Automating The Process Of Assigning Students To Cooperative Learning Teams

Abstract

Assigning students to teams can be a time-consuming process, especially for cooperative learning teams. This paper describes the initial development and testing of a web-based system to assign students to teams using instructor-defined criteria, including criteria consistent with the cooperative learning literature. First, the instructor decides which attributes of students to measure in assigning teams. Next, students complete confidential surveys to determine their attributes. Finally, the instructor assigns a weighting factor to each attribute and the system assigns students to teams. The purpose of the system is to shorten the time to assign teams and to improve the likelihood that teams will satisfy an instructor's criteria for team formation.