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Group assessment

Group assessments have many benefits for students and educators. However, for these assessments to be effective they need to be designed with care.

Benefits of group assessments

The benefits of group assessment for students include:

developing project planning and teamwork skills
building cohort connections with peers
strengthening confidence to work in diverse teams
working on ‘real world’ projects or solutions-based problems
learning how to collaborate productively in a team

The benefits of group assessment for educators include:

implementing more authentic assessment that transfer to professional applications
reducing common academic integrity issues
fostering interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary skills in students
integrating reflective practice skills into student learning

Designing group assessments

Effective assessment begins with clearly identifying the learning outcomes you intend to evaluate. Once these outcomes are defined, consider how the group assessment task will be designed to gather the necessary evidence of student learning.

Group group assessment design should incorporate opportunities for meaningful student participation and feedback with structures that support and motivate fair and consistent contributions throughout the group process.

Articulate the purpose and value of the group work to students. When students understand the purpose, they are more likely to engage meaningfully
Manage group membership so that students have opportunities to contribute meaningfully. If students are self-selecting groups, articulate the benefits of diversity for collaboration and problem solving tasks.
Break the task into stages to provide scaffolding and multiple opportunities for feedback. Providing opportunities to check-in helps maintain motivation and allow early intervention if issues arise.
Be transparent about the assessment criteria, including how group and individual performance will be marked, to reduce ambiguity and promote fairness.
Use peer and self-evaluation tools to promote accountability, reduce free-riding, and enhance student motivation and learning.

As well as designing the task, it is important to plan how groups will be formed and how students will be supported throughout the process.

Expand the accordions for details

Assessment tasks and criteria should be carefully designed to ensure that learning outcomes can be evaluated based on observable evidence. When designing a group assessment task decide how you will assess the group process and/or the final product.
If the learning outcomes are related to skills like collaboration, communication or organisation, the assessment design should make the group process visible.
Criteria for process might include things like:
- demonstrations of role adoption and leadership skills
- demonstration of problem solving strategies
- demonstration of organisation and time management
- evidence of cooperation and effective communication
- evidence of responsiveness to feedback (both educator and peer)
- evidence of equal contributions
Consider what kind of evidence will be required to evaluate criteria related to group processes. How will you support groups to document their processes and produce reliable evidence for marking. Be mindful of equity: group marks alone may not reflect individual contributions.
Assessment criteria for the final product will depend on the learning outcomes for your unit and the nature of the group task (i.e. the assignment submitted).
Be sure to articulate to students how both the process and final product align with the course and unit learning outcomes and reflect real-world professional and community practices.
Group membership can be determined by staff allocation, randomisation or student self-selection.
Regardless of the method, ensure groups are balanced in size and composition so that all students have opportunities to contribute meaningfully. Smaller groups are easier to manage, but groups of two or three risk collapsing if members drop out or disengage.
Aim for diversity in each group, for example a mix of gender, culture, discipline, year level, and international/local students, to enrich collaboration and problem-solving. If students are self-selecting groups, articulate the benefits of diversity for collaboration and problem solving tasks.
Supporting students throughout the group assessment process is essential. Proactive management helps prevent issues and cultivates a positive learning experience.
You can support your students with group assessment by:
- providing resources on teamwork, meeting planning, delegation, conflict resolution, and group dynamics. Many of these are available from Learn HQ: Collaborate with others
- creating a dedicated group folder or section in Moodle for easy access to materials
- encouraging groups to set meeting schedules and accountability guidelines
- offering regular check-ins to provide feedback and address concerns early
- keeping records of meetings and communications in case follow-up is needed
Even with good planning and design, dysfunctional groups can happen. Having contingency plans in place before you allocate groups can assist. Think through how you will support students to help them resolve conflicts, what you will do to assist if needed, and what options might be available to you should the conflict not be resolved.
Consider the equity of allocating a group mark for the assessment; a group assessment that results in inequitable contributions from team members means that contributing students may be allocated a lower mark, or non-contributing students may end up with a better mark than they deserve. A more equitable method of evaluating group assessment is to use a combination of group and individual marks.
You may want to allocate a percentage of the mark towards an individual mark, meaning students can be allocated appropriate marks based on their contribution, effort, and work. For example, if the group assessment is worth 40% of the students’ final mark for the unit, you allocate 30% for the group outcome/product, and 10% for individual contributions.
All marks should be based on observable, measurable criteria. Individual marks for effort should be based on direct evidence, not on your perception of (or other students’ comments about) their efforts. For example, if a student approaches you to discuss a conflict with another group member, this should not be used as evidence that the student being complained about is making no effort in the group.
As you may not witness all group interactions, it is not always ideal for educators to be responsible for awarding the entire individual mark.
One way to overcome this is to implement both self- and peer evaluation as an element of the assessment. This can include a mix of team ranking activities, self -evaluation, self-reflection, reflection on group processes, or other valid methods of evaluating individual contributions to group work.

