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

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