Tandem Setup: How to Complete Course Details

What We Ask In Course Details

Part 1: Course Details

What is the abbreviation for your course?

• Enter the common shorthand for your course. For example, ENG101 or MATH200.

What is the name of your project?

(Note: use a singular project name, not plural, to make the tailored grammar work)

• We use this to automatically fill in sentences like “How much each member of your team contributed to tasks for your [PROJECT]?"

Is this course for credit?

• Yes or No

  • If "Yes", Tandem will have a grade reference and give the instructor the ability to sync students' credits to Canvas.

  • If "No", Tandem will remove all references to grades.

Section Type?

(Note: this is used for forming team by sections)

• Lecture

• Discussion

• Lab / Workshop / Studio

• Recitation

Which term are you setting up?

• Semester

  • If the course is one year long, select Fall-Winter.

Part 2: Project Details

What is your course's area of study?

• Choose the general discipline for your course. Examples include Math, English, Biology, and Engineering. If you don't have an area of study for your course please choose “College"

Will teams work on their project together outside of class?

• Yes or No

  • If "No", Tandem will remove references to work outside of class.

Do teams do a presentation as part of your course?

• Yes or No

  • If "No", Tandem will disable the preference for presentation lesson. Here is an example of a presentation lesson. 

Tandem includes a lesson about dividing up tasks on the team. Which version of this lesson would you like Tandem to use? 

• Task Distribution: Choose tasks that match your strengths for a performance version of the lessons.

• Task Distribution: Choose tasks that help you gain new skills for a learning version of the lessons.

Part 3: Past Skills

Tandem content is tailored to past experience. The data will be used for team formation. We will provide support to students with less experience while encouraging students with more experience to share work equitably. For the question below, think about which past skills are relevant to your course.

Past skills: For which skills would you like students to rate their past experience? Note: No need to ask about teamwork skills. Tandem will ask about those separately. (Limit of 10 skills)

Some examples from past Tandem courses:

• Project management

• Making presentations

• Stakeholder communication

• Programming experience

Part 4: Project Tasks

How to Choose Tasks

What do you expect students to do on their teams?

This step is often the hardest for instructors. Think about the main team activities for your project(s). These are likely your tasks. We will ask students to evaluate themselves and their team members on how they complete these tasks.

*Tandem already asks about teamwork.

Recommendations

• Choose 4–5 tasks. Students will evaluate their team members and themselves on every task they choose. Keep this list tight and short so the peer evaluation doesn't get too long. You can choose a maximum of 8 tasks.

• Avoid general teamwork tasks. Tandem asks a lot of questions about team dynamics and participation automatically. See what we ask in the Team Evaluations so you don't repeat tasks.

• Repeat the same tasks for the midterm and end-of-term evaluations. Most instructors use the same tasks at both assessment points. You can vary between the two if you'd like, but most don't.

• Refer to Learning Objectives in your syllabus for inspiration. If you are feeling unsure about what to choose, look at your syllabus learning objectives. Think about what students will have to do in their teams in order to achieve those objectives.

Task Examples

Business Course:

• Organizing the team and keeping us on track

• Asking productive questions 

Engineering Course:

• Computer programming

• Computer hardware/electrical engineering

Biology Course:

• Analyzing data

• Creating presentation materials

Part 5: Custom Questions

Tandem allows instructors to create custom questions, offering both single-response and multiple-response options.​​​​​​​ Most courses use the Beginning of Term Survey data to make teams. Sometimes, a course may need to add a question or two. Instructors tend to add items like project preference or demographics.

• You may add up to 5 questions to the Beginning of Term Survey by creating custom questions below.
• Please review the Beginning of Term Survey prior to adding questions. Repeating questions increases student survey burden and leads to inconsistent data.
• The data will be used for team formation.

Part 6: Review

In the final step, we ask you to review and submit your answers. Once you submit your Course Details, we will create your Tandem term and send you a link to create your Term Planner. The Term Planner is where you schedule your Tandem Team Checks, Lessons, and Team Evaluations for this term.