Group Project Assessment
Dr Tony Young
Centre for Research in Linguistics and Language
Sciences,
Newcastle University
Overview
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The programmes and our students
Module assessment – essays and
group research projects and
presentations
Project details
Assessment criteria
Challenges, refinements
Discussion
The Programmes
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6 Progs in MA Cross Cultural
Communication (CCC) +
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International Management
International Marketing
Media Studies
International Relations
Applied Linguistics
International Education
Programme structure
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180 credits
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60 for research portfolio
60 for specialism (IR, IMan…)
60 for language and communication
modules…
Language and CCC + 2 more from
choice of 5 including Professional
Communication Skills (PCS) and Social
Psychology of Communication (SPC)
The students
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Majority MACCC+, also PhDs,
IPhDs, MAALT, MA Media
On MACCC, 5- 60 (54 this year), 19
nationalities, UK, EU, worldwide
On PCS, SPC, around 40 students
Assessment on PCS and SPC
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60% individual essay
40% group research projects and
presentations (today)
Aims and Outcomes of Programmes
and Modules
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Global – ‘acquire skills directly relevant to
careers’, ‘promote opportunities to meet
and share ideas with colleagues from
different sociocultural, educational and
professional backgrounds’, ‘to stimulate
people to work collaboratively’…
Specific flagged intended learning
outcomes– teamwork, interpersonal skills,
problem solving, team and individual
work..
2003- little of the MACCC+ assessment
lead naturally to many of the collaborative
outcomes (mostly essays and exams)…
The projects
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See ‘Assignment 1’ doc for outline,
procedure…
See ‘Peer Assessment’ doc for
responsibilities, team working pointers…
Topics include ‘Communication in the
workplace’, ‘Male and female
communication’, ‘intercultural education…’
(thematic, linked to module content as a
whole…)
Procedure
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First supervised ‘meet’ in class, time
allowed at end thereafter, and a
reading week beforehand to allow
meetings. Also ‘Blackboard’
chatgroups, email...
Typically 4 weeks to prepare
Project Assessment
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See ‘Marksheet’
Pitfalls, Challenges, Refinements..
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Workload – need to be very specific about task,
grading, need to use models (?), workload cf
other assignment (25% in 2004, now 40%)
Best to assign groups, topics.
Need to ‘police’ (but ‘self-policing’ has seemed ok
since 2005)
Need to have a fall back position for some
(illness, other problems can revert to 100% for
final essay…)
Need to give ‘worth’ to the presentations – some
essay topics can relate to content of student
presentations, put them on ‘Blackboard’ with
comments
Feedback
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From anonymous student
appraisals, external examiners,
ISR..
Very good – hits the ‘missing’ ILOs,
‘water-tight’ grading criteria, rubric
Your questions
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Thank you for listening.
Contact tony.young@ncl.ac.uk