive and customisable website for students called Working in Teams, and an online peer-evaluation tool called WebPAf. Together these three components contain all the essential resources for the PETS process, including interactive teamwork exercises, downloadable models and examples of team structures, and video and audio packages to complement text and images.