STUDENTS PERCEPTION OF RISK: TEAM MEMBERS CONTRIBUTION WITHIN COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS

Abstract

Collaboration is an important aspect of design, supporting ideation and the ability to tackle greater challenges. Teamwork supports the delivery of project goals across academic and professional fields. It has long been suggested that risk plays a defining factor in collaboration. Through analysis of the literature, few papers reported on the perception that students share risk when they collaborate in teams. This research project aimed to investigate if examples of shared risk can be identified in an educational environment? and how might these risks be perceived by students involved in collaborative projects? To fill this knowledge gap, a survey was conducted to collect the opinions of 44 students within the Department of Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management, University of Strathclyde. This will build an understanding of the design student experience and identify if these students acknowledge they share risk when collaborating within a team. The cohort of students identified that risk is a defining factor among collaborative design within an educational setting. Students identify that teamwork is essential to provide a real-world comparable experience to industry, yet, has an impact on their educational experience and achievement. Recommendations are made to limit the impact of risk on student collaborative projects within an educational environment. The reduction of risk has the potential to improve teamwork aspects including fairer workload distribution.