Assessing Teamwork Skills for Assurance of Learning Using CATME Team Tools

Colleges of business must meet requirements for Assurance of Learning (AOL) to gain or maintain AACSB accreditation. Team skills are among the most important skills desired by recruiters of business graduates, yet many recruiters and scholars perceive that team skills are a common deficiency in graduates. This paper describes how a set of free web-based tools available at www.CATME.org can allow colleges to collect data to determine whether their students are developing good team skills and demonstrate achievement for accreditation review purposes for learning goals related to team skills. The tools were developed to support teamwork in college classes. They allow instructors to easily collect, interpret, and share data about students and teams. We show how colleges that use the CATME system in all courses requiring teamwork could analyze the data to demonstrate that their programs develop students’ team skills. The appendix provides thirteen examples of learning goals that a college could use and shows a method to demonstrate achievement of each goal, along with a sample measurable program target. These examples relate to working with teammates of diverse backgrounds, contributing effectively to teams, displaying good interpersonal skills, being able to evaluate teamwork, recognizing team process outcomes and others.