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G52GRP
In the second year each student on the single honours computer science
degree is required to undertake a group project in Software
Engineering. Lecturers are assigned to supervise these projects and I
have supervised three in total. In theory the supervisor's role is to
set the problem the group must tackle and then simply to facilitate in
procedural matters such as minute taking etc. The supervisor is also the primary marker for the project.
Weekly Meetings
The supervisor's role is formally managed through their attendance at
one weekly meeting in an observational role,
commenting on progress if they are asked or feel it appropriate. In
practice I have
found that the nature of the problem and random elements involved in
group ability have meant that different groups have required wildly
differing amounts of technical help during the course of their
project. I have also found that the students are generally still
unsure about the processes of creating agendas and writing minutes
after the introductory lectures they are given and benefit hugely from
a bit of leading by example. In my second year I provided the agendas
and took the minutes for the first two meetings and found as a result
that agendas and minutes for the subsequent meetings were of a higher
quality than they had been in the previous year (where they had
frequently been non-existent). I supervised no group project in my
third year at Nottingham due to maternity leave.
Feedback on Drafts
I give students the opportunity to show me draft dissertations (the
primary assessment artifact for the module) in advance of submission
and have developed comment sheets (Example of Comment Sheet for Final Year Project) to structure the
feedback I give them. I also make notes on reports and drafts highlighting
grammar and spelling problems and, in the case of
drafts, suggesting ways to reorganise material etc. I
photocopy and return interim reports to
students so they can see these additional comments, obviously drafts
are returned as originals.
Assessment
I originally used the pre-prepared comment sheets as the basis of a
mark scheme but as I have grown more confident and experienced I have
found I can dispense with this and have based my marks more on a
judgement on the technical quality of the achievement (and occasionally
organisational quality of the group) and the quality of the technical
writing in the report modified by
judgement on the general quality of presentation.
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