Group work
Being able to work in a group, not necessarily of your choosing, and achieve, is a key skill required of employers of professionals.
Product, process or both?
Many staff are comfortable assessing the product of group work. This is normally a piece of work that represents the outcome of the group's efforts. The type of marking required to assess a product would be similar to that used on an individual assignment. Decisions are made to either split a product mark between group members or give individual marks.
Quite different is the assessment of group work process. This is an assessment in how well the students work together in achieving their goal. Assessing group work process, and giving feedback to students on their progress, is necessary if students are to develop collaborative skills. To guarantee that our graduates are able to function collaboratively as professionals and develop Graduate Quality 4 (Word doc 46kb) we need to include the assessment of group work processes.
It is probably best to have a component of the assessment task contributing to assessing, and giving feedback on collaboration processes. How big that component is depends on the Graduate Quality profile of the course.
Developing collaboration skills at different year levels
Students can expect to have simple group tasks in their first year on which they are given feedback on their performance. More complex problems, requiring more developed skills in group processes would be required in subsequent years. Final year courses need to offer professionally relevant, complex group tasks.
UniSA Policy in relation to assessment of group work
The University's Assessment Policy and Procedures manual does not have any specific references to the assessment of group work. However, the Code of good practice: student assessment recommends assessment be designed that is inclusive, equitable, valid, reliable and formative. Where possible students should participate in the assessment process.