Rubric for Assessment of Lifelong Learning, Communication, and Team-work Skills, and Professionalism in the context of Technology Research as Part of a Technology Team </a>

Rubric for Assessment of Lifelong Learning, Communication, and Team-work Skills, and Professionalism in the context of Technology Research as Part of a Technology Team

Background: In order to develop students' abilities with respect to lifelong learning, each BS-CSE capstone course has, for some years, required each student to explore a new tool, technology, or process and write a three or four page paper on it. However, several of the capstone design course instructors have felt, over the last couple of years, that the requirement of such a paper was too distracting for the students and that it took too much of their focus away from the central design project. Hence they have come up with an alternative approach to achieving this outcome while, at the same time, engaging students in another team activity. The approach is to require groups of 4-5 students each to form "technology teams". These teams are "orthogonal" to the project teams; i.e., typically each technology team of, say, 4 students, will consist of one student from each of four different project teams. Each technology team will identify a particular relevant (to the area of the particular course) topic, for example, "sound" or "physics" (in the case of CSE 786, the games capstone); each student in the team will be assigned responsiblity for one aspect of the particular topic and be expected to research the topic. The team will then make a presentation to the entire class on the topic with each student talking about the particular aspect that he/she is responsible for. Essentially, the team will be available, throughout the quarter, as a resource to the entire class for questions dealing with the particular topic. Like the other approach, it requires the students to research the particular questions they are responsible for but to do so as part of a team research the particular topic. Equally importantly, the approach would seem to help improve students' skills with respect to understanding issues since they will be responsible for addressing serious questions from other students in the class. Moreover, and unlike the other approach, students see the importance of lifelong learning as part of implementing their project, not simply as a skill that might come in useful at some point in their careers. The current rubric has been designed to assess this activity. The activity contributes to achieving the outcomes related to lifelong learning, to communication skills, and to team-working skills. This is reflected in the dimensions of the rubric.

Rubric: The student's work is evaluated along four dimensions, these having to do respectively with the quality of research the student has performed concerning the aspect he/she is responsible for; the effectiveness of his/her presentation with respect to explaining the particular aspect; how well the student is able to relate it/situate it within the overall topic that his/her team is responsible for; and his/her willingness/ability to address questions concerning the aspect from other students either during the presentation or, especially, at later points in the quarter when they need the information for use in their projects. (The quality of the oral presentation should also be evaluated using the rubric for assessing oral communication skills (for individual presentations).)

Note that the first dimension is concerned with the lifelong learning outcome; the second with communication skills; the third with team-working skills; and the last one with all of these (as well as, to an extent, the professional responsibility component of outcome (f)). Each of these dimensions is assigned a score of 1 through 4, these values representing increasing degrees of achievement in the particular dimension, as described in the table below in the rows corresponding to the various dimensions. The last column are the actual scores assigned to this particular student, based on his or her actual performance, along the four dimensions. The overall total score is assigned by simply adding together the scores corresponding to the four dimensions.

Name of person being evaluated: __________________________________________
Course and quarter of evaluation: __________________________________________

   1 2 3 4 Points
assigned

Research/ gathering information Collects minimal information and about just the particular aspect; Collects adequate information about the particular aspect but not about its relation to the overall topic nor pays much attention to closely related aspects; Collects adequate information about the aspects as well as the related ones and pays attention to how they contribute to the topic as a whole; Digs up all kinds of information about the particular aspect and how it and the related aspects have influenced each other and how they work together, support each other, and help the development of the topic area as a whole.

