Using peer review to distribute group work marks equitably between medical students

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Educational Assessment
• Collaborative Learning

Background:

• Peer assessment is established for evaluating medical professionals but underexplored for distributing group work marks in large student cohorts.
• Tutors face challenges in observing individual contributions in large medical student groups.
• Equitable assessment of group work is crucial for fair evaluation of medical students.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a mathematical formulation for equitable distribution of common group work marks using peer assessment.
• To address the challenge of fairly assessing individual contributions in large medical student groups.
• To maintain inter-group variation in group work scores while ensuring fairness.

Main Methods:

• A novel mathematical formulation was developed and applied to assess individual contributions within large groups.
• The formulation was tested on 263 year four medical students in seven large groups (36-40 students each).
• Comparison between new and old formulations was conducted using data from the 2012/2013 academic year.

Main Results:

• The new formulation resulted in a less clustered mark distribution, better reflecting individual contributions.
• Potential issues like collusion and personal vendettas had minimal impact on overall grades in large groups.
• The majority of students perceived the new peer assessment formulation as fairer.

Conclusions:

• The developed mathematical formulation for peer assessment is easy to implement.
• It offers a more equitable method for awarding grades in modules heavily reliant on group work.
• This approach enhances fairness in assessing large cohorts of medical students.