Description project
Teams that manage to function effectively obtain multiple benefits, such as high productivity, an increase in the quality of results, or increases in levels of motivation and satisfaction. In the context of higher education, effective teams learn more and better. The problem is that teams mostly do not work, and the reasons are many and varied, in which the ability of people to work in teams plays a fundamental role. The negative impact of these problems can be minimized by creating teams of
people with the potential to work well in a team, but this is not easy for teachers who create teams of students. On the one hand, deciding which team formation strategy to use is not trivial, and it is unclear which strategy will offer the best results for your specific case. On the other hand, the team's effectiveness does not have a single way to measure itself, so it is sometimes unclear whether good or bad decisions have been made. This PhD thesis aims to study and analyze the impact that different ways of forming teams have on indicators of effectiveness, such as motivation, satisfaction, and learning results, by applying computer sciences techniques and methods. The resulting insights will assist teachers in forming highly effective teams. In doing so the thesis will improve the quality of education, reducing the fatigue generated by working in dysfunctional teams while improving the rate of teams that manage to be effective, which in turn leads to an improvement in learning outcomes. Collaterally, the results seek to be extensible to other programs, educational levels, and other contexts (army, business, sports, etc.).
Expected outcomes
PhD thesis
involved researchers
Drs. Yeray Barrios Fleitas
Prof. dr. Arend Rensink – Promotor
Dr. Tessa Eysink – Co-promotor
Dr. Marcella Hoogeboom – Daily supervisor
Duration of the project
Until November 2025
Funding & partners
EEMSC PhD project
project website
Not applicable