Assessing contributions to group assignments

1
Assessing contributions to group assignments

• Jenny Graham, Karen Lawlan, Hayley Harvey, Sarah
  Hagan

2
Introduction

• Why use group work?

• Unfair marking?

• Peer marking

3
Aims

• To investigate the use of peer assessment

• Consider whether self assessment should be
  included in peer assessment

4
Method

• Participants 61 undergraduate students
• Group based assignment
• Contribution questionnaires
• Scoring

5
Results
6
Results

• No difference between own contribution (mean of
  self rating and peer rating of self) and the mean
  group contribution.

• No significant effects of sex
  
• of students.

7
Conclusion

• peer assessment has a positive impact on student
  group based assignments

• enhanced learning experience
• enhanced motivation
• promotes reflective learning

8
Conclusion

• The paper supports these views

• The paper approves of using the method of peer
  assessment in the evaluation of group based work

9
Support for Peer/self assessment

• Sense of ownership
• Encouraging students to take responsibility
• Mistakes are opportunities
• Evaluation skills
• Metacognition
• Deeper learning
• (Brown, Rust and Gibbs (1994), Zariski (1996)
  Race (1998)

10

• Marking burden for staff is reduced
• Teams or groups can achieve more
• Students can perform a variety of assessment
  tasks in ways which both save the tutors time and
  bring educational benefits, especially the
  development of their own judgement skills (Rust,
  2001)

11
Arguments against peer/self assessment

• Students comments

• bad, unfair and biased

• hate peer assessment

• good but biased

• against peer assessment, not qualified

• poor, ulterior motives

(Dr D Wakelin Dr L Mcginnes, 2204)
12

• Why do we need peer assessment?
• (Dancer Kamvounias, 2005)
• What happens when peer/self assessment differ?
• (Krouse Popovich, 1996)

13

• Satisfaction needed by tutors and learners that
  marks are valid, in order for peer assessment to
  be successful
• ( Assessment evaluation in Higher Education
  Journal)

14
Summary
Be nice to peers as you never know when they will
have to evaluate you!!!