Abstract:

Group-work plays a significant part in undergraduate computing courses while working effectively as a member of a group is one of the most important generic skills that students need to develop while at university in preparation for their future working lives. Many stakeholders, however, have reservations regarding group-based assignments, in particular about whether or not individual group members are rewarded appropriately for their contribution to the overall group achievement. The success of group work is dependent on both extrinsic factors, such as assignment design, management, assessment, etc. as well as intrinsic factors, such as the knowledge, skills, etc. of individual group members.

In this paper the challenges presented by effective management of the extrinsic factors that impact on the success of group-based assignments are considered against the background of the of formal summative assessment of group-based assignments on BSc Computing undergraduate courses in the Computing, Digital Forensics and Cybersecurity section within the School of Law, Criminal Justice and Computing at Canterbury Christ Church University in the United Kingdom. In particular the effectiveness of group work in terms of improved learning, improved development of non-cognitive skills and assessment validity/reliability are considered.

Keywords:

Group work, assessment, fairness, coursework, self assessment, peer assessment, reliability, validity.