Hi Jennifer,

When I can, I've applied what I know of survey research and decreasing nonresponse. These things have included one or more of the following, and I find using them together works best:

1.       Give the students class time to complete the evals if they choose (I email out the online survey and keep it open for a week or two. I provide a computer to each student and give them an opportunity to use class time to complete it. However, they also can do it outside of class if they're worried about their screen being seen by peers.)

2.       Give an incentive (I give 2 points to complete the midterm, practice peer eval and then 2 additional points to complete the final peer eval)

3.       Reminders. (Using the electronic format, I know who has or has not completed the eval, so I can remind those who did not.)

So far the number of students who do not respond are few. I don't consider non-participation too much of a problem as long as each team member had at least 3 other members' evaluations of their performance.

Best,
Vanessa


From: Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jennifer Imazeki
Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2013 11:27 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: incentivizing team evaluations

Hi all,

Has anyone else had issues with students who do not complete the team evaluations at the end of the semester? My students complete theirs online, though the LMS, and there are always a couple students who 'forget'. This fall, there were more than usual (at least seven out of a class of 55); one team was particularly bad so the resulting scores only came from three of the six members. I do make the consequence fairly severe - if they do not complete the evaluations, then they do not get to use the Team RA scores (that is, the weight that would have been given to the Team RAs is instead given to their individual RAs, which are generally substantially lower). For most students, this has the effect of lowering their final semester grade by at least a plus/minus, sometimes more. Of course, when they see their grade, THEN they remember that they were supposed to do the evaluations but it's too late since all the grades are submitted. But I've had to deal with a lot of whining...

What strategies do you all use to make sure the evaluations get done?

thanks,
Jennifer
****************************
Jennifer Imazeki
Department of Economics
San Diego State University
homepage: jenniferimazeki.com<http://jenniferimazeki.com>
Economics for Teachers blog: http://economicsforteachers.blogspot.com