How to set up group assessment

Setting up group assessments helps students learn how to work together, solve problems, and share ideas. With the right approach, you can create group tasks that support collaboration and improve the learning experience for your students and still be able to achieve the learning outcomes. Here is a look at what you can do. 

To set up group assessments:  

• Create a designated folder or section on your Canvas course specifically for group assessment. 
• Establish guidelines for group work, including expectations for collaboration and individual contributions.  
• Enable group submissions in your assessment settings in Canvas.  
• Utilise features like groups in Canvas to organise different types of groups if applicable.  

Designing the task  

• Group work must clearly assist students to achieve key course learning outcomes. Not all tasks are suitable as group tasks. As a general rule, tasks that clearly require co-operation for successful completion are more likely to be successful.  
• Tasks should be designed to enable all students to contribute effectively, perhaps through undertaking different roles or subtasks. Care must be taken to ensure that each member of the group is assigned an equivalent task.  
• Some students may find it difficult to participate in a group for a variety of reasons (e.g. cultural constraints, disability). It is necessary to consider how such students might be accommodated.  
• The period set for the task needs to take into account enough time for the group to establish group process and meet.  

Designing Group Assessments 

The way students approach group work often depends on how the assessment is set up. A well-designed group assessment can support collaboration and build valuable skills. Poorly planned assessments, however, can lead to confusion and frustration. To get the best results from group work, you need to think carefully about how the assessment will work. 

Here are four key questions to consider when designing group assessments: 

1. What are you assessing? 
   • Decide whether you will assess the final product, the group process, or both 
     • Assessing the product focuses on what students produce and shows how well they understand the topic. 
     • Assessing the process gives you a way to recognise how students worked together, including communication, planning, and participation. 
2. What are the assessment criteria and who sets them? 
   • You can set the criteria yourself, involve students in the process, or do both. 
     Some courses include students in developing the criteria. This can improve engagement and help students understand what is expected. 
3. Who will mark the assessment? 
   • You need to decide if: 
     • You will mark the work yourself 
     • Students will assess each other (peer assessment) 
     • You will combine both 
   • Combining staff and student input can provide a fairer picture of how each group member contributed. 
4. How will you assign marks? 
   There are different ways to give marks in group assessments: 
   • Individual work only 
     Each student submits their own work. This rewards individual effort and can reduce the risk of students relying on others. But it may also reduce the motivation to work as a team. 
   • Same mark for the whole group 
     All students receive the same grade for one piece of work. This encourages teamwork and shared responsibility. However, strong students may feel held back, and others may benefit unfairly from the efforts of their peers. 
   • Combined group and individual marks 
     This option is increasingly used. The group submits one piece of work for a shared mark, and students also receive individual marks based on their contribution. 
     You can collect evidence of individual contribution through: 
     • Peer or self-assessments 
     • Oral checks or short individual reflections 
     • Logs or summaries of each person’s input 

2

3

4

If you use peer and self-assessment, make sure students are supported and understand how to do