STUDENT PROTOCOL

Learning in teams
During your degree programme you will sometimes be asked to undertake work with other students,
and classes will be divided into smaller groups. School work and often, academic work is a solitary
pursuit so you may not have had much experience of this style of working prior to coming to
University. This protocol is intended to help you to get the best from teamwork and to set expectations
both yours and ours - of this process, in order to make it clear, fair and consistent across your
modules.

What is team work?

Team work is not merely working in a group with other people even a group of friends is not
necessarily a team. You dont become a team until you have developed methods of working together
and relationships have formed between you, i.e. through your collaboration you have begun to bond
and develop team spirit. Levin (2005 pg 7). We tend to view teamwork as having four common
characteristics:
Three or more individuals
A shared common goal(s)
Task interdependency
A desired productive outcome(s)

Why do tutors ask you to undertake team work on your degree programme?
There are some very good reasons why you will undertake a variety of team work activities on your
different modules. There will of course be good academic reasons as to why a particular activity is
undertaken in groups, which your tutor will explain to you. However, in terms of actually working with
others as a team there are many benefits:

Useful for applying for jobs and afterwards in your work

o Most employers put teamwork high on their list of skills that they want their graduate
recruits to possess, and are likely to ask you about your experience of team working.
o At assessment centre interviews you may be faced with group exercises where the
interviewers will be looking at:
how well you can work in a team;
what role you take on;
Your ability to both establish a rapport with others and see things from their
point of view.
Team work can give you a skill for learning as well as a skill for employability.
You can learn from other students and by working together you can benefit from synergy
the whole working of the team can be greater than the effort put in by individuals.
Working in teams can be more sociable than always working on your own.
Working in teams can enhance your self-confidence; you can try out ideas within your team
as you work together.
Team work can be fun!

Team formation
Your tutor will decide whether you can choose who to work with or whether he/she will allocate the
groups. There are pros and cons to both methods. You may find yourself working with people who
you have not met before; do not shy away from this, but take it as an opportunity to get to know more
people at University. Remember, at work you will not able to choose who you work with.

Getting started
If you have not met any of your team members before then the first thing is of course to introduce
yourselves. Try not to go on first impressions people can be very shy or, alternatively, very
domineering on a first meeting. Swap contact details email (uni and/or private), telephone numbers
etc. If you are all free, try to have a meeting immediately after the classroom session to discuss what
you think the project requires and what each of you can contribute.

Setting ground rules

Agreeing ground rules in advance can save a lot of problems later on. Make some decisions between
you. These may be about how you will organise yourselves, expected behaviours, or disallowed
behaviours. Consider how to make things fair and productive when team members may come from a
variety of backgrounds with different experiences of working as a team. In agreeing ground rules each
of you is committing yourself to abiding by them. Time may be given for this in class by your tutor.
Things to decide:
How will you organise yourselves? How will you contact each other? How often will you meet? How
will you conduct meetings? How long will your meetings be? Will you have a leader (this is often not
necessary), or a rotating leader? Will there be a note-taker? a chairperson? a follow up action list?
Think about alternative ways to work than face-to-face if some team members have time constraints.
What behaviours do you expect from each other? These may be to do with communication e.g. No
one is allowed to dominate the discussion or about commitment e.g., Everyone is expected to do
their work on time or building the team e.g. If we cannot reach an agreement on decisions we will
take them to a vote.
Sadly not all teams work together as productively as they might and problems can be encountered.
When setting your ground rules it is worth considering some of the problems that might crop up and
deciding how you, as a team, might wish to deal with them, for example; what you will do if someone
does not show up to meetings or is not pulling their weight; if someone produces sub-standard work.
Keep records of who attends meetings and all communication emails, text messages etc - with
colleagues in the group; this may be required as evidence if there are serious problems within the
group which cannot be resolved between you. Module tutors do not expect teams to carry students
who are not fully participating. Try to deal with this within the team by talking to non-participating team
members. However, if this situation does not improve then you should talk to your seminar tutor
The team rules should be reviewed periodically to check that they are being adhered to. All team
members are allowed to point out when the rules are being broken and teams may wish to add to, or
change their rules over time.

What makes a good team?

