Frequently Asked Questions

• How do I update a student’s name in Tandem?
• How do students who join the Course late complete the Beginning of Term Survey?
• Why didn’t team formation work?
• What should I include about Tandem on my syllabus?
• How do I extend an assignment deadline?

How do I update a student’s name in Tandem?

Tandem imports student names from Canvas, but the system also allows students to set a preferred name during the Beginning of Term (BoT) survey. While the preferred name is used for personalization in Tandem, the account name may not update automatically. This article shows you how to set a preferred name or account name.

• Verify Preferred Name in Beginning of Term Survey The student likely entered their preferred name during the Beginning of term survey. This ensures that their name appears correctly in team-related interactions but does not automatically change their account name. Instructor can also check students’ preferred name by downloading the BoT.

• Manually Update the Student’s Name in Tandem If the account name does not match the preferred name, instructors or administrators can update it manually:

  1. Navigate to Menu > Students > Individual Students
  2. Locate the student’s account
  3. Click the pencil icon next to their name
  4. Edit and save the preferred name (e.g., change “Alessondra” to “Alex”)

How do students who join the Course late complete the Beginning of Term Survey?

Late-add students have not completed the Beginning of Term (BoT) survey, but their teams are already working on the Meet Your Team lesson. Changing the due date manually caused issues with Teams Visible and Meet Your Team timing.

Solution Since the teams have already completed or open the BoT, you cannot extend its deadline directly. However, late-add students can still complete the survey by accessing it through a direct link.

1. Navigate to Menu > Content > Surveys.
2. Click on the BoT survey.
3. Copy the direct survey link.
4. Share the link with the late-add students so they can complete it.
5. This method allows students to submit their responses without affecting team formation or assignment timing.

Why didn’t team formation work?

When it comes to failure to run team formation, there could be a couple factors that cause the issues. Below are some potential reasons. You can check it to run team formation again or contact the tandem support team for help if team formation is still not working.

Reasons If you have a section with zero students, team formation will fail.

Miss section type If you manually upload students and assign them to a section manually, no section type is associated with the section. Solution: Contact tandem-support@umich.edu to associate the section type.

What should I include about Tandem on my syllabus?

Including Tandem in your course syllabus ensures that students engage in activities designed to enhance teamwork skills and improve overall team performance.

By regularly checking in on team dynamics and completing personalized lessons, students can develop effective collaboration strategies and address issues proactively.

Tandem Overview: Tandem supports students and instructors with teamwork. For this course, you’ll complete surveys and lessons on Tandem to support you and your teammates.

Logging In: Go to tandem.engin.umich.edu and log in with your U-M uniqname.

Main Components of Tandem:

• Team Checks:
  • Description: Six-question surveys providing a snapshot of team dynamics.
  • Purpose: To give insights into how things are going within your team.
  • Benefit: After completing a team check, you can view the average team score for each item on your Tandem overview.
• Lessons:
  • Description: Personalized lessons designed to build teamwork skills.
  • Duration: Each lesson takes about 10 minutes to complete.
  • Benefit: Helps you and your team develop essential skills for effective collaboration.
• Surveys:
  • Description: Surveys conducted at the beginning, middle, and end of the term.
  • Components:
    • Beginning of Term Survey: Provides instructors with information to help form teams and personalize lessons.
    • Midterm Survey: Allows you to evaluate yourself and your peers on teamwork and course-specific tasks. Results are available on the Midterm reflection that follows the survey.
    • End of Term Survey: Similar to the Midterm survey, offering a final assessment of teamwork.

How do I extend an assignment deadline?

Instructors often need to extend an assignment due date. Tandem is set up to allow you to do that. Extending deadlines can cause troublesome overlaps with future Tandem assignments. Be sure to check future assignment release dates before you extend a deadline. One note: deadlines can’t be adjusted once students have access to the lesson.

To extend a deadline:

• Log in to Tandem.
• Click on your course.
• On your Tandem Overview you will have an “Assignment Extension” section.
• Find the assignment you want to extend and click on the extend iconunder Actions.
• This will take you to the Extend Due Date page.
• Enter the number of days you want to extend the deadline and click “Save.”