Group work, How to Assess ?

It’s always difficult to get a group of people to collaborate online towards a single goal. In this case it was a presentation which was used to identify good practice in elearning. The case study was  taken from the Gallery Of Teaching and Learning (?) and the group work process was as follows:

·         Identify one or two cases between us to focus on

·         Using the cases identify the key principles demonstrated

·         Get screen shots to backup key principles identified

·         Decide on the presentation media

·         Construct the presentation

·         Post to forum.           

Its now been successfully completed over the period of two weeks, but how can we present this for individual assessment and measurement of competence? In this case it was not difficult as the outcomes required an individual slide to created by everyone wit additional slides being created as seen fit by the group. To get to this outcome there was a number of debates and decisions that were made based on research. So it was possible to enter the arena late on in the activity and still complete the task. This was not a bad thing as no one should be excluded just because they have other commitments in fact it was a clear benefit in this case. How then can we determine if any learning has taken place additional competence earned. Quite easy really write a reflection and justify your own learning as long as evidence can be collated it is quite possible in this case. Considering the supporting evidence in this case is a wiki, group conference and a presentation.

Gallery of Teaching & Learning (?) ‘KEEP Toolkit case studies’ (online), The Carnegie Foundation. Available from:http://cms.carnegiefoundation.org/gallery_of_tl/keep_toolkit.html(accessed 18 August 2009).