Student Study Group and Design Team Formation Based on Academic Performance Metrics

Abstract

Having engineering students work in teams is a challenge for instructors in many courses. Students often self-select members, resulting in unbalanced teams. A performance-based team formation method was implemented in two mechanical engineering courses. Performance on the first exam is used as a surrogate for talent. Students with the highest first exam scores are assigned as group leaders with the rest of the students distributed to balance the teams. Using the first exam grade made group formation relatively easy. Results and feedback from students were surprisingly positive with three-quarters of students preferring the performance balanced team formation method.