A good team;

has a shared vision - it knows what it wants to achieve

puts the desired team outcome first: individual interests take a secondary place
is clear about targets and priorities - and agrees these together
can make decisions
recognises that its members have different strengths, who can make different contributions
includes all members, everybody counts, efforts are made to ensure that nobody feels left out
or undervalued

Teamworking behaviours you try to develop when working in teams:

Communication

Organisation

Participation

Team orientation

Leadership

Emotional Intelligence

Listening actively
Speaking constructively
Communicating to different audiences
Giving and receiving criticism effectively
Keeping each other informed of developments
Setting up and running groups
Turning up to meetings
Punctual to meetings, stay to end
Completing own targets to deadline so that other people are not kept waiting
Planning tasks
Contributing equally
Taking responsibility for own tasks
Acknowledging others ideas and building upon them
Working as a problem solver
Respecting the opinions of others in the team
Sharing responsibility
Showing cooperation and commitment to team
Willing to compromise views to obtain a group consensus.
Applying assertiveness skills where necessary
Dealing with difficult people
Motivating others
Allocating tasks
Keeping team focussed on goals
Ensuring everyone gets a turn
Building a good rapport with others
Trusting other team members
Seeing things from the point of view of others
Being sensitive to the needs of others team members

Consider these behaviours when working with your team. How good are you at exhibiting them? Be
honest with yourself. Are there behaviours that you need to address and try to improve? You will be
asked to reflect on your ability to demonstrate these behaviours during your teamwork activities. It is
important for you to understand your weaknesses and areas where you need to improve in order to
be a good team player. You are also likely to be asked to reflect upon the team playing abilities of
your other team members.

Assessing how well your team is working together

It can be useful part way through working in a team (maybe half way through the team task) to assess
how well you are doing as a team. This is an opportunity to check whether you are all sticking to the
ground rules and highlight any issues with any members of your team such as poor attendance or
lack of commitment. It is far better to identify these early than to wait until the end when the work is
completed. You could consider how you - or others - could have improved your teams performance.
Your tutor may allow some time in class for this and there are different exercises and check lists that
you can complete to help you to assess this. If any problems are highlighted with any of your team
members then your tutor will try to help you to deal with them.

Marking summative team work

The outcome of any summative team work (such as a team report) will be marked in accordance with
the criteria identified in the assessment brief. At times, unfortunately, not all students contribute
equally in developing or writing up the final team assessment. Students who do not contribute equally
should not get the same mark. This is unfair! The module team do not like free-riders to succeed in
this way and it is probable that you feel the same way. For this reason all module tutors are required
to be able to ascertain any differences in the contribution of different team members. This is most
likely, although not always, to result in you being asked to undertake some form of peer evaluation
which may result in different team members receiving different marks if this is deemed necessary. The
peer evaluation is almost always confidential and other team members will not be made aware of your

marking or comments. It is important that you are honest in your assessment of your fellow team
members. It is unfair if their lack of work or commitment is not made known. If they have genuine
reasons or issues then these can be dealt with separately. However, it is important that you try
maybe with the help of your tutor- to sort our any issues early on when there is still time to put things
right, rather than to wait until the end when it is too late.
Dealing with issues along the way:
Unfortunately for a variety of reason things do not always go smoothly with team work. Listed below
are a selection of issues that have been faced in the past and a suggestion as to how they are likely
to be dealt with:
Students who, for whatever reason, are late in joining a team
At times students, for quite legitimate reasons are late in joining a group. Team members are asked to
try to accommodate the new member and embrace their contributions. If part of the summative
assessment has already been completed, latecomers work can be marked out of the remaining marks
and their grade adjusted upwards accordingly. If the summative work has not yet started then the
newcomer needs to accelerate their contribution, really pull their weight and try to makeup for lost
time. Assessing how well the group is working and peer evaluation should be able to deal with any
issues arising out of this.
Students who none of the class want to have on their team.
This is team work in your career you will be expected to work with whoever joins your team. Halfway formative peer evaluation will enable the team to highlight any problems and final peer evaluation
will enable you to influence the final mark if necessary.
Students who do not attend team meetings or pull their weight
See above. However, if the problem continues then your should contact your tutor and IF an alternate
group can be created, then this might be the final solution
Students who are legitimately absent during the semester
Short absences can happen to anyone and should be tolerated. The absent student would be
expected to make good on their return. If the absence is too extensive, then the student might be
removed from the group and marked separately. Alternatively if may be possible to offer a group
extension, allowing extra time for any group written work to be submitted. Speak to your seminar tutor
and an Academic Facilitator.
Students who withdraw during the semester, leaving their team one member down
It may be possible to redistribute team members or merge groups if appropriate. If the team would
prefer to carry on as they are then your tutor may need to offer a little extra support to the smaller
team
Students who feel left out of their group
Students should contact their tutor if this is a problem. Other members of the team may not be aware
that this is how you feel. The tutor will arrange to meet you, the team or possibly both to help you to
resolve the situation.
Teams which irretrievably break down
For some modules it may be possible to split groups; however the tutor will try to help you to work
diplomatically and try to reach an amicable solution.
Tutors will always encourage you to try to solve any problems within your team by yourselves first
this is part of the learning process. However, if you reach a situation that you cannot manage then
you should contact your seminar or module tutor who will try to help you to reach an amicable
solution.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------For further guidance on how to work well as a team see the leaflet on Blackboard: under the Library
tab: Skills Plus: Specific Topic: Groupwork and presentations which also directs you to several
useful websites.
Levin, P; (2005). Successful teamwork (p. 7).Maidenhead: Open University Press