The management and assessment of groupwork

Abstract

Within the School of Health Sciences it had become evident that in many modules students were expected to work together and produce work that would be formally assessed. Each module leader devised their own way to manage and assess that group work activity which meant that there was little, if any consistency. In general the group work presentation would be awarded a grade which was the same for all the students in that group. Sometimes that would not be fair, as it was possible for a student to contribute very little to the group work and yet they would be awarded the same grade as their peers. On several occasions students grumbled about this lack of equity. Being able to work effectively with other people is a key skill and group work offers the opportunity to assess many of the key skills and these also include communication, gathering information, organising both material and time, working independently and also interdependently and problem solving. In order to assess these skills, there is a need to manage and assess the group working processes as well as the final piece of work that the group presents. The purpose of this project therefore was to devise a model of managing and assessing group work and pilot it for levels 1, 2 and 3 over the academic year.