Methods for Assessing Group Work

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%