Student Group Projects - A Case Study

Abstract

Students on the BTEC Higher National Diploma course in Computer Studies must complete a project in the second year of their course. Entrants are school leavers as well as mature students. After completing the first year, students have the option of spending either one year in industry prior to embarking on their final year of the course or progressing directly. On average, the department handles over 20 group projects per year where the number of students in each group varies between three to five. A project has a supervisor, an overall coordinator and in most cases an industrial client. Project management forms an integral part of Software Engineering. The authors have selected six projects which range from poor to very good and have studied them in detail. These were chosen with the intention of being fairly representative of the department's group projects. The factors concentrated on in this study are: group interaction, time management, balance of expertise within the team, personal commitment, communication skills and pressure from other study. The authors have also made observations about the effects of different types of students on the group process. Apart from general documentation for projects, data was drawn from questionnaires as well as interviews with groups, supervisors and clients. The study reveals some of the successful and problematical features to be found in such projects.