[game_edu] Firing Team Mates

[Robert R. Kessler]

Dealing with slackers on team projects is always a problem.  I've spoken with various communication people and team experts and one thing that they talk about is having each team construct a contract and everyone on the team signs off on.  This makes it very clear of the expectations.

One idea that they brought up was the idea that a team (through whatever mechanism) can fire a student that is slacking off.  It is an interesting idea.  You could imagine that it is then up to the student to get on a different team, sign their contract and then hopefully pick up the pieces.  However, what if they can't get back on a team.  What do you do with them?

Anyone ever tried anything like this or have views on ways to make this work out?  We just finished a semester of classes where students created machinima and had the worst case of slacking off in the six years that I have been teaching the class.  So, I am thinking of doing something drastic next year.

Thanks.
B.