Methodical Evaluation of Single and Group Projects

Evaluation and grading of student projects is a difficult undertaking. It has to be fair towards the student, recognize his work and evaluate his success, but also motivate him for his future learning. At the same time, a project has to be judged justly in comparison to the overall student body and the general level of quality that is to be expected. Ultimately, individual supervision of these projects, as commonly exercised in the German university system, creates personal bonds that, however, must not influence the final grade. The challenge is even higher when assessing student projects where students work together as a team and collaborate on a common topic. This paper proposes a methodical evaluation based on a number of criteria that have been designed to enable an overall evaluation of a student’s work. To ensure overall fairness and the workflow, a standardized template is used. The criteria are communicated to the students before the start of any individual project. Frequent use over the past two years has shown that the system in place works well. It helps supervisors overcome individual (dis)likings and judge the overall project according to the institute’s general quality standards and, at the same time, raises transparency among the students as to the expectations to their work. For this reason, this paper is also meant to be an example of a best practise in design education.     «

Evaluation and grading of student projects is a difficult undertaking. It has to be fair towards the student, recognize his work and evaluate his success, but also motivate him for his future learning. At the same time, a project has to be judged justly in comparison to the overall student body and the general level of quality that is to be expected. Ultimately, individual supervision of these projects, as commonly exercised in the German university system, creates personal bonds that, however,...     »