Group-based Assessments in Project Management Higher Education

The number of project-based organisations has been significantly growing in recent years as projects provide substantial economic and social benefits. Increased projectised organisations require a large number of skilled project professionals to meet the growing demand and close the talent gap. However, the talent deficit in project management is mounting and has become a topical discussion raised by the Project Management Institution (PMI). A lack of skilled project management professionals can result in the failure of projects which can have adverse impacts on the gross domestic product (GDP) across the globe. It is vital that organisations have competent project professionals to execute projects. Therefore, employers aim to recruit project management professionals with the right set of skills. Project professionals require to have a balanced mixture of technical and soft skills. Time management, quality management, cost management and scope management are some of the technical skills. On the other hand, soft skills entail problem-solving skills, communication, leadership, team working, decision-making, and creativity.
Higher education institutions have an influential role to play in preparing project management professionals for the industry. Higher education institutions adopt many strategies for developing competent project management graduates, one of which is the use of group-based assessments to polish students’ technical and soft skills. Although group-based assessments have been extensively discussed in the existing literature considering both the perspectives of academics and students in different disciplines, evidence-based good practices of approaching group-based assessments to serve this purpose are still lacking. Therefore, this research aims to develop an authentic framework with good practices for approaching group-based assessments to polish employability skills (both technical and soft) from the lens of project management academics.
This research is grounded on the socio-constructivist theory of collaborative learning developed by Lev Vygotsky (1978). To achieve the aim of the research, the study was conducted in four stages: a scoping literature review, systematic literature review (SLR), semi-structured interview and focus groups. Firstly, a scoping review was undertaken to explore the approaches to improve employability, one of which is group-based assessments. In the second stage, the SLR was utilised to examine the existing literature relating to group-based assessment within the last decade in the context of higher education to identify research gaps. The findings suggest some conclusive and inconclusive constructs of group-based assessments. The third stage further explores the inconclusive aspects and contextualises the SLR findings in the context of the project management discipline. This stage involves conducting twenty-two semi-structured interviews with purposively selected project management academics. The third stage concludes with a set of ten recommendations around group tasks, group formation, group size, free-riding issues and academic guidance. In the final stage, the proposed recommendations are validated by conducting two focus groups consisting of fifteen project management academics in total. The focus groups were adopted to increase the credibility of the semi-structured interview findings, based on the SLR review by way of triangulation, using the two sources of data, to compare the findings from the interviews with the results from the focus groups. The final findings of the research offer a robust framework with a comprehensive set of good practices for designing and administering group-based assessments with an aim to develop the employability skills of project management graduates. The identified good practices are conceptually mapped to the competencies outlined in the Individual Competence Baseline (ICB.4) and discussed in the light of the social constructivist theory.
It is anticipated that the findings of the research can contribute to developing the employability skills of project management graduates. Project management academics can use the framework as a tool to help students develop both technical and soft skills. If group-based assessments are designed authentically maintaining its best practices, students participating in group-based assessments are expected to enhance their employability skills and be better ready for the complex project environment.

近年来，基于项目的组织数量显著增长，项目为经济和社会带来了显著效益。随着项目化组织的增加，对大量具备专业技能的项目专业人员的需求日益增长，以填补人才缺口。然而，项目管理领域的人才短缺问题日益严重，已成为项目管理协会（PMI）提出的热点讨论话题。缺乏具备专业技能的项目管理专业人员可能导致项目失败，进而对全球国内生产总值（GDP）产生不利影响。组织拥有具备专业能力的项目专业人员来执行项目至关重要。因此，雇主旨在招募具备恰当技能组合的项目管理专业人员。项目专业人员需要具备技术与软技能的平衡结合。时间管理、质量管理、成本管理和范围管理是一些技术技能。另一方面，软技能包括问题解决能力、沟通、领导力、团队合作、决策和创造力。
高等教育机构在为行业培养项目管理专业人员方面发挥着举足轻重的作用。高等教育机构采用多种策略来培养具备专业能力的项目管理毕业生，其中之一便是利用基于团队的评估来磨炼学生的技术与软技能。尽管基于团队的评估在现有文献中已被广泛讨论，考虑了不同学科领域的学者和学生的视角，但针对此目的进行基于证据的良好实践仍显不足。因此，本研究旨在从项目管理学者的视角出发，开发一个真实的框架，包含良好的实践方法，以指导如何进行基于团队的评估，以磨炼就业技能（包括技术与软技能）。
本研究基于由列夫·维果茨基（1978年）提出的协作学习的社会建构主义理论。为了实现研究目标，研究分为四个阶段进行：范围文献综述、系统文献综述（SLR）、半结构化访谈和焦点小组。首先，进行范围综述以探索提高就业能力的方法，其中之一是基于团队的评估。在第二阶段，利用系统文献综述（SLR）来审查过去十年高等教育背景下与基于团队评估相关的现有文献，以识别研究空白。研究发现了一些关于基于团队评估的结论性和非结论性结构。在第三阶段，进一步探索非结论性方面，并将SLR的发现置于项目管理学科的背景下。这一阶段涉及对二十二位有意挑选的项目管理学者进行半结构化访谈。第三阶段以围绕团队任务、团队组建、团队规模、搭便车问题和学术指导的一套十项建议结束。在最终阶段，通过进行由十五位项目管理学者组成的两个焦点小组来验证所提出的建议。焦点小组的采用是为了通过三角测量法，基于SLR的审查，使用两种数据来源，将访谈结果与焦点小组的结果进行比较，以增加半结构化访谈发现的可靠性。研究的最终发现提供了一个稳健的框架，包含了一套全面的好实践，旨在设计和管理基于团队的评估，以培养项目管理毕业生的就业技能。所识别的良好实践与《个人能力基准》（ICB.4）中概述的能力概念相对应，并在社会建构主义理论的背景下进行讨论。
预计，本研究的发现将有助于提升项目管理毕业生的就业技能。项目管理学者可以使用该框架作为工具，帮助学生发展技术与软技能。如果基于团队的评估能够真实地保持其最佳实践，那么参与基于团队评估的学生预计将提高其就业技能，并更好地准备面对复杂的项目环境。