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Development Teams
Short Description
Development Teams is a term used in the industry for self-organising teams that are responsible for undertaking all the tasks that are required to take a product from idea to market, e.g., designing a software. As the team is expected to undertake all the tasks, they are cross-functional. It is an ideal model for active learning as they have the following characteristics;
a. They are self-organising and autonomous
b. They are cross-functional
c. Engage in continuous cycles of researching, designing,
prototyping, self-analysis and improvement
d. The team is accountable rather than the individuals.
In HE teaching, Development Teams could be used to provide students with opportunities to develop a project such as in Engineering or Computing. It could also be used in social science disciplines, for example for creating educational resources and solutions for daily life issues experienced by the community.
Tools
Not specifically but will depend on the type of ‘product’.
Scenario
This method can be used in both smaller and larger classes. Students should be split into groups of six with a range of specialisations and experiences. This could ideally be used in a classroom where students come from different disciplines and/or countries.
Development Teams should be provided autonomy to work on their self-selected or assigned project. It is important that they know that there is distributed leadership and the team rather than the individual will be accountable.
The teaching plan could be:
- Mixed teams created by the teacher or by the students
themselves (if latter, teacher should monitor the
composition of the team for diversity of members) - Project ideas to be discussed in teams
- The teams to meet over a few months to work on the
project, with regular self-evaluation cycles with the aim of
refining their ‘product’ over time - There could be a final “Dragon’s Den’ type event or
exhibition to display the process and ‘product’.
Ideally, the teacher should provide industry links with project
briefing from the industries as ‘clients’ with the culminating session
being about presenting the ‘product’ to them.
Assessment
Assessment can be done in the form of self-assessment, peer review, teacher review and ‘client’ review. It is important that the assessment is of the team rather than the individual. Therefore, it might be better suited to formative assessment.
Additional Resources
Innolution Development Team Defination
What is a Scrum Development Team?
Connection with other methods
Design Thinking
Experiential Learning
Gamification
Problem-based learning
Project-based Learning
Real-world missions with companies
SCRUM Methodology
Work in Teams
Our Project Objective
eLene4Life supports curriculum innovation in higher education (HE) through the development of active learning approaches for transversal skills, with the ultimate aim of improving students’ employability.
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The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
This project No. 2018-1-FR01-KA203-047829 has been funded by Erasmus + programme of the European Union.