Abstract:

A study was introduced to assess the teamwork skills of undergraduate students. Teamwork is advocated by the Institution as an essential graduate attribute. Evidence of where students are assessed on this competency is also a requirement of the external AACSB accreditation the Faculty of Economic and Business Management is pursuing. The large second year class of 1059 BCom Supply Chain students, afforded lecturers the opportunity to utilise the iPeer tool for formative assessment of teamwork.

For this research students were randomly assigned to groups by the lecturer to allow for some stratification. The module content and class size of the module lends itself to a problem-based learning approach. The instructional objective was to move to collaborative learning, through group work, by applying theory to solve a real life problem. Such active engagement in the learning process is grounded on the belief that learning improves when students make a behavioural, emotional and cognitive investment in their learning.

Students were presented with an authentic problem to solve. The case was presented to them by the CEO of a company during a lecture and students had the opportunity to ask questions and clarify uncertainties. Students then had to solve the proposed case study in their groups by applying the theoretical knowledge they had gained in the module. Apart from submitting a written solution to the problem, students also had to rate each other’s’ investment in this learning process. By using iPeer, students could anonymously evaluate each other’s observable engagement. Students also had the opportunity to do a self-evaluation.

The aim of this project is to assess students’ teamwork skills as well as the usability of the iPeer tool. The project aimed to answer the sub-questions:
1. Does group-work develop teamwork skills?
2. Are second year students able to meaningfully evaluate the observable engagement of their peers?
3. Are undergraduate students able to self-evaluate?
4. Was there a correlation between the peer evaluation and the self-evaluation?

Keywords:

Problem-based learning, iPeer, collaborative learning, engagement, peer-evaluation, self-evaluation.