Team C has taken each team member’s disciplines, interests, capabilities, and strengths into account. Team C’s end goal is to create a mobile fitness application, AdaptAbility Fitness, for those with physical disabilities (i.e. paraplegic individuals). To do so, the group decided to split up the responsibilities of the work amongst the team.
Team C is made up of various majors and backgrounds, all contributing to the project in different ways. The team strategically picked and assigned each individual to tasks based on the team member's discipline and capabilities. Similarly, personal strengths were also taken into account when distributing tasks. The first major stage of starting this project was the research stage. This included gathering information and participants in the form of a survey. Subsequently, the team decided to have lead researchers. The group turned to an old C4 document that listed every team member’s strengths and discovered that Emily, Foram, Sonika and Tharanya were all listed as detail oriented and organized. Thus, the group decided that these were ideal traits for having the role of a lead researcher, as lead researchers are the ones to find reputable research articles and take down thorough notes. Moreover, Tharanya also has an exceptional eye for detail. Over the semester, she was assigned to review all projects and final submissions to find errors and areas that could be edited and improved to meet the requirements of a “successful” project. This role has proven extremely important as it has ensured that the team was always presenting the highest quality work.
Additionally, Justina, who is a great networker and organizer, was assigned to be the research coordinator. This role includes communicating and reaching out to possible participants during the research phase. She also has connections with a physiotherapy clinic and has some knowledge of her own from her dance background, which is beneficial to the health and fitness aspect of the project.
Gbemi is a computer science major and has a lot of experience in coding. Therefore, the team has assigned her as the main individual to do the programming and technological aspect of making the fitness application. Additionally, Audrey is an economics major with one of her strengths being a UX/UI designer. As a result, the team has assigned her to be the designer of the application. Audrey and Gbemi have been very successful in collaborating closely to create the framework for the application in terms of coding and design. They have been rigorously working, and will continue to work, on creating the AdaptAbility Fitness platform.
Foram and Emily are both kinesiology majors. Their knowledge of the human body can greatly contribute to the fitness and health aspect of the app. They are essential members of the research team and have been conducting research by reviewing journals that have explored exercise in the disabled community. Based on their expertise as kinesiology majors, they are working towards selecting a variety of exercises and will consult with a physical therapist to provide the best program for the users.
Sonika and Tharanya were able to spearhead the creation of the ethics plan due to their experience in conducting research. All members of the team were able to assist with various tasks associated with the ethics process, such as making recruitment posters and finding mental health resources. Once the team received the final approval from the ethics board, the team began distributing the surveys. Team C will take and analyze the data to help create an appropriate user interface and suitable exercise programming for the target group.
While the team had a plan in the beginning for who would be taking on which roles, this seemed to evolve over the course of the semester based on the actual needs of the project. For example, Justina was set as the main networker. The team realized that this role was not needed in the beginning and was not the team’s main priority and thus Justina shifted her role to join the research team in creating survey questions. She used her creativity to focus on creating presentations that would be beneficial for the team in both class presentations as well as presentations. However, as the project moved on to the stage of receiving ethics approval, Justina has shifted back to her networker role. She has been assigned the task of finding, consulting, and setting up meeting dates with physiotherapists.
Similarly, although Gbemi and Audrey were assigned to work on the technological side of the application, they have been helping out where needed (i.e. research, ethics, funding). This was especially exemplified at the beginning of the project. As shown, everyone had a distinct role to play in the process of our project.
Finally, each member has shown interests in different parts of the project and has contributed and helped out where possible. While each member has an area of expertise and takes the lead on certain tasks, there are multiple group members who work together on each task. Not only does this allow for an excellent collaboration of ideas but it allows all team members to have the opportunity to participate in new endeavors and learn about different roles so that they can further their knowledge and become an asset in a variety of areas pertaining to the project. Team C hopes to use every individual’s strengths and capabilities to create the best possible inclusive fitness application for paralegic individuals.