Assessing Team Work in Engineering Projects

Abstract

Team work is considered a valuable teaching technique in higher education. However, the assessment of an individual's work in teams has proved to be a challenging task. Consequently, self-and peer-evaluations are becoming increasingly popular for the assessment of individuals in a team work, though it is essential to determine whether students can judge their own as well as their peer's performance effectively. Self-and peer-evaluations have been applied in different disciplines and their authenticity with regard to teacher's assessment has been evaluated in the literature but this issue has not been investigated in the field of engineering education so far. In this study, a peer-and self-assessment procedure is applied to the evaluation of a project work conducted in teams of 3 or 4 students. The participants were engineering students taking two similar courses related with database design and development. It is found that a majority of the students were unable to assess themselves as objectively as their instructor. Further, it is observed that successful students tend to under-estimate, whereas unsuccessful students tend to over-estimate, their own performance. The paper also establishes that the results of self-assessments are independent from the gender factor.