Working in virtual groups: mimicking the real world when assessing student performance

Electronic communication is proliferating throughout industry and academia. Its use is not limited to communications between individuals. Evolving technologies support and facilitate collaboration where individuals and / or team members work in geographically different locations to their colleagues. The challenges of working in such environments are briefly reported in this paper based on work completed by the authors and others. The impact of such approaches is then explored in the context of the delivery of a course to third year distance learning students in the School of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Newcastle, Australia. This paper outlines the implementation of assessment strategies for students working in a virtual environment. The assessment strategy adopted uses meeting logs as well as peer and self-assessment to provide a multiple perspective assessment. The assessment regime also provides comprehensive formative feedback to assist student participation as effective group members. If facilitates a clear understanding of student’s teamwork performance as well as the individual contributions they have made to the outcome achieved by the group. Finally the paper reports on a student evaluation of virtual teamwork. Student reaction to virtual teamwork was generally positive, and several benefits and challenges were identified.