Thank you so much for all of the great ideas - I'm relieved to see this has not only been a problem for me. I find that my students respond very well to TBL and really enjoy it, but peer evaluations is the most (or only) contentious part of the semester. Inevitably students insist that everyone contributed in equal ways - some people have certain strengths and others have different strengths so it all evens out. They get very worked up about having to differentiate grades. I like the idea of doing away with the actual grading and have been contemplating that for quite some time.
I find the students doing "more than perfect" inflates grades in a way that I don't feel comfortable with. I also have concerns about weighting the team grade by the peer evaluation points if I am forcing them to differentiate numbers - I think that would be more contentious and upsetting for them. This past semester I did decide that 10 on the peer evals = 80%, even though deep down I thought 10 was "average" and thus should be 70%, but I knew I hadn't explained it that way in the syllabus and that would not go over well.
I guess overall though having this problem means TBL is working well for my students. So far, in the end I have always said "Its so great you're having an issue with this - it shows how many of you really formed a cohesive team and worked well together."
Thanks for the suggestion Michael, I think I will use your method next time.
Jorden Cummings Sahl, M.A.
Graduate Student, Clinical Psychology
Depression & Wellness Research Laboratory, University of Delaware
(302) 831-2215
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From: Sweet, Michael S [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wed 3/12/2008 10:34 AM
To: Jorden C. Sahl; [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: the math of peer evals
I have found the "math" issue to be such a thorny one that I don't use numbers anymore, but have found a way for formitive and summative feedback to still motivate students in terms of their grade.
I wrote a little one-pager of it up for a friend recently, so I have attached that.
-M
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From: Team Learning Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jorden C. Sahl
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 9:32 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: the math of peer evals
Hi Everyone,
I recently finished my second Introductory Psychology course using TBL. I have a question that is not that complicated but for some reason I can't get myself around the math and I want to double check with other TBL users before I teach it again.
I used the Peer Evaluation form from the TBL book that assigns an average of 10 points, with one 9 and at least one 11 (max 15). A student asked me - so what does my average have to be to get "perfect" on the peer evaluations? And I was stumped (I had just never thought of it that way)
The max anyone can get would be 15, so I would assume in the rare case scenario of one person getting all 15s from their peers that would be "perfect". But then, if 10 is average, is 10 "perfect" (I.e., if someone gets an average of 10, do they get 100% on peer evaluations, with the possibility for students to get higher than 100%)? (My class picked 30% for the peer evaluations grade weight). Calculating it this way (10 is 100%) increases everyone's grade quite a bit (about half a letter grade), which I don't have a problem with, as long as it is correct!
I am second guessing myself with the math and want some input before I use this method again.
Thanks so much.
Jorden Cummings Sahl, M.A.
Graduate Student, Clinical Psychology
Depression & Wellness Research Lab (302.831.2215)
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716
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