Teamwork Expectations

           == Comprehensive Assessment of Team Member Effectiveness (CATME) SMARTER Teamwork==

What is CATME?

The Comprehensive Assessment of Team Member Effectiveness (CATME) SMARTER Teamwork is a system of secure, web-based tools that enable instructors to implement best practices in managing student teams. SMARTER Teamwork: System for Management, Assessment, Research, Training, Education, and Remediation for Teamwork. Since its release to the academic world in 2005, the system has been used by over 1,470,772 students and 17000 instructors. These users are all around the world, coming from over 2,200 institutions in 85 countries. The tools and training are supported by the literature on teamwork and training, along with independent empirical research. They are described in detail under the following list:

Team-Maker: Assigns students to teams using instructor-specified criteria selected from a list of questions or written by the instructor.
Peer Evaluation: Collects and summarizes student self and peer evaluations. Provides feedback to students and data to the instructor.
Rater Practice: Evaluates and provides feedback on students’ ability to rate accurately.
CATME is a non-profit recharge center in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. The CATME system enhances team learning by teaching students how to contribute effectively to teamwork and creating accountability for team-member contributions. The system facilitates communication among teammates and between students and their instructor. This helps student teams have the best chance of being successful so that students and instructors have positive and meaningful team learning experiences.

How to create an account?

You do not need to create an account on your end. Your account will be created automatically as soon as your instructor begins using the CATME system for your class. You will receive an email message with instructions on how to set your initial password. If you did not receive this email, you can use the “Forgot your password?” link to set up a new password.

How to use CATME for EG1004?

When working as group in Semester-long Design Projects, instructors often use peer evaluations and self-evaluations to assess how effectively each team member contributes to the team. The Comprehensive Assessment of Team Member Effectiveness (CATME) was developed for this purpose. The peer evaluation instrument is a behaviorally anchored rating scale. Your course instructor use the CATME Five Teamwork Dimensions as well as other sets of questions to understand team dynamics and stay alert of any potential team issues.

Teamwork Agreement

Teams are more effective when each member knows what is expected of them and how members of the team will work together. For this reason, one of your team’s first steps in the action series is to take the time to establish a teamwork agreement. Your group’s teamwork agreement should be simple and no more than a page. It will the first tool the team can use if the team is not functioning as expected. It will also be the first document to refer to if there is any team issues occurred.

It should outline:

1. Details the responsibilities of each member of the project.
2. Focuses on the process of working as a team, not the design of your products.
3. Describes steps to take in the case that issues arise during the team project.
4. Proves that all members understand team goals with each member’s signatures.

Rater Practice (Milestone 1)

The CATME Rater Practice Program is a game-based rating simulation that provides students the opportunity to practice rating their peers. In this simulation, students are given hypothetical teammates with certain traits to them. These traits represent behaviors that regular teammates could possess. They are then tasked with rating these teammates according to the CATME Five Teamwork Dimensions. At the end of the simulation, students are given immediate feedback on their ratings and ways to improve their ratings.

Peer Evaluations (Milestone 2+3)

When using teams in education, instructors often use peer evaluations and self-evaluations to assess how effectively each team member contributes to the team. The Comprehensive Assessment of Team Member Effectiveness (CATME) was developed for this purpose. This web-based instrument collects data on team-member effectiveness in five areas that research has shown to be important.

1. Contributing to the Team’s Work
2. Interacting with Teammates
3. Keeping the Team on Track
4. Expecting Quality
5. Having Relevant KSAs (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities)

End-semester Peer Evaluations

At the end of semester, information on peer evaluation will be used to evaluate each team member's performance. Individual penalty may be applied if there is no improvement been seen throughout the semester.

Teamwork Deficiency Penalty

Every student on the team is expected to participate and contribute to the project over the course of the semester. If there is/are member(s) who are not pulling their weight, they may be subject to a Teamwork Deficiency Penalty. Please see the Grading Policy for more details.