Abstract:

Project Oriented Learning is a teaching and learning method in which students undertake a project in a given time to solve a problem; through planning, design and implementation of different activities which finally form a specific project.

This method allows to develop some very important skills for professional work, and offers the possibility of developing multidisciplinary works in group. The final result is documented in a written report and oral defense of the work. The evaluation of this type of method should include the progress of students throughout the development of the project activity and final project results.

In the Department of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering at the “Universitat Politècnica de València” Project Oriented Learning has been applied in an experimental subject from the academic year 2004-2005. Students, in groups of 4-5 people, undertake a project of an industrial design from the work done in different laboratory practicals. Students develop the project with the help and guidance of the lecturers in tutorial sessions in which they monitor the work of each group. Finally, each group delivers a writing project and gives an oral presentation in front of the lecturers and classmates.

The final evaluation of the subject consists of four parts distributed as follows: written project (50%), oral presentation (20%), written exam (20%) and practical reports (10%). Written project evaluation takes into account the group's work throughout the semester.

Until now, the evaluation of the subject belonged entirely to the lecturers. However, we think it would be interesting to incorporate students as an active part in the process of evaluation. The evaluation methodology analyzed in this paper is coevaluation, in which both students and teachers assess some part of the process or outcome. In this case, we have developed an evaluation table for group work coevaluation at the end of each semester. This paper presents the results of coevaluation collected in the last two academic years. We have analyzed and compared the assessments reported by lecturers and students, to evaluate the possible differences between them (student-group, lecturer-group, lecturer-lecturer, student-student) and whether if it would be appropriate to introduce coevaluation as part of the evaluation of the subject.

Keywords:

Project Oriented Learning, coevaluation, group work, chemical engineering.