Evaluation of Team Projects in ECE 290
J. A. Stratton, M. C. Loui
ECE 290 team projects can be very open-ended, meaningful ways to explore topics of your own
interest, while demonstrating mastery of the concepts and skills in ECE 290.
Evaluation will emphasize team process and individual contributions more than quality of project
itself. Your project will be graded as a whole only after the project’s final due date, the
consultation sessions on the weeks noted on the course syllabus. However, we do require that
you set a schedule for yourself at the beginning of each project (included in the team portfolio)
and recommend that you follow schedules similar to these:
Project Specification
Most Difficult Components
Implemented
Functionally Complete Design
Final Project Report and Demo
Project #1 timeline
Week of September 30th
Week of October 7th
Project #2 timeline
Week of October 29th
Week of November 4th
Week of October 14th
Week of October 22nd
Week of November 11th
Week of November 18th
Project Deliverables:
Individual portfolio components for each project (in Compass2g)
Initial reflection (before first team meeting)
Documents produced when serving as project manager
Individually prepared first draft of any section of a proposal or report document (before
revisions)
First draft of any technical design prepared individually or with a team member
Self evaluation (numerical ratings for oneself are NOT used in determining the grade)
Project retrospective reflection (at end of project)
Other documents, e.g., comments on proposal sections drafted by other team members (optional)
Team products for each project (in Compass2g)
Initial (for Project #1) or revised (for Project #2) team charter (signed, scanned)
Agendas and minutes of meetings
Project proposal (with reasons for design decisions)
Initial task schedule for the project
Records of task progress and actual completion dates
Project report and presentation
Confidential deliverables (in CATME)
Confidential peer evaluations
Grading and Rubrics:
Self/peer evaluation criteria
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•
•
•
•
•
•
Helped other students learn the course material and other technical topics
Improved your/his/her own teamwork or communication skills
Offered constructive suggestions when reviewing work by another team member
Contributed a large amount toward the team's goals
Made contributions of high quality
Cooperated well with other team members
Met deadlines to keep the project on schedule
Project grade
The project grade is composed of your individual portfolio grade, your team portfolio grade,
your peer ratings grade, and your final project report grade, as follows:
Individual Portfolio:
Team Portfolio:
Peer Ratings:
Final Project Report/Demonstration:
Total
40 points
30 points
20 points
10 points
100 points
This project grading scheme is designed such that, while the success of the team as a whole is
still important, the majority of the points awarded to each member are within the control of that
member (individual portfolio and peer ratings.) Furthermore, most aspects of the shared team
portfolio are dedicated to measuring the teamwork process more than the quality of the delivered
project. Altogether, this grading scheme emphasizes individual performance within a team
setting and good cooperation within the team.
Individual Portfolio
Your individual portfolio grade will be composed of the following components:
Retrospective project reflection document:
Completion of self-evaluation:
Initial reflection document (Project #1 only):
Individual contributions to team deliverables:
Total
10 points
5 points
5 points
20 (P#1) or 25 (P#2) points
40 points
Each reflection paper and the self-evaluation paper will be seeded with questions or prompts, to
which the paper should respond. Such response papers will be graded on the following rubric:
100%
80%
40%
0
Reflection Writing
Reflection responds to at least three quarters of the suggested prompts (rounded down)
Reflection responds to at least half of the prompts (rounded down)
Reflection responds to some of the prompts
Reflection paper not submitted or does not address any of the prompts
Contributions to Team Deliverables: The individual contributions to team deliverables will
include the following items:
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•
•
•
Documents produced when serving as project manager (if applicable)
Individually prepared first draft of any section of a proposal or report document (before
revisions)
Designs of any technical project component prepared individually or with a team member
(with contributions of initial collaborators acknowledged.)
Other documents (optional)
The specific documents and drafts expected of an individual will be set by the initial project plan
and task schedule agreed to by the group. An individual will be accountable to those tasks,
unless the group determines unanimously that responsibility should be reassigned to another
member, or that the due date for task completion should be extended. The individual
contributions to the team project will be graded as a whole the following rubric:
25 pts
23 pts
20 pts
15 pts
10 pts
5 pts
0 pts
Individual project contributions
Individual consistently completed tasks on schedule, with high-quality deliverables. No more
than one late or poor-quality task deliverable.
Individual typically completed tasks on schedule, with high-quality deliverables. A small
number of deliverables were late or of poor quality.
Individual typically completed tasks on schedule, with high-quality deliverables. At most one
assigned task was not completed by the individual.
Individual sometimes completed tasks on schedule, and sometimes contributed high-quality
deliverables. A few tasks were not completed by the individual.
Individual occasionally completed tasks on schedule, with deliverables of some use to the
rest of the team. Several tasks may not have been completed by the individual.
Individual completed at least some tasks, though never with good quality deliverables on
schedule.
Individual did not contribute to the group project.
