The use of Peer Assessment and Group Peer moderation to develop 'soft' skills in Engineering students researching Sustainable Energy

Since the change to an outcomes-based approach in Engineers Ireland's accreditation criteria almost 20 years ago there has been an emphasis placed on 'soft' skills such as teamwork and ensuring graduate engineers are not only well versed in their chosen discipline, but that they can communicate their knowledge - to other Engineers and also non-Engineers. Energy Management is a module taught to 4th year Mechanical Engineers, and the learning outcomes are best assessed by how students can communicate the energy topics they are researching. As an individual they will research an area that interests them and write a paper at the end of semester but leading up to this there are two 'patchwork' assessments from which they receive feedback and can use to formulate the introduction to their final paper. The second of these is peer assessed using the same Rubric as for the first assessment, and they must also review their own writing following this. Feedback has shown that this develops a greater understanding of their writing and what constitutes a good technical writing style. Teamwork is developed in this module through a 35% sustainable energy group project which involves a presentation and a written group report. On completion the students submit a peer moderation form online which allows the grade to be moderated if the work was not evenly shared. The approach taken for each element has evolved over 15 years and will be explored as part of this practice paper.