A systematic approach to group-based assessment in project management education: CQUniversity case study

Skaik, S ORCiD: 0000-0003-2154-0201Group-based assessments have long been adopted as a means to develop interpersonal and leadership skills of project management students and reduce marking workload. The authentic design of group based assessments plays a vital role to embrace cooperative learning and polish student’s teamwork abilities. However, the traditional means of crafting group assessments do not only increase the vulnerability of students to academic misconduct but also jeopardise the development of teamwork and communication skills which are key attributes of project management graduates. The paper aims to examine the effectiveness of an appropriately designed group-based assessment on the learning of project management students. The paper starts by reviewing the good practices in designing effective group-based assessments. The paper then selects a case study of a postgraduate project management unit at CQUniversity to examine how the assessment design was implemented and its impact on students’ learning. Multiple sources of information were used in this case including publicly available information, the unstructured observation of the unit developer and anonymous students’ feedback. The paper concludes that implementing the group-based assessment, as informed by scholarly work, requires more time and efforts from the teaching team in terms of close faculty coordination, providing timely information, forming groups, providing personalised feedback to each group, marking the staged submissions and responding to students’ enquiries in class and via emails. However, that is considered a little price to pay compared to the benefits and positive effects on student’s experience and attainment of learning outcomes. The demonstrated assessment design may stand as a useful and reliable framework for educators who use or develop authentic group-based assessments in any discipline

[In Press] A critical review of public–private partnerships in the COVID-19 pandemic : key themes and future research agenda

Purpose – Undoubtedly, coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has released unprecedented disruptions and health crisis on people and activities everywhere. The impacts extend to public–private partnership (PPP) arrangements in the construction industry. Concomitantly, PPP pacts are contributing to combat the pandemic. However, literature on the PPP concept in the COVID-19 era remain under-researched. This study aims to review the current literature on PPPs in the COVID-19 pandemic and present the key themes, research gaps and future research directions. Design/methodology/approach – In this study, 29 highly relevant literature were sourced from Web of Science, Scopus and PubMed search engines within the systematic literature review (SLR) methodology. With the aid of qualitative content analysis, the 29 articles were critically analysed leading to the extraction of hot research themes on PPPs in the coronavirus pandemic. Findings – The results of the SLR produced eight themes such as major changes in PPP contracts, development of the COVID-19 vaccines, economic recession, facemasks and testing kits, governance and sustainability of PPPs. In addition, the study reveals seven research gaps that need further investigations among the scientific research community on mental health and post-pandemic recovery plans. Research limitations/implications – The articles selected for this review were limited to only peer-reviewed journal papers written in English excluding conference papers. This restriction may have taken out some relevant literature but they had insignificant impact on the overall outcome of this research. Practical implications – To improve the understanding of practitioners in the construction industry on key issues on PPPs in the COVID-19 pandemic, the study provides them a checklist of relevant themes. Originality/value – As a novel literature review relating PPPs to the coronavirus, it sets the foundation for further research and contributes to practical measures to control the virus