Course Contracts

Discussion

    After carefully reading through the notes from the class discussion about the course contract, I have tried to break it up into some broader categories. From the discussion, I gathered that the class, as a whole, would like to be held accountable for our communication, organization, and contribution. Each of these broad categories have some major points that we would like to pay special attention to.

Communication

• Let your group know (in advance) of any absences, late arrivals, or anything that may hinder group performance
• Tell your group what work you have done regarding the project.
• This one falls into two categories, as it is also important for organization.
• Make sure the entire group knows what the collective and individual goals of the group and group members are.
• Ask for help! Don't let your problems or frustrations go unknown to the rest of the group.

Organization

• Document all of the work you have done.
• If documentation is kept in a public/shared space, that your group members know about, the documentation will be effectively communicated.
• Follow existing structure, and style of the project.
• This applies to both code and documentation

Goals

• Create a positive and supportive community.
• Contribute to the group efforts consistently.
• Contribute to the group efforts equally.
• The idea of contributing equally seemed to be very vague. Should equal mean an equitable contribution from everyone, or a fair contribution. More on this later.
• Focus on experience over the product.
• "Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome" -Arthur Ashe

Concerns/Suggestions Regarding Contract

    My main concern is with the idea of contributing to the group efforts equally. This idea was discussed briefly, but a big question mark seems to still adorn it. Does the thought of contributing equally mean that everyone's work should be scrutinized to see if it is just as good as that of a peer? Or, does it mean that everyone should put forth as much effort as they are possible? This point of the contract needs more discussion before I would feel comfortable including it.

    Another concern that I have with the contract, in it's current state, is that we should focus on the experience over the product. I think that the quote from Arthur Ashe best summarizes this thought; but, it seems that some people take this to the extreme. While reading my classmates posts on this, I have to agree with Austin Farmer about this topic. In his concern over this topic, Austin wrote:

"Progress needs made."

I think that what Austin meant was that we still need to remain diligent on working toward the end product, while also focusing on the experience.