Setting up groups in Moodle

In Moodle, groups and groupings are a way of putting students into specific teams. Groups can be used for targeted communication, to manage student activity and interaction and restrict access to activities and resources. For example:

You can set up Moodle assignment group submissions to require all members of a group to sign privacy, integrity, and collaboration documents.
Assignment feedback and results will automatically be available to all group members
Put all students who failed a test into a single group. You can now send messages to just the members of that group, advising on a make-up test.
Put students into a group based on their tutorial including their tutor. In a forum, students are restricted to only seeing and discussing topics with their class peers. Tutors can use group filters to view their tutorial group's assignment submissions.
Put students who are in the evening classes into a group. Provide a PDF outlining evening security that only this group can see.

Groups

Groups can be created in Moodle, either manually or automatically. Students can also choose their own groups with the Group self-selection activity. Students can be part of many different groups at the same time and may already be in groups, for example their Callista Cohort group (Campus) or Allocate+ group(Class, tutorial, tutor). You may wish to create additional groups, for example a student project team group. Some Moodle activities, including Assignments, require you to create a Grouping for your groups for the group assignment functionality to work.

Groupings

Groupings are collections of groups. They are needed if you wish to use groups with specific activities. For example, you might have a grouping called Assignment 1 which includes all the student groups for this assignment. This enables you to not use other groups, such as tutorial groups, in this assignment. By using Groupings, you can choose to show a resource or activity only to the groups within the selected grouping. Settings for groups and groupings are set at both the unit and resource/activity level. Some Moodle activities, including Assignments, require you to create a Grouping for your groups for the group assignment functionality to work.

Note about unit rollovers

Any groups and groupings in a unit will be rolled over with the unit. Please make sure you group and grouping names are appropriate and attached to the correct activities in any freshly rolled over units.

Where to find Group and Grouping settings

Click on Participants in the top menu of your Moodle unit.
Click on Enrolled users to view the drop down list.
Select the required option from the drop down list. Expand the accordions below for more information.

Create groups View

Navigate to the Groups page by selecting Groups from the drop down list.
From the groups page, you can create, import, export and delete groups. Expand the accordions below for more information.

