Peer Evaluation FAQ


What is this "peer evaluation"?

An important part of any group project is the process of ensuring fair contribution from each member of the group. To facilitate this process, you will need to conduct peer evaluations which will be considered when final project grades are assigned. Rather than have secret evaluations (which almost never coincide and therefore make it difficult for me to evaluate), I am going to force you to confront this issue early in your projects.

Why not have secret evaluations like everyone else?

For the simple reason that it almost never works fairly. Each person in the group believes he or she contributed more than anyone else and I am unable to fairly adjust grades on the basis of the secret evaluations. By forcing you to think about how you are going to evaluate contributions to group work, several misunderstandings will be avoided at the outset. If you have high standards, it is up to you to clearly tell the group up front that you expect, for example, each group member to attend each group meeting with a type-written set of ideas. It forces you to think about what is really important when it comes to evaluating contribution to group work.

Almost always, the contribution to group work is not equal. Someone may say "I have 21 credits this term, I can't help too much" or "I am working full time" or "I will be out with the tennis team during weeks 3 and 4 of the term" etc. Finding out this in advance may allow your group to assign work accordingly and decide at the outset that "okay, we'll do more, but then this uneven distribution of work will be reflected in our peer evaluations as follows ..." This makes it much easier on everyone in the group as expectations are clear and no one is secretly pissed off at others in their group for not doing their fair share.

How will the evaluations be used in determining my grade?

Since the evaluation is a simple percentage contribution to the final product, it will be used appropriately. That is, I will simply multiply your grade on the project by your percentage contribution to the final group product. That is, if your group got a 80 on a paper and you received a 110 on your peer evaluation, your grade for the paper will be 80x1.1=88. Similarly, if your peer evaluation decided by the group was 90 (on the same project above), your grade on the presentation also will be calculated as 80x0.9=72. It is important, therefore, to make sure the distribution of points truly reflects each group members contribution to the final product. Exactly what constitutes "contribution" is what your group needs to decide early.  In rare circumstances I may allow you to turn in separate peer evaluations for the report and the presentation. The maximum you can get on your project is 100%. 

Okay, so what do we do for this peer evaluation?

I expect you (as a group) to develop an evaluation system that you will use for the performance/peer evaluation at the end of the term. As a group, you need to discuss and reach a conclusion on exactly what factors you will consider in determining final contributions from each group member. I leave it up to you to develop the system. You may decide to assign points at the end of each group meeting for "being on time" or "being prepared" or "actively contributing ideas" or whatever. At the end of the session, you may come up with a system of totaling up these points and determining each person’s contribution. Each group is required to turn in a single signed peer evaluation along with their final paper/report.

Your evaluation system may be quantitative (involving various rating scales), be qualitative (including verbal descriptions only), or be any appropriate mixture of the two. It is VERY IMPORTANT you think carefully about this. Discuss among yourselves what you expect of each other as far as this paper/presentation is concerned. What behaviors are important to you? On what basis do you want to evaluate the contribution of each member to the final paper/presentation? How are you going to measure contribution to the final paper/presentation? How will you measure "quality" of work? Or, will you only evaluate each other on clearly definable measures such as attendance at group meetings? At the end of the semester, will you be satisfied that each person was "graded" fairly based on his or her actual contribution to the final product?

If the system is left to us, what do we turn in to you?

I'm coming to that. The only constraint on your choice of an evaluation system is that it must also include a summary (overall) quantitative measure of the performance of each group member. This summary (overall) performance score is to be a "percentage contribution", as follows:

Chandy Smithan 75% <----|
Chris Smither
125% <----|__These numbers are only examples
Mary Smithman 120% <----| Assign numbers only at the end of the session
Raoul Smithtez 80% <----|

List your group members, if "equal contribution" equals 100%, how much of their "share of work" do you think each member contributed? A person can get more than 100% if he or she was forced to put in more than their fair share because of low contribution from another group member. Of course, this can only happen if there is at least one group member less than 100% (i.e., everybody CANNOT get 125%!). Therefore, another constraint is that THE SUM OF THE GRADES MUST EQUAL THE (# OF GROUP MEMBERS x 100). Make sure to include every group member in the list. All of the actual evaluation will be done at the end of the session. At the start of the semester, you only need to come up with a clear understanding among all group members as to how their contribution to the group work will be evaluated. Use this worksheet for your peer evaluations. It will make it easier on everyone.

Also, it is very rare that ALL group members contribute an equal share on a project such as this.  Therefore, if you are planning on giving everyone an equal share, you MUST provide a written explanation of why everyone is getting an equal share.  You may write a statement attaching your internal evaluation forms or how all of you were able to work equally on the project to explain the anomaly.

NOTE: The MAXIMUM any one member can get is 125%.  If you think someone deserves more than that, come see me long before you get to the end of the term.

Note: EACH GROUP MEMBER MUST SIGN THE FINAL EVALUATION. So make sure everyone in the group agrees to the system of evaluation.

Go to:
Peer Evaluation Worksheet
MKTG 4731 (Consumer Behavior) Page