Elisabeth Laga

Peer-assessment: a valuable tool to differentiate between student contributions to group work?

This paper aims to report experiences with peer assessment (PA) during the first year of operation in a pharmacy practice (PP) course. PA was carried out twice. The range and standard deviation of scores were larger during the second assessment, suggesting a more critical way of rating. This indicates that gaining experience with PA is a necessary condition for this tool to enable students to assess each other’s contribution to group work. A significant correlation was observed between scores awarded by peers and external tutors, indicating that students assessed one another in the same way as external tutors. In conclusion, PA can be a valuable tool to differentiate between student contributions to group work if students are properly trained to conduct such an assessment. It is recommended that PA be integrated at an earlier stage of the curriculum to allow students to gain the required expertise.

Techno-economic educational simulation games for trading and generating electrical energy

This paper presents and motivates the development of a techno-economic education package, consisting of two simulation games, to simulate both the trading and the generation of electricity in a liberalized market. Six attributes (storytelling; players as problem solvers and explorers; feedback; challenges that fit the student characteristics; competition; appropriate graphics and sounds) are relevant in order for simulation games to achieve their learning potentials. These attributes are identified within both developed simulation games.