Piloting and Evaluating Methods of Peer Assessment in Group Work

This case study explores how students and staff worked together to pilot, evaluate and improve methods of peer assessing an individual’s contribution to student group work.

Case study by Manuela Sadik

What was the aim of your project?

The goal of this project was to evaluate the views of students and staff regarding the current methods of peer assessment in group work. 

What did you do?

This project was running in parallel to the work carried out by a staff consortium called IPAC (Individual Peer Assessed Contribution). The key contributions of the students during the period of the ChangeMakers project may be summarised as follows:

• Running focus groups
• Presenting their work at the UCLU Conference (2017)
• Evaluating methodologies and digital platforms used in the peer assessment of individual contribution in group work 

What were the main successes of the project?

Students considered this project to have been a unique opportunity to collaborate with academics on an equal level. Many said that they would recommend other students to complete a similar project since they had found it both enlightening and rewarding. The project made them realise how the faculty is constantly trying to improve the student experience at UCL and how student-staff partnerships are essential in catalysing positive change.

What difficulties did you face during your project? What would you do differently?

One of the main challenges encountered during the project was the coordination between the student teammates. Four lead students participated in this project across two departments and in different years of their degree programmes. While this was invaluable in providing diversity, the different timetables and workloads across their programmes made it somewhat difficult to set common meeting times for monitoring progress. This was overcome by regularly communicating via email, as well as through scheduling meetings with pairs of students at a time.

What impact has your project had? On whom?

During the project, the student participants said that they felt valued within the team and like their opinions had been heard and taken into account. As mentioned previously, many regarded the experience as a positive one and suggested that, given the opportunity, they would recommend other students.