Given large class sizes, it becomes difficult for teachers to know, whether or not, every student participated in responding to a group assignment. Experience shows that, when students are given a group assignment, students who are most active are the ones who do the assignments.
How can I best know which student participated and which did not participate?
Hi Noel
As a lecturer, I alwways ask them to present rheir work, 5 min, in the following session. Also you can do a peer review by individual students who independenlty write down their comments about other members.Easy and effective. Regards. Zrinka
Dear Zrinka, do you mean you ask every group member to present the same piece of work?
Each member should talk about one aspect of the group task. To do so, they have to agree which aspects they want to do in advance and after you aprove it, they can carry out their work and talk about it in the class. This is a standard group assessment procedure. Hope this helps.
Hi Noel!
I principally agree with Zrinka, though the issue of class size remains a challenge. This is really a tricky game. I presuppose we all know that in assessing group assignments, we can either assess PRODUCTS or PROCESSES or BOTH. It is very unfortunate that we often find ourselves focusing on PRODUCTS rather than PROCESSES, while we are essentially supposed to assess both. Noel is basically asking about what happens during the processes. Experience teaches me that if the objectives of the group assignment are known to students and roles are assigned to each group participant, getting to know who participated and who did not, becomes simplified. You can, for example, adopt Zrinka's suggestion or use peer assessment, especially in contexts of large classes.
I use open courseware (Moodle) for that where the students write a short reflection on the assignment (what they learned, what they would do differently, etc). It does not have to be done with open courseware, this could be done at the beginning of the following class as a review/ warm up on a hand out. The data collected can then be analysed so you can improve your assignments too!!
My practice is to require the group to accomplish a form which contains what each student contributed to the group assignment. In this way, it is very clear to me and to them what each student did.
You can also ask the members of the group about the assignment. You can gauge the extent of his contribution and participation to the group assignment through his answers to questions. But this is fine when there is enough time to do this considering the class size.
In the past we've used peer reviews, and most students will mark her/his peers high or don't use it constructively. It's difficult to use these peer assessments in end results because either they are not taken seriously and marked too high, or otherwise marked far too low without grounds. Sometimes the high marks are to keep "friendly terms" with group members and lower scores can be the result of personality clashes and used as a punishment (peer to peer - "unfriendly").
I'd like to use scaffolding and work an individual mark into group work. This has been used in the past when I taught at a different institution. Eg. If there's a six-week lead time from assigning groups until due date, we could alert groups that each member must bring work to date each week for five weeks to class (hard copy or soft, on personal device) for 2/10 points each week for individual contibution. They should be prepared to a) discuss progress and show work to group, in class, and b) show and summarise very quickly to tutor/lecturer as s/hemoves around the room. 15 minutes for a class if 30 is reasonable time to give for students to discuss group work each week in a tutorial of 2 hours or seminar of 3 hours.
Marks can be allocated simply for presenting materials versus nothing, or for quality (eg. of 2/10 possible marks...0 for nothing, or non-attendance, 1 for done, satisfactorily, and 2 for excellent ... I guess 1.5 for good, not excllt).
Marks can be individual or accrued for a group total at the due date.
In respsone to Lydia comments, I agree that the quality of peer review can be poor unless students are trained how to do it. This is also a question fo spending the quality of time with your students so to prepare them. From my experience, they are always keen to learn how to be critical but they need to be trained in basis. If you do it right from the beginning, this could also be a part of buidling up their LDP (learning and development plan) portfolio.
An individual evaluation by the students themselves can give you information how much they participated in the whole working progress. This is possible via a simple format in which you ask them to fill in questions about themselves an each other about how much time they spend working on it; if they were helpful solving problems; whether they made good appointments and really did what they promised to do; and whether they were satisfied about their own and others contribution.
Because every member of the group will fill in the paper privately, you can get a good view of the working process and each contribution to it. You can use this to transform the result of the product into individual results. Students and pupils really appreciate this. They have a feeling afterwards that their own contribution is valued in a right way. And when they have problems with your differentiation, you have good information to talk about is with the whole group.
When you acknowledge real differences between the judgment of several members of the group which are inconvenient, you can decide not to give an mark until you have spoken them. In this evaluative conversation you can ask what they really have done. With a few questions it is made clear what each contribution has been. If they give (in)adequate answers about the subject they said to have studied, the point has been taken.
Of course there is a lot more to tell about, but in abstract this is what I do myself for the last fifteen years and what's made the problem of giving a individual mark in stead of the same mark to all the members of one group. I use a format that the students/pupils fill in and give to me afterwards.
Good morning,
When I had my students do group work, they all had roles, one of which was the reporter, who shared out or reported to the whole class using the group-created product. Then, to assess individually, I had each student complete a performance task that incorporated a specific number of elements using the product from their group work. I suggested "out-of-the-box" thinking (e.g., jump rope chants, poems, raps, visual representations, dance, text communications, semantic webs, etc.,). With a co-designed rubric, tasks can be scored quickly and individually. My students "representations" of their individual learning based on group work were phenomenal!
