A study of deriving individual marks from a group

Methods of deriving individual marks from a project done by a group of students were studied. The author had conducted a survey on a class of building engineering students. Four students formed a group in a building design project. They were taking up the duties of electrical & mechanical engineer, architect, financial controller and quantity surveyor of a building team. It is hoped that they could learn from the process. Each group was required to submit a set of documents prepared by the group at the end of the academic year for assessment. The documents included a written report, meeting minutes, diary and drawings. An oral presentation was assessed by a group of tutors. The project carried a highly weighted factor for their final year curriculum and lasted for an academic year. The assessment components include writing skills, operational skills, presentation skill, and professional competence. The difficulty of assessment is not only quantity of work, but also quality of work. Literature review has suggested a number of approaches. Common methods are weighting factor, pool of marks, peer-assessment factor (PA) and contribution factor. This paper critically reviews these methods and evaluates the method adopted in the project. It also discusses some observations on peer assessment and raises some issues for debate and future study. The paper had a trial on three methods which have been reported.