Project description

A new strand of education is developing with the introduction of Degree Apprenticeships (DA). These apprenticeships offer the opportunity to gain a higher education degree while being employed in a role that is aligned to the degree, a way that is pivotal in refining the nation's skills. With Degree Apprenticeships, the traditional life of a student changes. These students do not have the physical community of the campus. Their visits to campus are in intensive blocks, restrictive in their social opportunities. Groupwork forms an important assessment method in education that helps apprentices to break complex tasks, improve collaborative learning, manage time and demonstrate leadership. In addition to the known problems (Davies, 2009) this form of assessment may bring, the nature of DA part-time model brings some additional challenges.

For example, some individuals may feel isolated when apprentices select their own groups. Randomisation on the other hand may form groups of apprentices with different time availabilities. Moreover, apprentices may be forgiving if their fellow colleagues within the same company do not do the assigned work. Methods such as peer assessment can be implemented to mitigate some challenges however this comes with its own problems (Goldman, 1994). Furthermore, being proactive by setting effective team meeting records shared with module tutors via traditional methods or online-based tools could potentially spot and fix problems at an early stage.

For this project, you will explore methods of group selection, compare their advantages in light of degree apprenticeships and propose the most suitable method for DA along with a suggestion for a meeting minutes template that can be integrated with an online tool such as MS Planner.

Goldman, R.L. (1994). The reliability of peer assessments: a meta-analysis. Evaluation & the Health Professions, 17(1), pp.3-21.

Davies, W.M. (2009). Groupwork as a form of assessment: common problems and recommended solutions. High Educ 58, 563–584.

Duties and responsibilities

Working with our Digital Technology Solutions team you will have an opportunity to see how we deliver these new degrees. The team is at the forefront of WMG's delivery of degree apprenticeships, and this research will help in shaping their strategy. The team requires research into online collaborative learning towards understanding the following:

• What is the best group selection method that fits DA-type degrees?
• What technologies can be implemented to mitigate groupwork problems?

Apply for this project

Use the form below to apply for this project.

You must be signed in to submit your application and to receive a confirmation email.