Engineering Commons^™

Senior Capstone Team Formation Based On Project Interest: Team Selection By Students Compared To Team Selection By Instructors, Peter Schuster, Lauren Anne Cooper, Eltahry Elghandour, Eileen W. Rossman, Sarah Harding, Brian P. Self

Mechanical Engineering

Assigning teams in large courses is logistically challenging and students are sometimes unhappy with their assigned team. This is exacerbated when the project work extends over multiple terms and teams have unique projects. Giving students some agency in team and project selection is one way to improve their project experience. This paper examines two key questions: (a) What is the best way to incorporate student interests into the team-forming process? (b) What impact does the team-forming process have on the student experience throughout the project?

We consider two different approaches to giving students agency in the team formation / project …