Agreement+Statement

= **Team Agreement Statement** =

1. Team Members: Mohammed Alzahrani, Michelle Calabrese, Elias Ikimis, Jamie Riley 2. Goal and Purpose of the Team: Our goals include learning to collaborate in an online environment, learning from each other's knowledge and expertise, and working together to create projects that will give us experience to help us find success in our future endeavors.

3. Team Work Management: a. How will you manage the work of this team? We will manage our work as a group on our wiki (http://groupwork-computer-apps-in-edu.wikispaces.com/), where we will all take part in reviewing, commenting, and editing.

b. Do you want to review each other’s work? If so, how often? What type of turn around time is expected? We will review each other’s work. Each group member should plan to check the wiki at least every other day, daily if possible, in order to review changes, read comments, and/or make adjustments.

c. How will you communicate? Email? Chat sessions in Vista? Meet in person? How often? Who initiates the communication? Primarily, our communication will rely on using the wiki, email, and discussion board. Communication will take place as need arises. Chat sessions may be organized if the group needs to communicate together in real time. Communication will be initiated by anyone within the group who has a question, seeks feedback or perceives a problem.

d. Will you have a group leader? If so, who will that be? Will the same person be the group leader for both projects? At this time we will not elect a group leader, but we all plan to work together putting in equal effort.

e. What are the responsibilities of each person on the team? Will you work independently and then coordinate individual contributions? How do you plan to make the final projects cohesive and unified? Each member will work individually on their section of the project. They will post their materials for others to comment on and review. While each member is responsible for a specific section, they are encouraged to ask questions and seek feedback from the group while working on their section. Nearing the end of the project the individual sections will be combined to create a cohesive final product. The members will then each look over the project as a whole before submitting.

f. What is your timeline for each project? Technology Day: March 1: All members of the team should have their technology chosen. Team members should be approximately 50% done with their portion of the assignment (at least one subject area fully completed or two subject areas partially completed. March 8: All members of the team should have their assigned duties completed. The final week will be used for additional review, changes, and finalizing the project.

Instructional Strategies Matrix: April 12: Team members should be approximately 50% done with their portion of the assignment. April 19: All members of the team should have their assigned duties completed. The final week will be used for additional review, changes, and finalizing the project.

g. Who is responsible for posting the group work for peer comments and for grading? Jamie Riley

4. Problems a. How will you handle the inevitable situation when a team member does not complete his or her work by the agreed‐upon date(s)? In order to tackle problems before they become an issue, each team member is expected to inform the group of upcoming circumstances that may delay the timeline. If work is not done according to the timeline or it seems like a team member is not putting in equal effort, then the rest of the group will contact the member to determine the issue.

b. How long will you tolerate lack of input from a team member? Team members are expected to check the wiki, their email, and the discussion board at least every other day. Lack of communication cannot be tolerated beyond one week at the most.

c. At what point will you contact me (the instructor) and ask me to intervene? If problems cannot be resolved, the group will contact Dr. Kovalik approximately two weeks before the final due date to allow time for the group members to work towards a positive remedy.

d. What can you do if you find you need to revise this agreement? We will hold a chat session to revise the agreement.

5. Other Team Work Issues a. Think about guidelines for each other for providing feedback and comments on work in progress. If you are not satisfied with the quality of work, how will you address the perceived shortcomings? How can each member remain open to new ways of thinking and doing? Team members will review the wiki at least every other day, and will make comments and suggestions to catch errors and make improvements in a timely fashion. Each group member should be open to constructive criticism and is also expected to give feedback in a positive manner.

b. How will you track different versions of the projects? (This will depend on how you plan to present the projects. Will you use a word processing document, a web site, a wiki?) The wiki will keep a record of all changes made during the project.

c. What is your backup plan? We all know that there can be technology glitches. Who is responsible for maintaining the backup? The wiki will keep backups, but each group member is also expected to make backups of his or her own section. Each group member should plan to work on their project using programs on their computer (MS-Word, etc.), rather than work directly into the wiki to avoid losing work from browser crashes. Work can then be transferred to the wiki via copy and paste.

d. Describe the quality of work your team is aiming for. The group will work diligently to complete work that meets the project requirements. Our quality of work will reflect our positions as graduate students and as such will be of the highest quality.

6. Reflection Paragraphs: **Each** team member is responsible for answering the following questions in a concise paragraph (i.e., there will be four paragraphs for this section, one paragraph per team member) a. What did you learn from writing this team agreement? b. How does this process compare to other team agreements you have developed? c. What concerns or questions do you have about your team or your team agreement?

After writing this team agreement, I learned that working with a group takes time and compromise because there is more than one person involved in the project. Since I have never developed a team agreement before (or worked with people I've never seen), this experience is very new to me. In the past, we would usually gather as a group, split the work, and eventually put all of our parts together in the end. The only concern I have is being able to communicate effectively with my group because I know it is difficult to convey meaning without seeing a person's facial expressions or hearing their tone of voice. However, my group seems to work well together and finding a compromise is easy. - Mohammed Alzahrani

When I have worked in groups in the past I don’t recall writing a team agreement statement, but I did like the fact that we wrote one for the group projects in this class, especially since we are taking the class in an online environment, where we haven’t actually met each other. I learned that writing the statement helps the members in the group get to know each other a little bit better before beginning to work together and that it helps everyone to be aware of the expectations for the group as a whole. In addition, we learned about the different working styles and areas of interest of each member of the group. I don’t have concerns with the agreement itself, as I think everyone in my group expects that we can revise it if we find that it is not working. My hope in working with our group is that each group member feels like he or she has equal input, as well as, equal responsibility for completing the projects. Jamie Riley

Since I have never written a team agreement before, this has been an interesting experience. I have learned that it can be difficult to schedule a time where everyone can meet in real time. I have learned that communication can be a bit difficult when you cannot see each other or hear each other’s voice. The impersonality of an online environment means that this is the first time I am working in a group where I really know little about my workmates beyond their profiles, although the chat has since allowed me to get to know some of them better. My main concern is that our group will be able to maintain timely communication and that everyone will complete their responsibilities according to our timeline. -Lee Ikimis

I learned after working on this team agreement that group work, especially when it is 100% online, takes hard work and effort from each member of the group. With multiple members comes multiple opinions, comments, time frames, and expectations. However, when people communicate then problems can be resolved before they arise and expectations can be clear and understood by everyone in the group from the start. I have never completed a team agreement like this one, but I feel this process was organized and involved all of our individual input. As of right now I do not have any concerns about the team agreement. I am looking forward to seeing how our wiki and projects progress. -Shelly Calabrese