[game_edu] Group project team formation

[Malcolm Ryan]

A question for other educators:

I am running class which involved a semester-long group game development project. There are about 30 students and I want them to work in groups of 3 or 4. I need a way to assign groups. There are a couple of constraints:

1) Each group needs to have a vision holder
2) Each group needs to have an appropriate set of skills to make their game.
3) Some students come wanting to work together and I would prefer not to break them up unless necessary.
4) Some students are quiet, shy or have language difficulties which mean it is difficult to get them to seek out groups of their own initiative.

In the past I have let the students organise as they see fit. This has mostly worked, but there are always a small number of students at the end of the process who haven’t found a team. Putting these people together in a group has typically been a bad idea, especially if there is no-one with strong design or strong organisations skills in that group.

Has anyone else faced this problem? Have you come up with any clever solutions? 

Malcolm