For Project #1, the number of points from the individual contributions counting towards the
project grade will be capped at 20.
Team Portfolio
Your team portfolio grade will be shared by all team members, and graded according to the
following components:
Signed and scanned team charter (with revisions for Project #2): 5 points
Project proposal (with reasons for design decisions):
5 points
Initial task schedule for the project:
5 points
Agendas and minutes of meetings:
5 points
Records of task progress and schedule revisions:
5 points
Key team communications and other documents:
5 points
Total
30 points
The team charter is not graded on content. Full points will be awarded when the team charter is
completed by the appropriate consultation meeting. The initial team charter is due at the second
consultation meeting.
The project proposal and initial task schedules are due near the beginning of each project. They
are not contracts, but guidelines that should be complete and reviewed by all members of the
team. Each will be graded according to the respective rubrics. The length and format of each
document is up to each team, so long as they meet the criteria specified here.
5 pts
4 pts
2 pts
0 pts
5 pts
3 pts
0 pts
Project Proposal
Project proposal is well-defined, major design choices are well-documented. An
independent reviewer could clearly determine whether a final product meets the
specifications of the proposal.
Project proposal has at most one requirement that is poorly defined -OR- at most one major
design choice that is not explained. An independent reviewer could mostly determine
whether a final product meets the specifications of the proposal.
Project proposal has multiple requirements or design choices that are poorly defined. An
independent reviewer could not reliably determine whether a final product meets the
specifications of the proposal or not.
No documents submitted
Initial Task Schedule
Task division and timeline is reasonable, with work divided between members
Task division and timeline may have flaws, at least immediate tasks are divided between
members
No documents submitted, or task division and timeline have major flaws or unreasonable
dependencies. An independent reviewer would question whether the given task schedule
can be successfully completed by a team as written.
Each meeting agenda and journal entry for the team portfolio will receive full credit on
submission, as shown in the following rubric. Note that the rubric is applied separately to the
meeting documents (agendas and minutes), the journal entries, and the memos or other key team
communications.
5 pts
4 pts
2 pts
0 pts
Agenda and Minutes / Journal Entries / Team Memos and Key Communications
Documents consistently submitted by the team
At most two expected documents/entries are not submitted
More than two expected documents/entries are not submitted
No documents submitted
Peer Ratings:
Teammates should be discussing their working habits and bringing up feedback and suggestions
for peers regularly. At the completion of each project, teammates will give anonymous feedback
to each other. After the first project, teammate feedback will be entered as a provisional grade
for that project. The grading score from the peer review of Project #1 will be replaced by the
Project #2 grading score from the peer review for that individual if the grading score from the
peer review in Project #2 are higher.
Final Project Report/Demo:
At the conclusion of the project, the team must deliver the final design and documentation. The
final report of a project has five primary communication goals, each of which will receive two
points if convincingly presented, one point if presented with weaknesses, and zero points if there
are serious deficiencies.
Clear and complete design details:
Revised and updated specification for the product:
Demonstration that the design meets the specification:
Explanation of key design and implementation choices:
Conveying a unified product
(Separate individual contributions not obvious):
Total
2 points
2 points
2 points
2 points
2 points
10 points
Modifications:
This grading scheme and collection of rubrics will be adopted by default for each team. A team
may propose changes to the default grading scheme for their circumstances. Proposals to change
the project grading or due dates must be accompanied with an explanation for why the proposed
grading scheme maintains the principles of measuring individual performance and team
functioning, and are better suited to the team and project. Proposals to change the project
grading or due dates must be approved by the team’s consultant and an additional instructor.
Appendix: Seed questions for reflection documents
Initial Reflection (before first team meeting)
What professional skills do I hope to improve by working in a team?
What computer engineering topics outside the ECE 290 material do I want to learn?
How do these professional skills and technical topics relate to my career goals?
What experiences and skills can I contribute to my team?
What concerns do I have about working in a learning team?
Project #1 Retrospective Reflection
What new skills did I develop; what professional skills did I improve?
What technical topics outside the ECE 290 material did I learn?
How did I help other students (on my team) develop new skills and learn the ECE 290 material
and other technical topics?
How did I benefit from the knowledge and assistance of other students (on my team)?
What did I learn about teamwork that I had not previously known?
After reviewing my self and peer evaluations for the first project, what personal practices will I
continue, and what will I change in the second project?
How should the team charter be revised?
Project #2 Retrospective Reflection
How did teamwork in the second project differ from the teamwork in the first?
What new skills did I develop; what professional skills did I improve?
What technical topics outside the ECE 290 material did I learn?
How did I help other students (on my team) develop new skills and learn the ECE 290 material
and other technical topics?
How did I benefit from the knowledge and assistance of other students (on my team)?
What did I learn about teamwork that I had not previously known?
What personal practices will I continue, and what will I change in future team projects?
What do I want to learn more about?