PAF - View and Moderate Result

The total marks individual students receive from other group member are shown in the Total Marks section.

View Total Marks Example

In the below example group members had divide 100 points between all group members for each of four criteria.

Mary Savin in the 3^rd row received a total mark of 67 from Daryl Luyton in the 2^nd column.

1. To view all the marks and feedback an individual group member received click on their name in appropriate row.

2. To view all the marks and feedback an individual group member gave to other group members click on their name in the appropriate column.

All results should be moderated before being used to adjust individual student assignment marks. Refer to the PAF Moderation Case Studies guide for examples of how to moderate PAFs.

Refer below for information on the purpose of PAFs, SAPAs and Ratios and how they are calculated.

Recommendation: It is recommended during the moderation process that all student results are checked.

Tip: The use yellow highlights (based on the Limit) to identify groups where there is disagreement between members with the scores allocated to individuals. You may wish to change the limit to 10%.

Warning: It is important that you can justify PAFs if they are contested.

Remove all scores assigned by a student

1. Uncheck the checkbox next to the student name to remove all the scores they assigned to group members.
2. The PAF and SAPA will be recalculated and displayed in the New PAF and New SAPA columns.
3. Click on the Save Changes button.

Remove individual scores

1. Uncheck the checkbox next to the required score/s.
2. The PAF and SAPA will be recalculated and displayed in the New PAF and New SAPA columns.
3. Click on the Save Changes button.

Tip: Check unusual PAFs (and SAPAs and Ratios) by taking into account all of the contributing factors including the comments that students gave for their division of points. Tutors may also be able to provide supporting knowledge for unusual PAFs. In some cases it may be necessary to meet with groups or individual students to check on the contributions of group members to the assignment / project.

Tip: You may wish to limit PAFs to 1.10. All PAFs of 1.06 should be checked, PAFs great than 1.06 you may wish to lower (by removing high scores). Similarly all PAFs of 0.94 should be checked, PAFs lower than 0.94 you may wish to increase (by removing low scores).

The PAF is a number that is calculated to represent an individual student’s contribution to a group assignment. After the student responses have been moderated the PAF can be used to calculate individual student assignment marks using the formula:

Student individual mark = PAF x Group assignment mark

1. Add all the scores a student receives.
2. Multiple the number of criteria by 100.
3. Divide 1 by 2.

PAF Calculation Example

In the below example group members had divide 100 points between all group members for each of four criteria.

1. Mary Savin’s total scores = 68 + 67 + 70 +77 +75 + 67 = 424
2. Criteria total = 4 x 100 = 400
3. Mary Savin’s PAF = 424 /400 = 1.06

Interpretation of the Peer Assessment Factor (PAF)

A student who pulls their own weight in a team and who does similar amounts of work to everyone else will achieve a peer assessment factor (PAF) of 1.0.

Students who lead the team and who are recognised as putting in extra work will achieve a PAF of above 1.0. It should be noted that in order for students to reward someone that they believe is doing extra work, they have to take points from another student who may not be ‘free riding’ but who is perceived to not be doing quite as much as the rest of the team. Therefore it is quite common for students to receive PAFs slightly below 1.0 but not to be in danger of failing as their group members have ‘robbed Peter to pay Paul’.

PAF use Example

i.e. If the group assignment receives a mark of 80 and students receive PAFs of

Student 1: 0.85

Student 2: 1.00

Student 3: 1.05

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

PAF Formula

The PAF is calculated by the sum of all scores attributed to a student individual by the number of criteria multiplied by 100.

The above formula assumes all students have completed the assessment. If a student has not completed the assessment the equation becomes:

The SAPA (self assessment over peer assessment) gives an indication of how realistically students judge their individual contribution to a group project. It compares the score a student allocates themselves against the average that all the other students have given them. The SAPA can also be used to highlight students who are trying to “game” the system.

High SAPAs can give students unfairly high PAFs and low SAPAs can reduce a student’s PAF unfairly.

SAPA Calculation

1. Total score student allocated themselves.
2. Total scores other students allocated the student / number of other group members.
3. Divide 1 by 2.

Example SAPA Calculation

The score Robert assigned himself (85) does not agree with that assigned to him by other group members. i.e. SAPA ratio of 1.19.

= The score Robert assigned himself divided by the average score from Katherine + Daryl + Mary + Katrina + Mathew

= 85 divided by (68 + 70 + 71+ 82 + 65) / 5

= 85 divided by 71.2

= 1.19

Interpretation of the SAPA

A student who pulls their own weight in a team and who does similar amounts of work to everyone else will achieve a peer assessment factor (PAF) of 1.0.

Students who lead the team and who are recognised as putting in extra work will achieve a PAF of above 1.0. It should be noted that in order for students to reward someone that they believe is doing extra work, they have to take points from another student who may not be ‘free riding’ but who is perceived to not be doing quite as much as the rest of the team. Therefore it is quite common for students to receive PAFs slightly below 1.0 but not to be in danger of failing as their group members have ‘robbed Peter to pay Paul’.

SAPA Formula

The SAPA (self assessment over peer assessment) gives an indication of how realistically students judge their individual contribution to a group project. It compares the score a student allocates themselves against the average that all the other students have given them. The SAPA can also be used to highlight students who are trying to “game” the system.

The SAFA is the score that the student has given themselves over the average that all the other students have given them.

As for SAPAs, Ratios provide a comparison of how a student views another’s input compared to how the rest of the group sees their input. In the moderation process, Ratios are used to see where students may have unfairly increased or decreased another student’s PAF.

Ratio Calculation

1. Total score assigned to student B by student A.
2. Total scores other students besides student A allocated the student B / number of other group members.
3. Divide 1 by 2.

Example Ratio Calculation

The score received by Katherine Collyer (52) from Katrina Turner does not agree with scores assigned to her by other group members. i.e. Individual v Average ratio of 0.77

= Score from Katrina divided by the average score from Katherine + Daryl + Mary + Robert + Mathew

= 52 divided by (66 + 63 +70+70 +66) / 5

= 52 divided by 67.4

= 0.77

Interpretation of Ratio

Ratio Formula

All individual scores assigned to a student are also compared those assigned by the rest of the group. The Ratio is calculated the same way as the SAPA.