A Multilevel Approach to Project Team-Based Learning: Effect of Charter Use on Engineering Students' Project Team Performance

Exposure to teamwork and collaborative projects in engineering education is crucial for preparing students for engineering jobs. Several universities are adopting project team-based learning (PBL) to deliver work-ready graduates required in technically complex interorganizational project environments. However, the use and levels of adoption of project management techniques and tools (e.g., charters) and the multilevel nature of team science for engineering education and workforce development are not well-investigated in the literature. This study investigates whether the level of perceived compliance with using a project charter at individual and team levels throughout project delivery enhances team performance (i.e., group potency, team viability, and team cohesion) in engineering education settings, such as classroom and cocurricular projects. We examined relationships using multilevel modeling (MLM), which means examining teams at both team member (individuals) and team levels (groups). We utilized qualitative insights to guide model specification and interpretation. The findings revealed that systematic use of project charters, assessed through perceived compliance, was linked to significant improvements in group potency, team viability, and team cohesion. Compliance effects were observed at both levels, with generally comparable contributions to group potency, team viability, and team cohesion. Furthermore, the link between member compliance and performance tended to be weaker in teams with high performance. Our MLM analyses also revealed that classroom teams scored lower at baseline on group potency, team viability, and team cohesion compared with cocurricular project teams. Future studies should delve deeper into these differences by examining factors such as work environment, modality of education (e.g., classroom versus cocurricular, or for pay versus for a grade or experience), team composition (e.g., level of education, experience, and skill heterogeneity), project nature, and prior relationships among team members.