1. Click Create group.
2. Enter a name for the group.
3. Add a description for the group (optional).
4. If required, you can create an enrolment key. To join this group, members will be required to enter the enrolment key.
5. By default, Group membership visibility is set to Visible.
  Note: It is recommended that you leave this set to the default. Some activities that integrate with Moodle groups eg. FeedbackFruits require Group membership visibility to be Visible to "view" students in groups.
6. Choose to enable or disable Group messaging. If enabled, group members can send messages to the others in their group via the messaging drawer. For more information, see Send and receive messages.
7. Optionally, add a picture icon for the group. This should be a small square image. The icon can be hidden or shown.
8. Click Save changes. The new group will be displayed in the list of groups.
If you have a class scenario that requires a large number of small groups, with students randomly allocated, you can use the auto-create groups button to quickly and easily set this up. Auto-creating groups allows for random or systematic allocation of students into groups and groupings based for all users, particular roles, or membership status.
1. Click Auto-create groups.
2. General settings:
  1. Choose a naming scheme ‘name’@ or #. This will give the groups the title of the name you select, plus either sequential letters for @ or numbers for #. For example:
    - “Group” @ will generate the group names Group A, Group B, etc.
    - Presentation # will generate the group names Presentation 1, Presentation 2, etc.
  2. Choose to auto-create groups based on:
    - Number of groups: How many groups in the class, the system will determine how many in each.
    - Members per group: How many in each group, the system will determine how many groups overall.
  3. Specify the group/member count.
  4. Choose to enable or disable Group messaging. If enabled, group members can send messages to the others in their group via the messaging drawer. For more information, see Send and receive messages.
3. Group member settings:
  1. Allocate members with a specific role. Select roles from the drop down list. By default, the Student role is selected.
  2. Select members from an existing grouping. You can also create a new grouping in the grouping section. See below for more information on Groupings.
  3. Allocate members:
    - Randomly
    - Alphabetically by first name, last name or ID
    - No allocation. Select No allocation if you want students to choose their own groups with the group self-selection activity. For more information, see Group self-selection.
  4. With the check boxes, you can choose to:
    1. Prevent last small group will stop groups of 1, or less than half the nominated number, being created.
    2. Ignore users in groups. Users already allocated in a group will be ignored.
    3. Include only active enrolments. Suspended users will be ignored.
4. Grouping settings:
  1. Select an existing grouping for your auto-created groups
    OR
  2. Create a new one and give it a name.
5. Click Preview to see how the groups will be created.
6. Click Submit to auto-create your groups. The auto-created groups will now be displayed in the list of groups.
If you have created groups manually or automatically, you can add or remove members through Moodle. This can be useful, for example to ensure each group has a tutor attached.
1. From the list of groups in the left column, select the group that you want to add or remove members. Members of that group will be displayed on the right.
2. Click Add/remove users.
3. The left column lists the existing group members. The right column lists potential members, not allocated to your selected group.
4. To add or remove members, select the name of the member and use the Add or Remove button to move them from one column to the other. You can select multiple names by holding down the CTRL/command(⌘) key or SHIFT key.
5. Once finished, click Back to groups.
1. Select a group, then click Edit group settings.
2. Make the changes required, then click Save changes.
1. Select a group by clicking on it.
2. Click Delete selected group.
3. To confirm the deletion, click Yes.
4. The group will be removed from your group list.
If enabled, group members can send messages to the others in their group via the messaging drawer.
1. Select the group from the left hand side.
2. Click Enable / Disable messaging.
For more information about Moodle messaging, see Send and receive messages.

Create groupings View

Navigate to the Groupings page by selecting Groupings from the drop down list.

Image of moodle groupings

1. Click Create grouping.
2. Give your grouping a name and description.
3. Click Save changes.
4. Your new grouping will be displayed in the Groupings page.
1. For the grouping you want to add/remove groups, in the Edit column, click on the user icon.
2. The left column lists the existing groups within the grouping. The right column lists Potential groups, not included in the selected grouping.
3. To add or remove groups, select the group by clicking on it and use the Add or Remove button to move them from one column to the other. You can select multiple names by holding down the CTRL/command(⌘) key or SHIFT key.
4. Once finished, click Back to groupings.
1. For the grouping you want to edit, in the Edit column, click the settings cog.
2. Make the required changes, then click Save changes.
1. For the grouping you want to delete, in the Edit column, click the delete icon.
2. To confirm the deletion, click Yes.
3. The grouping will be removed from your groupings list.

Groups and grouping overview View

Activity and resource group settings View

Import groups View

You can import groups into Moodle easily using a .CSV file. Prepare an Excel .CSV file with the following two columns:

Username OR Email: This column is the student identifier. You can choose to use either username or email.
Group: This indicates which group the student will be imported into. Groups can be numbers or words. Ensure that the group name does not contain any hash symbols (#), as this will cause the import to fail.
Note: You do not need to create empty groups in your Moodle unit before importing groups.

You may find it helpful to first export a list of students from Moodle to quickly extract student identifiers. To do this:

Navigate to your Moodle unit Participants page.
You can use the filter options to filter using participants by roles. For example, selecting to filter by Role:student will exclude participants with Lecturer, Tutor or other non-student roles.
Select all students with the checkbox in the column heading.
With the selected users drop down list, select Download data as Comma separated values (.csv).

