Evaluating Your Group Contributions

Evaluating Your Performance and your Teammates’

Spend 5-10 minutes in your group reviewing each person's contributions to the project.  Discuss such things as:

Who collected what information on which cities

Who wrote what portions of the report

Who prepared the graphics

Who edited and/or word-processed the written report

After you have finished with your group discussion, please individually write brief—confidential--memos to me in which you assign a percentage to each person's contribution to the whole project. These percentages must total 100%.

For example, in assessing the contributions of her team's members, Sondra allocates percentages as follows:

                                       Louie drafted most of the written report and

                                       did the editing and paste-up; no absences.......................................... 40%

                                       Felicia designed the pages and created the

                                       charts and tables; she was absent 2 out of 5 meetings......................... 25%

                                       Sondra did most of the overall planning, collated the

                                       drafts, and assembled the final document............................................ 35%

                                                                                       TOTAL (must equal 100%)……..100%

Calculating Individual Grades

First, I calculate a simple average of each person's contribution, based on self- and peer-assessments. 

To continue with the earlier example:

                                       Sondra's assessment of herself............................................ 35%

                                       Felicia’s assessment of Sondra............................................ 40%

                                       Louie's assessment of Sondra.............................................. 40%

                                                                                       TOTAL............................ 115%

                                       Sondra's average contribution = 38% (115% ¸3 = 38%)

Next, I compare the average contribution figure to a deviation chart:

2-person

    group

3-person

    group

4-person

    group

5-person

    group

Expected %

Adjustment

     factor

       35

       23

        18

       14

        70

      -3/3

       40

       27

        20

       16

        80

      -2/3

       45

       30

        23

       18

        90

      -1/3

       50

       33

        25

       20

       100

         0

       55

       37

        28

       22

       110

     +1/3

       60

       40

        30

       24

       120

     +2/3

       65

       43

        33

       26

       130

     +3/3

           

Finally, I add the plus or minus adjustment factor to the grade for the project as a whole to arrive at each individual's grade.  To return to Sondra and her colleagues, if their project as a whole received a grade of B, since Sondra's average contribution was 38%, her adjustment would be +1/3 of a grade, or a B+.

Summer Session 2001