‘It felt more real’: improving the experience of academic staff and students in assessed group work in undergraduate business education

This paper presents the findings of a Participatory Action Research project across two Higher Education institutions to inform the authors’ practices in assessed group working (AGW) in a level 4 marketing module. The ‘Guiding Principles Model for AGW’ (Laurie et al. 2015) presented at the 2015 Academy of Marketing Conference ‘The Magic in Marketing’ was used to inform the action research project aimed at improving the outcomes of AGW for staff and students. Key areas for improvement were identified as fairness in allocation of grades and a reduction in free loading and social loafing. In addition, ways of reducing incidences of ‘socially destructive behaviours’ which critically harm weaker students’ ability to develop were investigated. The lead author took the role of critical friend, and it was found that the guiding principles model was helpful when addressing the areas of concern in previous AGW.