Hi all,
Great topic! Important points raised by several
folks already. Derek - thx for the detailed info
and the syllabus 'copy' - I'll be adding much of
that to the paragraphs I've lifted from your syllabi in the past!
Here's my experience, forms, and procedures for
END OF SEMESTER peer evaluations. (Keep in mind
that the preliminary, or team-generated Peer
Evals, shared and discussed within each team, use
the team-generated Peer Evaluation Procedures and
Criteria and are intended to facilitate internal
team processes during the course of the semester.)
Note the attachments
- an MS Word file with the form I use for end-of-semester Peer Evaluations
- an Excel spreadsheet example of how I calculate Helping Behavior points
- an MS Word file that contains the 'body' of
this e-mail message, for easy access and printing
Administering the end-of-semester Peer Evaluations -
- I always do it in class, usually the
second-last class (absent students then have one
more chance to complete the form)
- I present it as a “secret ballot” – done
without out consultation, folded in half, and
typically collected on the spot (rather than put in the team folders)
- I always review the rules verbally and write
a couple examples on the board, an overhead, or
have them prepared in PowerPoint, because a few
students always mess this up – they don’t end up
with a total of 40, 50, or 60 points (and then you have to tweak their numbers)
- I also allow students to choose any number
between 0 and 20. Students seldom go lower than 5
or higher than 15, but when I expanded the
possible range, I found students more willing to
move beyond the 9-11 point range – so I get
greater discrimination among teammate scores.
- someone always complains about the rule of
discriminating among teammates (you can’t give
all 10s), and asks why. I tell them: 1) it ain’t
possible you all did exactly the same amount of
work, 2) if I don’t require you to discriminate
too many students won’t, and, when the objections
persists, I tell them 3) it’s a rule.
What I tell students about the end-of-semester Peer Evaluations -
- at the beginning of the semester I assure
students that our use of “teams” will be
different, better, and FAIRER than their other
experiences with groups and teams – because the
Helping Behavior points reward the people who
work hard (and that you can actually get more
than 100% of the Helping Behavior points, and
that the Helping Behavior points separates the
hard workers from the slackers – by as much as a whole letter grade)
- when filling out the end-of-semester Peer
Evaluation forms, I again remind students to
reward the people who went the extra mile
- and I remind them that it’s possible to get
more than 100% of the Helping Behavior points
- I also tell them that I (the instructor)
assigns the Helping Behavior points, based on my
observation of the groups and with the help of
the (end-of-semester) Peer Evaluations
- I’ve found it useful to let students know
THEY are not determining the Helping Behavior
points (they get squeamish, and that would be a
violation of state law in many places)
- in practice, I rely heavily on their input
and tweak the scores based on my observations
Things to watch out for -
- if students don’t go beyond the 9, 10, and 11
scores, there’s not much basis for discriminating
in the Helping Behavior points – so I encourage
them to reward high performance (I focus on the
positive, and they’re usually prepared to dock points from the slackers)
- slackers tend to give scores as similar as possible
- occasionally there is subterfuge: 2 students
conspire to rate each other high at the expense
of their teammates (solution: examine the other
ratings – there’s usually general agreement about
slackers; or contact the team and ask questions)
- occasionally there is bias: this is harder to
spot than subterfuge, but sometimes a quiet
student, or one with a medical problem, will
elicit lower ratings than they deserve (solution
– all you can do is be watchful for such trends)
- Jim Sibley wrote: “There has been some
concerned expressed by students on whether a bad
member is good for the team allowing the other students to share more points.”
- unfortunately, this is essentially true
- I deal with this issue in two ways – 1) note
my Peer Eval form says to rate “active” teammates
(if someone has stopped participating in class,
you don’t get to split up the points), and 2) I
tweak the scores if some teammates are
artificially high because they have a person
earning very low Helping Behavior points
Calculating the Helping Behavior points –
- I used to promise to award 100% of the Helping Behavior points
- but then I found that the class would “max
out” on Helping Behavior points in Setting Grade
Weights (my upper limit for Helping Behavior has
always been 20% of the total grade)
- and my overall grades were then inflated at
semester’s end – with no mechanism for correction
- I no longer promise to award 100% of the points
- I typically award 85-95% of the Helping Behavior points
- in the sample spreadsheet attached:
- I chose to award 90% initially, and left it there
- but I could have ‘tweaked’ the class
grades by raising or lowering that percentage
- note the Grade Weight was set at 80 points for Helping Behavior
- so 90% means the average awarded was 72 points
- and some students did indeed earn more
than 100% of the available Helping Behavior points
- although I post the overall grade sheet for
students to see (hence the “Pen Names”), I do NOT
post the helping behavior sheet that is attached.
Hope this is helpful.
Andy
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The mind is like a parachute - you're not really using it unless it's open.
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T. Andrew Finn
Visiting Associate Professor
Department of Communication (3d6)
George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030
Office: Thompson 109d
Dr. Finn's mailbox is in Thompson 212 (the Comm. Dept. office)
703-993-4387 (office)
703-993-1096 (office fax)
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Web Site: http://mason.gmu.edu/~afinn/
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