Group Assignment Writing in Engineering: Some Preliminary Findings

Generic skills play an important role in increasing employability and credibility of a student. As for the engineering students, these skills are imparted in the learning activities given to the students. In this newer “group assignment” writing method, students are first asked to form compatible groups among them well in advance in the beginning of the semester. Later, the predefined assignment topics were randomly allotted to the students. The activity demands that students working in a group of 3–4 need to understand the broad statement of the given chapter-end assignment topics and collect the information from various sources including textbooks, Internet sources such as blogs, research journals, etc. Later, students need to prepare a report and submit in a stipulated period of time. Reports collected from students were evaluated for different criteria such as the depth and technical significance of the information collected, logical order of content preparation and presentation, and skills and creativities related to document preparation. Finally, the reports were discussed with the students in the class and awarded with marks. Skills such as writing, collection of information, depth of collected information, organization, teamwork, innovation, and creativity were evaluated for this practice. In our preliminary study, we implemented this newer method of “group assignment” practice to the Molecular Biology and Immunology theory courses of the second and third year B.E. Biotechnology students, respectively. Students were actively involved in this newer activity and found it as an interesting activity. Students’ perceptions about the assignment work were collected at the end of the semester using questionnaires. Results from the questionnaires indicated the following observations: 38 % of students strongly agreed for the opportunity for creativity in group assignment writing, more than 70 % of students agreed that the group assignment writing instigated them to read more and work actively for a concept, 60 % of students believe that the assignment writing work made them understand better the topics, around 38 % of students strongly accepted that the evaluation method adopted was better and judicious over the evaluation for traditional assignment writing, and beyond all about 20 % of students strongly found it a bit laborious. Overall, as a teacher, we personally believe that through “group assignment” writing activity, the generic and professional skills among students can be nurtured by carefully and cautiously looking at the student’s changing perceptions about the writing activities inside and outside the classroom for the betterment of the student’s future.