Abstract:

Introduction:
Delivering team project is a suitable way how to allow university students to gain deeper and practical knowledge. Such hands-on experience is especially important in technical studying programmes whose graduates are expected to be able to apply acquired knowledge in real-life environment. This paper examines aspects of practical education of computer science students who carry out semestral team projects when different strategies of students’ projects delivery are being applied.

Theory:
A theoretical framework for project based learning and traditionally lead or self-organized teams is presented, with main focus on team structure and teamwork effectivity when group cohesion being the main control parameter of cooperation quality[1]. Cooperation quality is also affected by team members’ satisfaction with social interaction, therefore team performance is conceptualized as a combination of both work effectivity and subjective evaluation of teamwork.

Hypotheses:
H1: Self-organized teams will perform better if they will score high in control parameters.
H2: Self-organized teams will perform worse if they will score low in control parameters.
H3: Teams with spontaneous leaders will perform better compared to teams with randomly assigned leader.

Case Study:
For purposes of this study, courses related to project management and software engineering were selected. These masters degree courses have similar structure - 2 hours theoretic lecture, 2 hours practic seminars, plus extra work outside seminars if needed. All participating students have earned a bachelor degree in computer science and most of the student already have some working experience or they are currently part-time working in IT - this is consistent with theoretical presumption that project based learning is suitable when students already have certain knowledge in the field [2].

System and data entities description:
This paper also presents a data architecture model of a system designed for monitoring and evaluating project-oriented learning that is being developed at Faculty of Informatics at Masaryk university. The system records information about courses, methods of education, students and their results - both objective (successful project delivery and final exam grade) and subjective (course and teamwork satisfaction).

Basic data entities groups are following:
Subjects - this entity group describes given courses, seminar groups, lecturers and educational strategies used in seminar groups
Students - entity group containing students and their relationships (sociometric values)
Results of education - entity group describing student’s results acquired at the end of the courses. Results consist of final grades as well as course satisfaction surveys output.

Data are being collected periodically during each semester, the sample consists of 500 to 1000 students per semester. Analytical functions are being performed over these data for evaluation of educational methods used in particular courses.

References:
[1] Wageman, R. How Leaders Foster Self-Managing Team Effectiveness: Design Choices versus Hands-on Coaching. Organization Science, Vol. 12, No. 5. 2001. [Retrieved Oct 17, 2014.] http://www.jstor.org/stable/3085999.
[2] Helle, L., Tynjälä, P., Olkinuora, E. Project-based learning in post-secondary education – theory, practice and rubber sling shots. Higher Education, Vol. 51, No. 2. 2006. [Retrieved Oct 25, 2014]. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10734-004-6386-5

Keywords:

Project based learning, software engineering education, learning monitoring and assessment, team structure, self-organization.