Assessing Groupwork

Recognising that groupwork is one of the most challenging (though often highly rewarding) assessment types to set up and manage, this page draws together resources to support you in this endeavour.

Where we are now

The CLT have created a guide to designing and assessing groupwork. It covers conceptualising your approach, creating effective marking criteria, strategically forming groups (we have a helpful quiz to help you with this) and strengthening group collaboration.
You may also wish to consult our guidance on embedding anticipatory reasonable adjustments into the design and implementation of groupwork.

How to

Below you can find a sample of practical information and links to helpful resources right here on the Teaching Hub. The list below is not exhaustive:

How to assign students to groups in Moodle using Fair Allocation
How to manage Moodle groups and groupings
How to set up Moodle Group Peer Evaluation

Case Studies

The case studies detailed below offer real-world insights into:

Topics include:

Authentic assessment
PGT
Sustainable development
Recommendations for practice

Second year masters students in Architecture work together in groups of around 6 to suggest plans to sustainably regenerate cities around the world. There are various check-in points with tutors and industry partners.

Topics include:

Authentic assessment
Final year UG
Connection of assessment and unit design

Students choose a topic to write a research bid on, mirroring the real-world process. These are honed through tutorials, an assessed group presentation and a final individual written piece.

Topics include:

Switching from in-person to online delivery
Multi-disciplinarity
Formative assessment

This case study describes how colleagues in Health switched to online delivery during the Covid pandemic in 2020-21 and the adaptations they made to support groupwork undertaken by undergraduates.

Topics include:

Formative and summative assessment
Monitoring group interactions
Peer marking
Recommendations for practice

It outlines the approach of Dr Taghried Abdelmagid (Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering), who harnessed FeedbackFruits as a means of streamlining the organisation, monitoring and feedback provision on a first-year group undergraduate project.

Topics include:

Supporting group dynamics
1st and 2nd year undergraduates
Formative assessment

In Economics groupwork is introduced in the first-year where it is carefully scaffolded and supported by the Skills Centre. This familiarity with group work is built on in the second year with a more sophisticated task and tighter time window.