Abstract:

To accomplish more variety and therefore a way of reliable testing in the overall assignments of students during group projects, the curriculum committee of the study of Skintherapy considered more variation in assignment forms and more individual assessments, although it is still necessary for students to develop cooperation competencies and show a group effort.

The main question for this research was: Is an individual oral exam a more, even or less reliable, fair and efficient way of testing students after they accomplished a group effort?

In a case study the students were given an oral exam to assess their knowledge about global health issues and intercultural communication and their skills of the English language. To prepare themselves for this oral exam they had to work together to gather enough information about the subjects and to practice their English language skills. After the assessment the students were asked to fill in an evaluation form about this way of testing and the assessors had an evaluation meeting.

The results of this case study were that students were positive about the fairness of the assignment and about the fact that the assignment is closely related to the content of the project. Individual assessment lead to more involvement in the project and students could show what they had been working on as a group. Students, however, did not believe that this individual assignment showed how good or bad the cooperation was. Students were mainly positive about the form of this assessment: an oral exam. In their opinion they could show what they had learned during the project by this oral examination in a better way compared to a written assignment. They indicated that a final assignment of a project did not necessarily needs to be a written (group) report but that this could be done by means of an individual conversation as well. The assessors were very satisfied with this way of assessing. They experienced it as an efficient, fair way of testing. Only 8,6 percent of the students failed the test.

The conclusion is that an individual exam for a group project is justified and a fair form of assessing. Reliability is questionable, the rubrics of this particular assessment should be more distinctive among the performance of students. Students however are comfortable with this way of assessing and think it’s fair. Assessors need less time to take this test compared to the time they need to assess a group report, so in that way it is an efficient way of testing.

This leads to the following recommendations:
- An individual oral exam can be used as a fair and efficient way of assessing students on their group effort
- This form of assessing integrates knowledge and language skills and therefore it can be used as an integral method of testing.
- An individual exam does not show the quality of cooperation among students. To assess this, a different formative test can be used.
- To increase the reliability of this assessment, the rubrics should be more distinctive.

The final conclusion is that an individual assessment is a perfect alternative way of testing knowledge and skills of students after they gathered and practiced this knowledge and skills within a group. With this form of assessment students are required to share knowledge and work together in a team.

Keywords:

Individual assessment, oral examination, group assignment, skin therapy, health care, testing, rubrics.