Resolving Reality and Academe: Putting the Individual Back into the Team Project

Team projects are commonly used for assignments in advertising coursework, since they parallel the team effort which ad professionals experience as a customary part of their work experience. However, while offering many benefits, this teaching format often means reduced visibility and/or responsibility for the individual. In creating this agency pseudo-reality, an essential element of reality is usually omitted, that is that the egos of account team members in a real advertising agency often vie, and the work load is not always shared equitably. Also, in the reality of the academic world, team assignments, although they add variety, realism, and opportunities for more focused instruction, conflict with the responsibility of instructors to evaluate the student in terms of his or her own unique contribution. Self-promotion requires each student to assume responsibility for making the instructor aware of his or her individual efforts on team projects--just as success in the real agency world requires the team member to self-promote to a significant other. Students are given an outline of the concept, an assigned reading list and proposal for self-application. Each student has an individual consultation with the instructor, followed by team, instructor and personal evaluation at the end of the term. Self-promotion contributes to an overall educational goal of pushing students to develop their potential. (Three exhibits outlining self-promotive techniques and references are attached.) (RAE)