Group and peer assessment
Group assessments (also known as team assessments) are those assessment tasks that students work on collaboratively, and the same mark is awarded for some (or all) of the assessment to the group members. These tasks can help students build ‘cooperative skills, in line with [...] graduate outcomes relating to teamwork’ (Biggs and Tang, 2015, p.254). However in order to work for both educators and students, these types of assessment tasks must be planned well, and executed carefully.
Peer assessments are those methods of assessment where students evaluate and assess each other, often in conjunction with self-assessment. Peer assessment can involve reflection, feedback, or other methods of evaluation. Like group assessments, these types of assessment need to be carefully planned and executed to ensure the process is fair and equitable for students. Students also need to be well supported to carry this out.
Peer assessment is “an arrangement whereby students evaluate and make judgements about the work of their peers and construct a written feedback commentary” (Nicol, Thomson & Breslin, 2014, p.103), or produce feedback comments using other methods (e.g. video). Peer assessment can also include providing marks, but does not have to.
It is important to note that:
- not all group assessments will involve peer assessment.
- peer assessment can be part of individual assessment tasks too.