All three course assignments involve teamwork. Each team is supposed to have three members. Teams must be formed within the first two weeks of the course. Here are some rules and suggestions to ensure that your teamwork is effective and productive throughout the term:
Forming a team. We'll try to set up teams during the first tutorial
and will (hopefully!) finalize all teams in the
second tutorial. Please make sure
that you attend these tutorials (...and all others, as a matter of
fact!!!)
Once you have your 3-member team set up, please inform your tutor,
with the list of your team members and a contact personUs email
address. If you have a single partner, please report to the tutor the
composition of your partial team. If you don't have a team, please report
this as well.
Managing a team. Arrange right from the beginning of your
collaboration to have regular meetings with your partners. If you decide
to drop the course, please notify your partners and the tutor/instructor.
There are three major tasks involved in doing the assignments:
Meeting the instructor. It is expected that each team will meet with the instructor at least once. Arrange for a meeting by sending email to jm@cs.utoronto.ca. It is preferrable to have your meeting early on, to report where you are with your current assignment and how you have organized your team.
Handling collaboration problems. If you have problems (because one team member is not showing up or is not carrying his/her weight) report these to the instructor or your tutor immediately. We'll try to either help the team get back together, or make alternative arrangements.
Doing assignments. Assignments 2 & 3 depend on earlier work. This means that if you do badly on assignment 1, this could affect your performance with subsequent assignments. To avoid problems, try to keep up a steady pace of work and quality control for your assignments.
Self-evaluation of team members contributions. Each assignment needs to include a report of relative contributions for each team member. This report should be signed by all members. In the simplest case, this report will say that all members contributed equally. In some cases, the report will assign a different distribution, e.g., team member 1 contributed 40%, team member 2 contributed 35%, team member 3 contributed 15%. In a few cases, team members don't agree on relative contributions and the instructor will have to make a decision on the matter.
Plan for an equal contribution by each team member. Alternatives are messy, unrewarding and time-consuming for everyone!
Questions? Talk to your tutor or the instructor.
Last updated in January 2004.