Exploring staff and student experiences of group-work assessment in higher education

Group work in higher education is well known to promote deep learning through collaboration with peers. However, there can be issues with facilitation, perceived fairness, and motivation. The aim of this project was to explore staff and student views of a new group presentation assessment. A student survey explored preparation, experiences, and learning/skills. Two academics were interviewed. According to the survey, students felt prepared for the group work, but less so for the presentation. Students also felt their group worked well, although some did not agree that everyone contributed. Most agreed that the task was enjoyable and that they gained new knowledge. Two broad themes arose from the interviews (preparedness and student support), which link to the findings in the survey. Though the assessment format was well received, there was room to develop the support resources. The individual contribution grade for the assessment could include more weight on quality to enhance engagement. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/ .