Overview of Group Peer Assessment
The Group Peer Assessment tool can be used as part of a multifaceted approach to improve group work.
The PETS (Proactively Ensuring Team Success) a structured process includes a number of inter-related actions:
- purposeful allocation of students to teams based on a team skills inventory and/or prior knowledge of student attributes
- student self-assessment of teamwork attributes
- explicit student skill development in team dynamics using classroom learning, mentoring and assessment
- Resource: Working in Teams: A Practical Guide
- tailored project features and assessment
- individual and team structured reflection
- anonymous peer evaluation and assessment of team members
- team mentoring and monitoring
Reference: Working in Teams: A Practical Guide
Kavanagh, L., Harrison, J., Cokley, J., and Neil, D. (2010) Proactively Ensuring Team Success: A guide to effective student project teams in higher education, Instructors Manual
Things to Consider
When using the Group Peer Assessment tool you need to determine whether:
- Will you use the Likert or PAF question type.
- Whether the assessment will be formative or summative.
- If the assessment is formative, what interventions will you put in place to support dysfunctional groups.
- Will the results be used to adjust group marks or only as information.
- Moderation of the student responses
- How to clearly explain the peer assessment process and moderation process to students and document it in the Course Profile.
Likert Option
With the Likert option students evaluate peers contributions to group work by answering Likert scale criteria questions. The tool will calculate the Average Score each student receives from all other group members for all criteria.
The tools facilitates the moderation of results to remove unjustified scores and recalculates the Average Score.
Warning: It is recommended that results are moderated if they are going to be used for summative assessment.
Likert use example
Student’s group assignment mark + Average GPAT score
PAF (Peer Assessment Factor)
With the PAF option students asked to evaluate peers individual contributions to group work by splitting 100 marks between the members of the group, including themselves for course co-ordinator set criteria.
The tools facilitates the moderation of results to remove unjustified scores and recalculates the PAF.
Warning: It is recommended that results are moderated if they are going to be used for summative assessment.
PAF use example
The PAF (Peer Assessment Factor), if generated through a moderated process, can be used as a measurement of student contribution to a group assignment. PAF can be used to adjust students individual group assignment results.
i.e. If the group assignment receives a mark of 80 out of 100 and students receive PAFs of
Student 1: 0.85
Student 2: 1.00
Student 3: 1.10
Student 4: 0.95
Student 1’s assignment mark = 0.85 x 80 = 68
Student 2’s assignment mark = 1.00 x 80 = 80
Student 3’s assignment mark = 1.10 x 80 = 88
Student 4’s assignment mark = 0.95 x 80 = 76