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，项目型组织（project-based organisations）的数量显著增长，因为项目能够带来可观的经济与社会效益。这类项目化组织亟需大量熟练的项目专业人才，以满足不断扩张的人才需求并填补人才缺口。然而，项目管理领域的人才赤字问题日益严峻，已成为项目管理协会（Project Management Institution, PMI）热议的核心议题。熟练项目管理专业人才的匮乏可能导致项目失败，进而对全球国内生产总值（gross domestic product, GDP）产生负面影响。因此，组织拥有合格的项目专业人才以推进项目执行至关重要。为此，雇主们致力于招聘具备合适技能组合的项目管理专业人才。项目专业人才需要兼具技术技能与软技能的平衡搭配：技术技能涵盖时间管理、质量管理、成本管理与范围管理等；软技能则包含问题解决、沟通协作、领导力、团队合作、决策制定与创造力等。

高等教育机构在为行业培养项目管理专业人才方面发挥着举足轻重的作用。各高校采用多种策略培养具备胜任力的项目管理毕业生，其中一项策略便是通过基于小组的评估（group-based assessments）来提升学生的技术技能与软技能。尽管现有文献已从不同学科的学者与学生双视角对小组评估展开了广泛讨论，但针对以此为目标的小组评估实践的循证良好范式仍较为匮乏。因此，本研究旨在从项目管理学者的视角，开发一套包含良好实践的真实性框架，以优化小组评估，从而提升学生的就业技能（涵盖技术技能与软技能）。

本研究以列夫·维果茨基（Lev Vygotsky, 1978）提出的协作学习社会建构主义理论为基础。为实现研究目标，本研究分为四个阶段开展：范围综述（scoping literature review）、系统综述（systematic literature review, SLR）、半结构化访谈（semi-structured interview）以及焦点小组讨论（focus groups）。首先，开展范围综述以探索提升就业技能的路径，其中小组评估便是可行路径之一。第二阶段，本研究借助系统综述，梳理了过去十年间高等教育领域关于小组评估的现有文献，以识别研究空白。研究结果揭示了小组评估领域存在的确定性与非确定性构念。第三阶段进一步探索非确定性研究议题，并将系统综述的发现置于项目管理学科的语境下进行情境化分析。该阶段共对22名通过目的性抽样选取的项目管理学者开展了半结构化访谈，最终形成了围绕小组任务、小组组建、小组规模、搭便车问题以及学术指导等方面的10项建议。在最后一个阶段，本研究通过开展两场焦点小组讨论（共15名项目管理学者参与）对所提出的建议进行了验证。焦点小组讨论的设置旨在通过三角验证法提升半结构化访谈结果的可信度：本研究结合范围综述与半结构化访谈两类数据源，将访谈结果与焦点小组讨论的结果进行对比分析。本研究的最终成果提供了一套严谨的框架，包含一套完整的良好实践规范，用于设计与实施小组评估，以培养项目管理毕业生的就业技能。所识别的良好实践已与个人能力基线（Individual Competence Baseline, ICB.4）中概述的能力进行了概念映射，并结合社会建构主义理论展开了讨论。

本研究预期可为项目管理毕业生的就业技能培养提供助力。项目管理学者可将本框架作为工具，帮助学生同步提升技术技能与软技能。若能依据最佳实践对小组评估进行真实性设计，参与小组评估的学生将有望增强自身就业技能，更好地适配复杂的项目工作环境。