ISSUES FROM THE LITERATURE

Review issues from the
Case studies

Students are keen that grading practices are established such that grades properly reflect the levels of performance of each student and that where necessary, grade adjustments can occur to better reflect these levels. (James, McInnis, & Devlin, 2002)

The group discusses the individual marks and consolidates them into a group assessment which is given to the presenters and accounts for 40% of the total mark. (Raban & Litchfield, 2007)

Industrial tenders are awarded to groups, not to individuals who were part of a group (Albon & Lindsay, 2005, p. 15)

There is no clear ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer to this question. Your decision should be based on the goals for your course and for the assessment exercise. Having the group share the same mark should enhance collaboration. However, how you deal with freeloaders (students who do not participate adequately in the group’s work) then becomes an important issue. (Isaacs, 2001)

The graph shows that between 75% to 90% of all groups opted for almost equal mark distribution. It was an expected result in line with similar cases reported in the literature (Rosen 1996; Lejk and Wyvill 2001; Kennedy 2005). This nearly equal distribution of marks was hardly plausible as in groups of 10 students one can expect a wide-range of individual contributions. (Raban & Litchfield, 2007)

James, McInnis and Devlin (2002) present a range of options:

• The group submits one product and all group members receive the same mark from the lecturer/tutor, regardless of individual contribution
• Individual submissions are marked individually. The group members each then receive an average of these marks
• Each student completes an allocated task that contributes to the final group product and gets the marks for that task
• Each students writes and submits an individual report based on the group’s work on the task/project
• Exam questions specifically target the group projects and can only be answered by students who have been involved in the project
• The group mark is awarded to each member with a mechanism for adjusting for individual contributions

Other options, advantages/disadvantages are outlined on the website (see references)

White (2007, p. 71) refers to numerous methods and research for obtaining individual marks from group work.