Peer moderation of group work in higher education is rapidly advancing through the use of technological developments and is increasingly being informed by pedagogical research. The highly successful WebPA online assessment system has gone through a number of development phases over its 15-year history and has now evolved into a relatively mature and flexible tool for facilitating group work. This paper presents a case study of the approaches that have been used in the system's development from the technical perspective, and describes how the scope of the project has massively expanded and that the development has been continually backed by a sound and wideranging pedagogy. The benefits of using the online system are shown to be underpinned throughout by examples of good practice in the supervision of academic group work. A critical evaluation of the tool and surrounding pedagogical practices highlight future areas for technical expansion. Introduction to peer-moderated markingThe term peer-moderated marking is used, in this instance, to describe the process undertaken by students to assess the performance of themselves and their peer group in relation to a group task or a series of tasks. The process generates individual team member 'weighting factors' from the students' input data that are used to vary (moderate) group marks, which are assessed and allocated by academic supervisors in the usual way. The claimed result is individually weighted marks that are fairer and more apposite for each individual student. WebPA is a computer-based tool, developed at Loughborough University over a period of nearly 15 years, to automate and promote the process.

This paper presents experimentally measured data showing the impact of variable demand on a modern 800 MW CCGT plant. The results contrasting the performance of the plant when operating under optimum conditions with those measured when modulating the output to match dispatch instructions is presented and compared. These contrasts include the impact of step changes, continual modulation and both hot and cold starts of the plant. The results indicate the changes in fuel used per MWh, CO 2 emitted per MWh and the NOx emissions under different operating modes. From the subsequent analysis significant increases were recorded in both fuel used and CO 2 emitted when the plant departs from optimum operating conditions. When the plant is requested to cease generating due to over capacity of the system, major increases in the emissions of NOx, when required to restart generation together with large increases in the fuel used and CO 2 emitted per MWh, can be observed.

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Self and peer assessment offers benefits for enhancing student learning. Peer moderation provides a convenient solution for awarding individual marks in group assignments. This paper provides a significant review of peer-mark moderation, and describes an award winning, web-based tool that was developed in the UK and is now spreading across the world as an open-source web application. It is available for use in any discipline. Qualitative research, at the home institution over several years, reinforces the evaluation of quantitative data extracted from the system and from an extensive user survey to confirm, update and strengthen the previous literature. The research also describes new insights into the thoughts of students, who appear to recognise the transparency that automated moderation offers. The statistics suggest few incidences of team-collusion when entering data, but indicate that peer-marking behaviour is influenced by group size, selection method and year of study. Students comment positively on the recognition of their levels of achievement within a team.