Import Enrolls

Once you have prepared your .CSV file, navigate to your Moodle unit Participants page.
Click Enrolled users, then select Import Enrolls from the drop down list.
Select the following settings for Import CSV Enrollment File:
- User field: Select Username or Email address
- Role: Leave as Student
- Assign to groups: Select Yes. This will make more Group options available
- Use group: You can select an existing group in your Moodle unit or Use file data. To import new groups from your .CSV file, select Use file data
- Create groups: Select Yes if you would like to import new groups from your .CSV file.
Drag and drop the .CSV file into the Import File area.
Click Import. You will see following message below. If any additional lines appear, make note of any student identifiers mentioned as these students will need to be manually added to imported groups later.
Line 1: Unable to parse the line contents 'Email address,group'.
Note: Ensure that the group name does not contain any hash symbols (#), as this will cause the import to fail.
Click Continue. You will now see a list of all the groups for your Moodle unit. Verify your groups have been imported and manually add any missing students who were not imported.

Export groups View

Group self-selection View

The Group self-selection activity enables students to choose their own group within a grouping set for an activity. Group self-selection can be used to set up groups for forums, assignments, peer feedback and other collaborative activities. To create a group self-selection activity, first set up groups and groupings.

From the Groups page, select Auto-create groups.
In the Group member settings, for Allocate members, select No allocation. This allows students to choose their own groups with the group self-selection activity.
Once you have set up the groups and grouping you want your students to choose from, create your Group self-selection activity.
Note: If you want students to create their own groups, you can create an empty grouping without any groups.

For more information on how to set up groups and groupings, see Groups and groupings in Moodle.

Add a Group self-selection activity

In the top right hand corner of the page, switch Edit mode to ON(Blue).
In the section where you would like to add a resource or activity, click +Add an activity or resource.
Note: You can add new resources or activities above or below any existing activities or resources.

Select Group self-selection and click Add.
Give your activity a name. For example ‘Choose your group for the group presentation'.
Enter a description. For example some information about the activity that will be linked to the self-selected groups. You may also include the following instructions for students:

To join a group, click Become member of button for the group you would like to join.

Optionally, specify a start and end date for your group self-selection activity. Students will be able to enrol and un-enrol themselves from the groups while the activity is available.
From the Select groups from grouping drop down list, you can select the Grouping you previously created, or leave this on All groups.
Specify the:
1. Maximum number of students per group.
2. Minimum number of students per group
3. Number of groups a student must join to participate in the activity. If set to 0, participation in no groups is possible.
In the General permissions, you can use the check boxes, choose whether participants are able to:
- Join or Leave groups
- Create groups
- Set the name of new groups
- Set and edit group descriptions
- Set passwords for joining groups
By default, participants can join, leave and create groups.
In the Miscellaneous settings, you can choose to Assign supervisors to groups using the check box. Define the type of supervisor role using the drop down list. If supervisors are assigned, you can choose to Show assigned supervisors.
You can also choose to:
- Hide full groups from the main view
- Show message, if the open until date is reached
- Delete group when last participant leaves
By default, A message will appear when the ‘open until date’ is reached and groups are deleted when the last participant leaves.
In the Common module settings, the default Group mode is set to No groups. This means the existing members in a group are visible to students before they have made their group selection(shown in left). If you do not want existing group members to be visible to students, you can select Separate groups from the Group mode drop down options(shown in right).
Once finished, click Save and return to unit.

Click on the tabs below to view the Group self-selection activity from lecturer or student view

Instructions for students

You may wish to provide the following instructions for students. Highlight the text and copy it with CTRL+C(PC) or ⌘+C(MAC) and paste it into the group self-selection activity description field with CTRL+P(PC) or ⌘+P(MAC), then click Save and display.

To join a group, click the Become member of button for the group you would like to join.

Note

For Moodle group assignments, ensure you enable Group submission settings in the Moodle assignment settings.

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