Ramona Chauvin
Yes, the group assignments and the assessments based on individual / group performance is really a difficult task. As Ms Ramona shared, the tasks that are given should be having emphasis for individual contributions. I tried one another strategy, i.e., the moderator of each team was asked to give individual contributions by actions, ideas and resources based on which i used to ask functional / practical questions with which every one's answer will surely vary as to the difference in their contribution. So, the marks for these questions are bonus marks that they get. Otherwise its usual that few will be doers and all others will be just spectators and some people behave commentators. Its natural to have such effects as we know very well the problem of social loafing is the unique nature of group tasks. One of our faculty also suggested another assessment strategy, i.e., a kind of matrix evaluation tool where in all the group members will be asked to weigh the performance of the other members, but this approach generally attracts skewness in end result as all would naturally try to appreciate each other irrespective of their individual contributions, especially because all are contributing for one common assignment and all have a strong need to get certain minimum marks for such assignments.
I think performing group work inside classroom depends on the kind of activity will be carried on. Therefore, the teachers should be aware of students level when he is going to gather the students in groups. In addition, levels of students should be in the same level where students have a space to think comfortably without any tensions with having a superior student among them. the teachers should distribute the roles between students in which each student is responsible for a certain role.
I agree with several of the other responders, in that it is important for each student to have a specific job that they need to complete that fits into the whole project. This allows for individual assessment in addition to evaluating how well they are able to work cooperatively, learn the subject matter, help their teammates learn and hopefull improve self confidence for all.
For some years now, in consideration of the problem of strong students getting stronger and weak ones getting weaker because assignments are done for all by the academically strong ones, I generate separate assignments for each individual student. Even if they are 250-300, each has his/her own assignment. Where they must do the same assignment, then they should each give their synopsis of the work at a later unannounced date.
When I set group work it has to be not on the basis that it makes our work of marking easier - what is the rationale for doing a group project? Is there a benefit to the students in working together? Are there options for those uncomfortable in working as a group?
As part of each students involvement in group work they each have to write up and submit individually and separately an outline of their own contribution to the group project AND the contribution of the other members and rate these contributions on a likert scale of 1-5 - this rubric is discussed and collaboratively determined prior to assessment.
I agree David that it is not about making marking easier. I would get group members to create a contract about each members' contributions during the task. When it is agreed upon they all sign it. I have found that having clear responsibilities and expectations assists each member's contribution. At the end of the task, each member describes orally to the whole class what they were responsible for and defends how it was executed. I also have participants reflect on what they learned from working together. By making it a public declaration, I find it becomes a more accurate and well prepared reflective account.
The teacher's responsibility is to navigate each student in the research group and follow up is part of estimation & evaluation at the end of the project
I have had a sheet where each students ranks the participation of all participants and then they get an average of all scores to count towards participation. That way everyone feels involved and has a stake in the responsibility.
Most of my classwork is group based and demands them to meet between lessons. (PBL) During lessons, each group must report their progress which enables me to feel out who is leading the process and who is more passive. I am able to then request from the more passive partners to fulfill specific aspcts of the assignment/s. Often when the groups work in lesson time, I stand in the corner observing them reading body-language and othr signs to see who is more active. Often the more passive are in some form intimidated by stronger students. Not necessarily are the more active students the smarter or more knowledgable. My intervention is quite often to enable the quieter students express their knowledge and understanding in such a way as to strengthen thier self confidence and group standing.
As with Wendy (above), I have students complete an evaluation of the process and the members of the team. They are asked specific questions about how the process was managed, the roles of the participants, and the contributions of the participants. For example, XX contributed to discussion; XX contributed resource materials; XX led the team in problem solving; etc. They have a 5 point rating system for each item. They score every member of the team AND they score themselves. I use the points in calculating a portion of the grade for each member as part of the final grade for the project.
Have to give them the autonomy to do the project. I do have them separately do a reflection of working in a group and the challenges they face
I found out, that splitting a group assignment into several segments and making each student responsible for a specific part of it works well most of the time. Adding to that exchanging of results teaches the students all aspects of the group project as well as finding out about 'loopholes' or where more work is needed to round up the project.This will teach the students to research diligently, how to break down a large assignment into manageable segments and how to 'put the puzzle' of many aspects together into a smooth final result.
You don't know for sure, but one thing you can do is test the students individually over the same material and average that mark in with all the others.
In my large classes I assign roles to each student in the group. When they have to present their project or task...I use rubrics for evaluation...I think it is a good way to assess students during this process.
I do the same strategy with Magdalena Guaman. I use rubrics for evaluation---peer evaluation with qualitative comments
As part of group assignments, I often include short verbal reflections or mini-presentations for groups to discuss their topic, progress through the assignment and outcomes as well as and how they felt their own contribution affected the overall outcomes. It is very easy to see which students have participated / contributed the most.
Hello
Please see some publications in my profile. You may find something interesting.
Kind regards
NP
Sometimes, I’d like to ask a member of the team randomly to answer my question or report the result of the assignments. On the first day of the class, we can tell the class this rule.
I have used a peer evaluation form in the past for group assignments. Each member of the group evaluates the other members regarding participation, cooperation, workload, etc. The result of the peer evaluation is calculated into the grade for each individual, so each student in the group may end up with a different grade, rather than one grade for the entire group, Students receive a grade based on their individual performance in the group. I have found that students are honest in their assessment of one another, and knowing that they will be evaluated by their peers seems to be an incentive to do good work, Of course they are aware of the peer evaluation process before beginning the assignment. This strategy has worked very well for me with undergraduate and graduate students.
I have liked two main lessons from your responses: peer assessment as well as random picking of the presenters of the assignment! The last one will help me much!
What I normally do is to ask each student questions based on the group assignment given. Any student who could not respond to any of the questions asked is just known as a non participating student.
An excellent and an important question. Perhaps one might use, as appropriate, rank ordering of author names, as is common practice in academic writing. Best wishes, Paul