A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

290 ❘
Teaching in the disciplines
include the accurate assessment of group work products, the evaluation of
individuals’ contributions within the group which is usually not equal and thus
should be reflected in the assessment marks, and finally controlling the project
so that a good learning environment can be made available to all students.
Solutions to three of the main issues that are adopted within the Durham system
are now described.
Assessment
Assessment of group work projects is often made difficult by the freedom placed
upon the group. In order to maximise the learning potential it is beneficial to
minimise the control placed upon the group. The outcome of this is that frequently
groups produce very varied products. Thus the assessment of such a varied field
is difficult. Furthermore, since within Durham the assessment is conducted by the
customer, who sets the requirements, there is also a need to ensure that the
approaches and criteria for the marking process are consistently applied across
each of the groups. Clearly what is required are detailed marking criteria that are
relevant for all group work. This is aided in Durham by the setting of a basic
specification upon which each customer sets each of the requirements. Since no
individual supervisor has the power to modify the basic specification, a common
set of marking criteria or tests may then be applied at some levels to all of the
group’s final systems.
Evaluating individual contributions
There are a number of strategies possible for arriving at an individual mark for
the assessment of group work. Some institutions give all students within a group
an equal grade for their group work activities. Within Durham individual
contributions are assessed, which ultimately results in a specific mark being
attributed to an individual student. The approach adopted involves a process of
tutor, peer and self-assessment of the contribution that each member has made
to specific phases of the group work project. Based on individuals’ contribution,
the group mark is modified for individual members but not changed. Thus for a
group of three (students: A, B, C) with a group mark of 60 per cent, individuals
within the group may receive marks based on their contributions of A55, B60
and C65 per cent. From research conducted at Durham the best approach
identified to establish such a mark is to ask the students and staff to rank students’
contributions where the ranking position is significantly greater than the number
of a group. Thus if a potential ranking set of 15 slots (slot_1 showing the highest
potential contribution, slot_15 the lowest) is available, in the above example the
slots may be used: Aslot_12, Bslot_7, Cslot_3. In this way the relative
positioning of the students is demonstrated, along with the potential to show the
significance of the differences between students.