Hi,

I'm teaching my first ever class starting on the 27th, and I'm planning on using the TBL method. I will be teaching an intermediate Web Development class. I apologize in advance for this being so long :)

I was just presented with a hugely amazing and unique opportunity for my class for a class project. In short, There is a non-proft company looking to develop a web application for people going through the unfortunate circumstance of a foreclosure. Real. Work. Experience. With a shippable product by the end!

I was hoping to utilize some competition. I plan for phase 1 to be each team creates an interface design for the project. The winning team's design will be the basis for phase 2 which is to develop a prototype. Phase 3 is the final product, which is based off the winning team's prototype. So each phase is always the "same problem."

I was originally thinking to apply the same "winning team" technique from the first two phases of development toward the third (and final) phase, but feel that the other teams will feel left out and not have the sense of accomplishment/ownership I mean for them to leave my class with if only one team's final code is released to the public.

What I'm struggling with though, is how do I frame this so that all of the students will have their "hands in the pie" so to speak when it comes to the final "shipped" product that is released after this semester?

A quick thought I had was to not use competition at all, and have them all develop their own project all the way through each phase, and release all 4 final projects as their own entity, but then the company chooses which one it will use. While this doesn't fit in with the "one" final shippable product, even if a team's project isn't the chosen "winner" in the end, they will still have worked as a team to create their own unique take on the problem, and since this will be open-source, it can be modified even after the semester is over.

Only problem with this is that while it is the same problem, its bound to diverge from that "sameness" very quickly and the "i'm bored with your project presentation because it's not what I designed" attitude we were warned about during TBL academy may permeate my semester.

Any words of wisdom? 

Thanks!