Abstract:

For many years group work has been an important part of the learning process in University courses. Group work is becoming even more important nowadays, as students need to be prepared for taking an active role in real life situations were solution or proposal based on professional analysis and different perspectives needs to be prepared in a short time frame. Therefore, part of the learning outcome should be that students have skills to participate in face-to-face discussions as well as online communication, supported by their professional knowledge. This involves a complicated challenge from perspective of teaching, as the evaluation of student performance, individual student contribution to the group work as well as behaviour in the communication process itself within the group becomes difficult.

In the last EDULEARN conference, we introduced a peer assessment tool based on Belbin team roles. The assessment required an evaluation of each group member based on eight factors, qualitative comments for each student and for the overall group work. A test was made with modified version of the tool and a different implementation approach was applied in few courses in the masters program at the Faculty of Business in the University of Iceland. In one of the courses, a completion of the peer assessment was a pre-condition for taking the final exam and therefore completing the course. It was furthermore compulsory to provide qualitative comment for each group member’s evaluation. The results indicate that, in general, the students take the peer evaluation seriously and provide honest comments on their group members, which supports their assessment. There are however some problems, like game theory impact, resulting in an incorrect use of the scale. Therefore, further instructions and preparation is needed. In order to implement the tool with better success, it is important to apply the peer assessment tool on a broader scale, such that it becomes a normal procedure. With such broad application, students could gain better insight into their own strength and weaknesses as team members and where they should focus their efforts for improvement.

Keywords:

Peer assessment, group work, participation, student performance.