Effectiveness of presentation Audience cannot understand much beyond the basic ideas underlying the aspect in question; cannot understand the relation of the aspect to the overall topic; nor get any feel for how the aspect may impact their own projects. The audience can understand most of the details of the aspect in question and gets a feel for how it fits with the overall topic and its relation to the other aspects of the topic. The audience gets a good understanding of the particular aspect and how it relates with the other aspects of the topic; also gets some feel for the kinds of problems related to the topic as a whole and the aspect in particular they might encounter in their own projects. The audience gets an excellent understanding of the aspect and its subtleties, its relation to other aspects of the topic; as well as the situations in their own projects in which the topic might pose challenges and some feel for how the problems might be addressed.
Contribution to team Seems to have no interest in the presentations by the other members of the technology team; occasionally makes derogatory remarks during presentations by the other members about aspects they are responsible for. Mainly focused on his/her aspect; responds when asked a direct question about the relation of his/her aspect to the overall topic or another aspect, but otherwise does not attempt to help other team members address audience questions. Good team player. Is interested in the presentations by the other team members; makes a definite effort to ensure the success of the team by occasionally identifying the relation between the aspect being discussed and other aspects of the topic. Superb team player. Goes out of his way to help the rest of the team in any way he can to address audience questions, relating the aspect under discussion to the topic as a whole and other aspects, etc., but doing all this as unobtrusively as possible.
Professionalism/ willingness to help Contributes minimally to addressing problems related to the aspect he/she is responsible that come up in his/her own project team; no interest in other (project) teams' problems and issues and ignores questions they might have. Works seriously to address problems related to the particular aspect he/she is responsible for that come up in his/her own project team; provides minimal help/ pointers to other project teams when questions are addressed directly to him/her. Works effectively to address problems related to the topic (not just the aspect) that he/she is responsible for, consulting with other members of his/her technology team as needed, to solve problems; willing and able to address questions that other project teams pose concerning the aspect he/she is responsible for. Extremely effective in solving problems, that come up in his/her project, related to various aspects related to his/her topic, consulting with other members of his/her tech team as needed and doing additional research when required; enthusiastically helps other project teams address questions related to the topic, occasionally pointing out issues/problems they might have overlooked.

Total:

	1	2	3	4	Points assigned
Research/ gathering information	Collects minimal information and about just the particular aspect;	Collects adequate information about the particular aspect but not about its relation to the overall topic nor pays much attention to closely related aspects;	Collects adequate information about the aspects as well as the related ones and pays attention to how they contribute to the topic as a whole;	Digs up all kinds of information about the particular aspect and how it and the related aspects have influenced each other and how they work together, support each other, and help the development of the topic area as a whole.
Effectiveness of presentation	Audience cannot understand much beyond the basic ideas underlying the aspect in question; cannot understand the relation of the aspect to the overall topic; nor get any feel for how the aspect may impact their own projects.	The audience can understand most of the details of the aspect in question and gets a feel for how it fits with the overall topic and its relation to the other aspects of the topic.	The audience gets a good understanding of the particular aspect and how it relates with the other aspects of the topic; also gets some feel for the kinds of problems related to the topic as a whole and the aspect in particular they might encounter in their own projects.	The audience gets an excellent understanding of the aspect and its subtleties, its relation to other aspects of the topic; as well as the situations in their own projects in which the topic might pose challenges and some feel for how the problems might be addressed.
Contribution to team	Seems to have no interest in the presentations by the other members of the technology team; occasionally makes derogatory remarks during presentations by the other members about aspects they are responsible for.	Mainly focused on his/her aspect; responds when asked a direct question about the relation of his/her aspect to the overall topic or another aspect, but otherwise does not attempt to help other team members address audience questions.	Good team player. Is interested in the presentations by the other team members; makes a definite effort to ensure the success of the team by occasionally identifying the relation between the aspect being discussed and other aspects of the topic.	Superb team player. Goes out of his way to help the rest of the team in any way he can to address audience questions, relating the aspect under discussion to the topic as a whole and other aspects, etc., but doing all this as unobtrusively as possible.
Professionalism/ willingness to help	Contributes minimally to addressing problems related to the aspect he/she is responsible that come up in his/her own project team; no interest in other (project) teams' problems and issues and ignores questions they might have.	Works seriously to address problems related to the particular aspect he/she is responsible for that come up in his/her own project team; provides minimal help/ pointers to other project teams when questions are addressed directly to him/her.	Works effectively to address problems related to the topic (not just the aspect) that he/she is responsible for, consulting with other members of his/her technology team as needed, to solve problems; willing and able to address questions that other project teams pose concerning the aspect he/she is responsible for.	Extremely effective in solving problems, that come up in his/her project, related to various aspects related to his/her topic, consulting with other members of his/her tech team as needed and doing additional research when required; enthusiastically helps other project teams address questions related to the topic, occasionally pointing out issues/problems they might have overlooked.
Total:

Evaluator's name: __________________________________________
Date of evaluation: __________________________________________