Negotiated assessment criteria and peer assessment in software engineering group project work: A case study

The core second level course in Software Engineering for Computer Science students at the University of Kent has, for many years, included a substantial design-and-build group project component. In recent years, this has been enhanced to address a number of issues crucial to students' development as reflective, professional practitioners. These include: . group allocation and formation . appropriate technical and non-technical goal-setting within the context of the taught material. These goals are used both to guide practice and as a basis for assessment. . students' critical evaluation of their own and others' achievements, in the context of moderated self and peer assessment. Although the work is assessed as a group, it has proved possible to account for variations between individuals' efforts using a novel questionnaire based approach initially developed by the University of Exeter. Problems (for both staff and students) in the implementation of these enhancements to the group learning and educational experience are addressed, and identified beneficial solutions are described. The value of this approach is situated firstly in terms of changes to the students' approach to subsequent, less constrained, project work, and secondly against the stated learning outcomes of the project; their improved technical and professional practices.