Using Student Feedback to Assess Team Projects in a Required, Cross-Disciplinary, Undergraduate Management Course

At the authors' University, the College of Business undergraduate curriculum requires that all students take a Principles of Management course and, for the purpose of AACSB International accreditation, the faculty has determined that teamwork be assessed in this course. For those reasons a team project is mandatory, and the authors were motivated to assess their students' perceptions regarding the team project assigned in the course. For the assessment, the authors created a survey to be given to the students before and after their team project. The survey asked the students to state their level of agreement with twenty-two statements about the value of team projects, which courses should require them, the types of team projects that should be assigned, the skills to be gained by requiring them, and the resources necessary to complete the projects successfully. The sample included 151 students: 25 accounting majors (13 males and 12 females), 23 finance majors (14 males and 9 females), 11 international business majors (5 males and 6 females), 37 management majors (23 males and 14 females), 25 marketing majors (8 males and 17 females), and 30 non-business majors (25 males and 5 females). To analyze the survey responses, two analyses were conducted. First, pre- and post-project responses were compared to determine if there were any changes in the level of agreement with the statements. This first analysis found there was a statistically significant (α = 0.05) change in the students' level of agreement for seven of the 22 statements. Second, the difference between pre- and post-survey responses was analyzed based on each student's gender, major, and prior experience with team projects. The second analysis revealed differences based on those categories for four of the 22 statements. INTRODUCTION Team projects have been used as a teaching method in business schools for so long that the convention has been described as ubiquitous (Bacon, 2005); however, this practice has not been accepted without reservations or criticism. Critics claim that team projects are difficult for instructors to manage and assess (Jones & Tom, 2004) and the quality of student outcomes has been described as uneven or negative (O'Connor & Yballe, 2007). Proponents of the pedagogy argue that if instructors design team projects properly (Hansen, 2006; Tabor, 2005) the benefits (Young & Henquinet, 2000) to organizations, students, and instructors far outweigh any problems created. The authors' College of Business is accredited by AACSB International and its faculty has determined that teamwork be assessed in the Principles of Management course. This course is a logical choice because all business majors must take it and teamwork is a critical topic taught in the course. Given that a team projects is not optional, the purpose of this study is to ascertain the students' perceptions of the required team project. The authors solicited students' opinions about the faculty's choice of course in which to require the team project, the type of project chosen, the benefits to be gained from working on the project, and the resources needed to complete the project successfully. Because the team project is assigned in a core course, one that all business majors must take, students experience both the practice and the benefit of working with a variety of other students. Mannix and Neale (2005) reported that diverse teams were especially suitable for tasks involving innovation and exploration of new opportunities. Yet the team process must be structured, facilitated, and monitored so that the differences among team members do not become divisive and minority opinions do not go unheard. In addition to the opportunity to work with diverse team members, the type of project chosen by the authors was somewhat unusual because it was a servicelearning project. A service-learning project involves students in an activity that serves the community, helps them apply course content, and allows them to reflect on the relationship between service and learning (Bringle & Hatcher, 1995). …