Managing & Assessing
Student Group / Team Work
Dr Kate Exley
2010

Outline Programme
 Introductions, background and context
 Benefits and difficulties
 Key skills developed
 Managing and organising groups
 Issues of Assessment
 The assessment focus
 Assessment strategies
 Problems and workable solutions

A shared view (p3)
“Group work, under proper conditions, encourages peer learning and peer support and many studies validate the efficacy of peer learning…..
Under less than ideal conditions, group work can become the vehicle for acrimony, conflict and freeloading.”
University of Wollongong Assessment Policy (2002)

Three good reasons (p5)
1.Peer learning can improve quality of student learning
2. Can develop specific skills for employment
3. May reduce assessment work
Australian Universities Teaching Committee

Benefits in your discipline? (p4)
 Which skills developed?
 What benefits?
 What possibilities?
 What impact on staff?

Worries and problems (p6)
What are your main concerns about student group work and its assessment?

Common Difficulties (p7)
 Lack of relevance
 Unclear objectives
 Inequality of contribution
 Overuse
 Different learning styles
 Badly managed
 Skills not really developed
 Lack of progression

Considering difference
 Disability issues
 Mixed ability
 Cultural differences
 Mature students
 Personalities
 Learning styles
 etc

Guidance on ‘group working’
(p8)
 What issues would you include in ‘group working’ guidance for your students
 Remember cultural differences and expectations.

… and what is your role?
 Instructor / leader
 Facilitator /guide
 Observer / commentator
 Drop-in monitor
 Counsellor / mediator
 Assessor / Giver of feedback

Managing Groups
Four Key issues
1. Putting groups together
2. Establishing Team roles & responsibilities
3. Time-tabled group meetings
(recorded)
4. Clear processes & procedures

1. Putting groups together (p9)
 How to build groups?
a.
Friendship / self selection groupings b.
Teacher assigned groups
(Socially engineered, streamed, etc)
 What size of group?
a.
Is ideal?
b.
Is necessary or practical?

2. Group roles
Traditional roles
(chair, secretary, etc)
Task or Topic roles
(‘I will find out about A, you find out about B)
Group effectiveness
(What does a ‘good team’ need to function)

2. Group roles
Belbin and Belbin (p11)
 Coordinator
 Shaper
 Plant
 Monitor-Evaluator
 Implementer
 Resource Investigator
 Team Worker
 Completer Finisher (& Specialist)

3. Group meetings
 Time-tabled
 Provision of space
 Guidance on running meetings
 Process for running meetings
Agendas and Minutes
Suggested framework & timings

4. Processes & Procedures
Need to be able to explain to students……..
 Why they are working in groups and not individually?
 How the group work will help them to attain the learning outcomes of their courses?
 How their contribution will be assessed (fairly)?

4. Monitoring Processes
 How will you know if the student groups are functioning?
 What will you do if they aren’t?

Purposes of Assessment
 Measuring individual competence
 Measuring learning from the group collaboration
 Measuring group productivity
 Measuring students’ abilities to collaborate with others as a team
Webb,N.M. (1997)

 Product or Process or Both?
 What Assessment criteria
(& who determines them)?
 Who assesses?
 How will marks be distributed?

The assessment variables
Assessment Focus
Product Process
Who
Tutor
1.Product
Tutor
2. Process
Tutor
Students
Product
Students
Process
Students

What Criteria (p15)
 What criteria are important in assessing things that the group Produces,
 (e.g. reports, posters, websites)?
 What criteria are important in assessing group Processes
 (e.g. how they work together and the skills they develop) ?

Task ….
Assessing group products
Lets start by thinking about assessing group products because its easier!
a. What can groups produce together?
b. Who can actually assess the product(s)?

Focus on Product(s) -
Pros and Cons Table Exercise
Some approaches :-
 Shared group mark
 Group average mark
 Individual mark - allocated task
 Individual mark - individual report
 Individual mark - examination
 Combination of group average & individual mark

Involving students in distributing the grade (p19)
 Students distribute mark awarded by the tutor
(within a given range) (4X80 =320 marks)

Involving students in distributing the grade
 Students distribute ‘product’ mark (e.g. 80) awarded by the tutor (within a given range?)
(4X80 =240 marks)
 Students allocate individual weightings
0 (zero contribution) to 1 (Full contribution)
Or - 5 (less than) to 0 (average) to + 5 (more than)

Involving students in distributing the grade
 Students distribute marks awarded by the tutor
(within a given range) (4X80 =240 marks)
 Students allocate individual weightings
0 (zero contribution) to 1 (Full contribution)
Or -5 (less than) to 0 (average) to +5 (more than)
 Anonymous peer marking sheets that the tutor uses to weight individual students’ marks

Involving students
 Students distribute marks awarded by the tutor (within a given range) (4X80 =240 marks)
 Students allocate individual weightings
0 (zero contribution) to 1 (Full contribution)
Or -5 (less than) to 0 (average) to +5 (more than)
 Peer marking sheets that the tutor uses to weight individual students’ marks
But what are the students really assessing here?

Focus on Process -
Criteria?
 Attendance at meetings
 Equity of contribution & division of labour
 Co-operation
 Time and task management
 Problem solving
 Development of professional skills
 Listening
 Responding to feedback etc etc etc

How can students evidence
… Process …
Reports
Testimonials
Interviews
Journals & diaries
Meeting agendas & minutes
Observations
Reflective pieces
Achievement of set tasks

Application – Scenario (p20)
 Please present the outline of your approach on a poster
 Choose a group spokesperson to report back

Some useful follow-up resources
Johnson, D. W. and Johnson, R. T. (2004)
Assessing students in groups : promoting group responsibility and individual accountability
A set of links to case studies and reports on assessing groups from Essex University http://www.essex.ac.uk/assessment/group_assessment.h
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