Refining a Risk Framework for Student Group Projects

Tertiary educators in software related topics experience issues during project-based group assessments. Our long term goal is to help educators manage the challenges that inevitably occur by providing a risk planning mechanism for students that suits the needs of the course. In this paper, we describe the first iteration of an action research study to trial a risk framework for academic group projects. Our aims were to understand how educators appropriate the framework to suit their course, gain insight into students’ understanding of risk concepts and refine the framework. A questionnaire based on the framework was distributed to students in three 12-week computer science (CS) courses. We found that most students reported few issues. Participating courses used the framework in different ways. Students lacked a holistic understanding of risk management concepts, implying the need to formally introduce these. Our study progresses the understanding of the issues experienced in academic group projects and contributes a revised framework to help manage these. In future iterations, we will investigate links between issues and project characteristics and establish a repository of mitigation strategies that is project-specific.