10 | JADE
ARTICLE #1 | 11
SAMI ULLAH AND ALEKSANDAR RADU
test. The marks obtained by students under the diverse assessment
approaches in 2012 and 2013 were collated and analysed. Moreover,
the overall marks obtained in different modules by three low and
three top performing students who were part of the face to face
delivery module were averaged for each year of their Applied
Environmental Science degree program at Keele University to
evaluate if low or top performance in the face to face module was
reflected in the overall performance of these students.
Overall, the group work assessment performance over the 2 years
under the two modules exhibited relatively lower variance in the
spread of marks compared to the individual assessments (Figure 1
and 2). Even though, the range of group assessment marks were
well within the range of the individual assessment marks, the
constrained spread in the group assessment marks does point to
the existence of smoothing resulting in more uniform marks spread
than under individual assessment scenarios. As group assessments
represent a collective mark assigned to students of varied capabilities
(Maiden and Perry, 2011), our data show that low performing
student must have benefited from the blanket marking assessment,
while the potential of top performing students must have been
capped in achieving a mark commensurate with their potentials
and performance. This result is consistent with what Healey et al
(1996) identified as a potential pitfall of group assessment (Table
1). However, the overall performance of the selected three top and
three low performing students reflected a consistent improvement
in case of top and a relatively static and/or stagnant performance
over th