An Investigation of Factors Affecting Student Group Project Outcomes

This paper describes an investigation of factors affecting the outcome of undergraduate student group projects. The data used relates to 2 cohorts of 2^nd year students. The factors addressed are group size, the range of abilities within a group, the presence/absence of women in a group and the mix of expertise (other than in computing) within a group. Results suggest that group size is not a significant factor in determining outcome, weak students do no better when grouped with more able students (than when grouped with those of similar ability), men only groups do not perform as well as groups having women in them and outcome is independent of the range of ´other´ expertise within the group