Methods for Assessing Group Work
Group work can be an effective method to motivate students, encourage active learning, and develop key critical-thinking, communication, and decision-making skills. But without careful planning and facilitation, group work can frustrate students and instructors and feel like a waste of time. Use these suggestions to help implement group work successfully in your classroom.
Introduction
Students should be made aware of assessment before starting the project
assessment method
criteria (product and/or process)
Product versus process
assessing the product - measuring the quantity and quality of individual work in a group project
assessing the process - evaluating individual teamwork skills and interaction
Assessment by instructor versus by group members
by instructor - instructor assigns all marks
by group members - group members evaluate their contributions to the group and assign marks
Product assessment by instructor
Equally shared mark
All group members receive same grade
Exam questions
Questions should be specifically about the project, and are answerable only by students who have been thoroughly involved in the project
Splitting tasks
Project must be divisible into multiple tasks of the same complexity
Each student is responsible for one task
Final mark is part group mark (e.g., 50%) and part individual task mark (e.g., 50%)
Direct evaluation
Instructor judges individual merits
Oral interviews
Periodic reports
Meeting minutes
Observation
Product assessment by peer evaluation
Issues with peer evaluation:
Should we use self-assessment?
Should instructor adjust marks?
Should it be done individually or collectively by consensus?
Distribution of a pool of marks (see Appendix for example)
Award the group a mark equal to (group mark) X (no. of group members)
Let group divide marks among themselves
Individual weighting factor (see Appendix for example)
Points awarded for a list of tasks
Individual mark = (group mark) X (peer assessment factor)
Process assessment
List of skills to assess, such as:
adoption of complementary team roles
cooperative behaviour
time and task management
creative problem solving
use of a range of working methods
negotiation
Process assessment by instructor
Direct evaluation of team behaviour using teamwork logs - sample questions:
what steps have you taken to organize your teamwork?
what steps have you taken to monitor the effectiveness of your team?
what steps have you taken to improve the effectiveness of your team?
what problems have you encountered in working as a team and how did you tackle them?
if you were to embark on a second, similar task as a team, what would be different about the way you go about working, and why?
Process assessment by peer evaluation
Individual assessment (see Appendix for example)
how members view each member of the team
use lists of key group work traits
average of individual marks must be the same as the group mark
References
Gibbs, G. Learning in Teams: a Tutor Guide. Oxford, 1995.
Lejk, M. et al. A Survey of Methods of Deriving Individual Grades from Group Assessments. In Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. Vol. 21, No. 3, 1996.
Appendix with numerical examples
Example for distribution of a pool of marks
Group project mark: 70
No. of group members: 4
Instructor awards 280 points to group
Advises students that difference between marks must not be greater than 20
Group members divide marks by consensus as follows:
Example for individual weighting factor
Rating scale
1 - Did not contribute in this way
2 - Willing but not very successful
3 - Average
4 - Above Average
5 - Outstanding
Peer assessment factor = (individual total) / (average total)
Average of individual totals = 10
If project mark = 60
Individual marks:
Ann = 60 * (11/10) = 66
Bob = 60 * (12/10) = 72
Chris = 60 * (7/10) = 42
Example for individual assessment
3 group members (Ann, Bob, Chris), no self-assessment
Student name: Ann
Evaluated by: Bob (marks selected are in boldface in this example)
Student name: Ann
Evaluated by: Chris
Ann’s final mark: (63 + 61) / 2 = 62%