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Peer Assessment of Group Presentations
Two one-term single credit modules in recent British Theatre have been running in the English Studies Field for over a decade, in gradually developing forms. They have always been assessed entirely by coursework which started to include non-essay forms, such as 'Imitations' and then 'Textual Intervention' and other forms of 'Literary Practice', which have now become a significant element of all student writing across the field.
Next, participation in class discussion and activities became a compulsory part of each student's assessment for the Drama modules, worth 25% of the marks. Each student completed a self-assessment form, commenting in some detail on their own performance under a series of criteria categories, and awarding themself a mark, which the tutor reserved the right to over-ride.
In 1993 came the introduction of a new system, prompted partly by the Field's commitment to the University's initiative on Profiling and Transferable Skills, partly by pressures of increasing student numbers on staff time for marking written work and conducting individual tutorials. Now 50% of a student's marks relate to written work, selected from a range of possible forms - essay, analyses of the 'language of theatre', or 'Literary Practice' - the other 50% depend upon their performance in group presentations, which are delivered in week 8 and 9 of term. These are assessed by all the other grou ps and by the tutor, using criteria suggested by the tutor at the start of term and modified by the students during brief end-of-morning discussions when we re-visit the issue 3 or 4 times before concentrated group work gets under way in week 5 - 6.
During the first running of this system a rather complicated 4-way assessment system was used for the group presentations:
- Self assessment, by each individual student, of their work both in preparation and in presentation itself 12.5%
- Intra-group peer assessment, by each student of each other member of their own group, for both preparation and presentation 12.5%
- Inter-group peer assessment: each group viewed a presentation discussed and agreed marks, for presentation only 12.5%
- Tutor assessment of each group's presentation 12.5%
We decided that the group presentation system had stimulated some very committed work, and that the educational gains had been worthwhile. There were dose correlations between tutor's marks and rankings for presentations, and the figures generated by the seven other groups assessing anyone presentation; but the self assessment figures, and those marks rela ting to different students' performance within a group were more variable, and of course much more difficult to check on.
In the 1994/95 running we decided to simplify the system: marks are generated for tutor assessment and inter-group peer assessment only. Consideration is given to individual reflection on performance and skills in group work, and to the internal operations of each group, in a short self-reflective account that each student must deliver to be eligible for a mark for the module - in other words 'assessment', but not 'grading' or 'marking', and in tune with the student-led profiling system being implemented in the English Studies field.
Stewart Young, School of Humanities, Oxford Brookes University
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