College · College Success

One owner per task.
No surprises the night before.

Most group projects go wrong in the same three ways: a task nobody owns, a deadline with no buffer and no plan for when someone falls behind. List the team and what each person owns, break the work into dated tasks and agree on the rules early. The organizer shows what is late, what has no owner and who has nothing yet.

Start a projectWhat you get
$5one-time · every device you sign in on
Buy · $5

Included with the Caveat Academy pass and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the College application season kit, $29 for 16 items.

Projects

The worked example is made up: a four-person survey study due in 13 days with one late task and one without an owner, and a finished podcast project. Records save on this device only; teammates appear by initials.

Loading the project form. If nothing appears, turn on JavaScript.

What you get

College · College Success$5

What you finish with
A record per project with the course, project and due date; the team by initials with role and the part each owns; tasks with owner, due date and status; a seven-point team agreement; meeting notes; tasks done and late; flags for late tasks, tasks with no owner, teammates with no task, a close due date with most tasks open and parts of the agreement not settled.
Who it is for
College students working in teams, and instructors who want to hand teams a structure on day one.
Format
Browser organizer with a saved record per project. Prints the project with its task list, every project as a table or a blank form for the first meeting; downloads a spreadsheet (.csv); exports and imports a file to share with the team.
Access
$5 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with the Caveat Academy pass and Whole-school licenses. Also in the College application season kit ($29) and the Caveat Suite pass ($299). Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The College Success space in Caveat College.
Support
Questions about access, an order or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. In the first meeting, fill in the team and the agreement together.
  2. Break the project into tasks small enough to finish in a few days.
  3. Give every task one owner and a date two days early.
  4. Update the status at each meeting.
  5. Export the file after each meeting and share it in the team’s folder.

Start a project

Why teams stall

Where group projects usually stallNo ownerA task everyone agreed on and nobody tookOne name on every taskNo bufferThe real deadline is the first deadlineYour own date two days earlierNo plan for a missSilence, then a scramble the night beforeAgree what happens before it doesWhere group projects usually stallNo ownerA task everyone agreed on and nobody took→ One name on every taskNo bufferThe real deadline is the first deadline→ Your own date two days earlierNo plan for a missSilence, then a scramble the night before→ Agree what happens before it does
A team agreement written in the first week settles most of the arguments that come up in the last one.

Share the file, keep the privacy

Everything stays in this browser. To share, export the file and put it in the team’s folder; a teammate imports it on their own device. Use initials for teammates so printouts and files that travel do not carry full names.

When someone stops showing up

Raise it early, in the team’s own channel, with the task and the date it was due. If it keeps happening, tell the instructor with the record of tasks and dates, before the project is due rather than after it is graded.

Sources

  1. Oakley, B., Felder, R. M., Brent, R., and Elhajj, I. (2004). Turning student groups into effective teams. Journal of Student Centered Learning, 2(1).
  2. Carnegie Mellon University, Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence. Using group projects effectively (cmu.edu/teaching).
  3. Hansen, R. S. (2006). Benefits and problems with student teams: Suggestions for improving team projects. Journal of Education for Business, 82(1).
  4. Tuckman, B. W. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63(6).

The worked example is made up. Follow your instructor’s rules for group work and for what each person must do themselves. Nothing you type is sent to Caveat. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.