The purpose of this post is to discuss the contract, regarding peer collaboration, constructed by the professor and students of the CSC486 class. If I could sum up the contract we came up with in my own words I'd say it boiled down to 6 obligations:
1. Effective communication
2. Quality contribution
3. Organized documentation
4. Organized workflow
5. Supportive teamwork
6. Clear goals
As discussed in class, the theme of these obligations is finding the right balance between experience and product. Personally, think the emphasis in this class should be on the product, and as such I think there should be more weight on obligations 2, 3, 4 and 6. Communication and teamwork are important, but in a class of upperclassmen I think a deficiency in these areas is more easily spotted and righted than a deficiency in product. If a student has a complaint about let's say, someone in his/her team contributing too much or too little, he/she is capable of resolving the problem right then and there and should do so as he/she would in the workplace. In the case of project output, however, spotting deficiency is deceptive. How does a team know which aspects of the project need more attention? Do they know what their end product looks like and are they on the right path to achieve it? I think these questions are trickier than how to resolve teamwork issues, and more grading emphasis should be given to them and questions like them.
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