ULTSEC Innovation Fund
Ruth Valentine
School of Dental Sciences
Simon Cotterill
Learning and Teaching Support Unit,
Faculty of Medical Sciences
ULSEC Innovation
Fund
Overview of project
What we did
Who helped
Impact
Ensuring fairness in group work
assessment
Background
– Stage 1: Poster group exercise
• Work as a group, produce a poster, group mark,
statement of contribution, peer assess
• Ensure fairness in the mark
• Facilitate working in a team – and signpost why this
is important (GDC guidance)
• Use of ‘Identity’ in Stage 1
Priority Theme: Assessment and feedback
Overview of project idea
• To develop and pilot an on-line facility for groups to record meetings
and discussions, building on an e-Portfolio platform (Vernazza et al.,
2011).
– to record team meetings in real time
– allow easier monitoring of individual contributions
– promote reflective peer review by individuals in the group
• Promote engagement with students at a later stage in the degree
programme, through use of ‘team peer mentors’
– provide feedback throughout the planning stages - feed forward
mechanism in the overall team work process
• Introduce the use of Web peer assessment (WebPA; formatively), a
peer assessment tool for allocating peer group marks for team
working, to allow moderation of the group mark.
What we did…..
• Costed in to have two student interns (half money from ULTSEC, half from
careers service)
• Interviewed and appointed two stage 3 students (Nicola Gallagher and
Daniel Mall)
• They initially carried out a series of focus groups with Stage 2 students
(students who carried out the traditional poster exercise)
• 44 (56%) Stage 2 students attended
– Feedback of last years poster exercise
– Feedback on ‘use’ of identity
– Feedforward on the new facility
• We also recruited several stage 3 students (unpaid) to act as peer mentors
• Introduced WebPA (formatively) to allow peer assessment
Last year’s feedback
Some people in the
groups share work last
minute – the group then
had to work together to
improve it.
All grades were lowered if one person
didn’t contribute as much – not fair
Peer marking is good – definitely before
hand in. Needs to be done separately to
be truthful. Each person could make a
statement of contribution
some people need to take it more seriously
by the end you forget what everyone does
Feedback on ‘use’ of identity
I have used /heard
of it –
Yes, for tutor
meetings, not useful
Only used for
[reporting] illness
Used to view any negative [feedback]
comments
Easy enough to use, not needed in first
two years though. Easy to report illness.
App would be easier
We then showed them ‘Mock up’
Mock up
Mock up
Feedback on the new facility
Looks good, good idea, attendance record is great
All in one place – avoids email, facebook
File section – good idea for a message
board too!
Make it compulsory
Make it available to the marker
Space for personal reflection!!
Could have a flag up system if someone
doesn’t attend more than say 3 sessions
without reason. Then only if there is a
problem allow access to tutors.
Second focus groups
• Stage 1 students, n = 55 (60%):
• The e-portfolio facility had been engaged with by all students in all
poster groups
• Students in general liked the ‘up-load’ facility and the area for
sharing information.
• They really appreciated the help from their peer mentors although
some peer mentors had engaged more than others
• Interestingly, when posed with WebPA marks contributing 10-20% of
the overall individual grade, students wanted this mark to be
incorporated summatively and would prefer a larger proportion
weighted.
Conclusions
• Benefits
• The e-portfolio will continue to be developed based upon student
feedback and we will introduce a summative proportion of 20%
based upon the peer evaluation.
• Encouraged use of ePortfolio by Dental students in Stage 1, prior to
intense use in Stages 3-5 for clinical recording and reflection.
• Software enhancements for group-work were incorporated into the
University-wide portfolio for wider benefit.
• Draw Backs
• Adding everyone onto a community was time consuming
• Engaging peer mentors
• Some peer mentors more active than others – how to manage this in
future: training, to ensure a consistent approach
Impact
• Three Rivers Conference
• Submission to EJDE
Advice ???
• Only got a small amount of funding and short time frame – so don’t
be too ambitious
• Use students – really helpful – getting funding, really engaged, good
to get students motivated