Group Work Based Assessment

At a glance

Group work promotes:

Deep as opposed to surface or active instead of passive learning
Experiential learning
Authenticity in terms of later employability
Transferable skills for lifelong learning (teamwork, leadership, communication)

While there are many advantages to group work, some reported problems are:

Free-rider problem – non-performing group members reaping the benefits of the accomplishments of the performing group members with little or no cost (Morris & Hayes, 1997);
Sucker effect problem – individuals responding to others free-riding upon their efforts by free-riding themselves (Kerr, 1983);
Social loafing – a reduction in effort due to not being noticed or lack of identification in a group task (Watkins, 2004); and
Lack of motivation – reluctance of participants in assessment tasks (Kerr, 1983)

In depth

The following recommendations are provided to lecturing staff to assist in implementing group work as a form of assessment:

Ground rules - Many students will not have had experience in groupwork before so lecturers may need to set ground rules. Even with group work experience, it is important to assist students in deciding on a well-defined task, give them guidelines for member participation, and—importantly—failure to participate. It is a good idea for lecturers to make a list and explain these guidelines to their class. “I expect you to: 1) … 2) …3)” etc. Lecturers might consider making a list of “dos and don’ts”. They might also institute contracts between group members.
Group size – keep group sizes as small as possible (3-5).
Timing - form groups early in the semester and allow them to last as long as possible so that relationships form, good communication develops, and students get to know each other. This may foster a sense of collegiality and common purpose, and altruistic behaviour.
Task complexity - try to ensure that groupwork tasks are sufficiently complex, stimulating and challenging so that individuals will be less likely to “free-ride” (but not so complex that it is hard to see the contribution of individual team members, otherwise social loafing will result). In general, the more complex the task, the more important it is to provide a model as an exemplar.
Type of task - Ensure tasks are “additive” and “conjunctive” in nature rather than “disjunctive” or “discretionary”. Additive means each member adds something to the task while conjunctive requires each member to contribute to a task. Disjunctive tasks means that the productivity of the group depends on the productivity of the performance of the best group member. Discretionary tasks are neutral with respect to task effectiveness in group work. Do not simply substitute a standard task that an individual can effectively complete and make it a “group” task. This seldom works well.
Recognition of effort - work out ways to recognise, monitor and reward the individual effort of group members. Simply tracking the contributions of students’ work and requesting that students’ names be given on a group assignment might be sufficient. This can either be a matter of negotiation among students themselves or mandated by the instructor.

Recognition of effort - work out ways to recognise, monitor and reward the individual effort of group members. Simply tracking the contributions of

At a glance

In depth

Further reading and resources