Evaluating Group Projects

When instructors incorporate group assignments and activities into their courses, they must make decisions regarding how to organize the groups, how to facilitate them, and how to evaluate the completed work. With regard to evaluation, the principles of assessment that apply to evaluating individual students’ work apply to group work as well; however, assessing group work has additional aspects to consider. Specifically, in addition to evaluating the group’s output, instructors need to find ways to determine how the group functioned and the extent to which each individual contributed to the effort. To obtain this information, additional sources of data may be needed.

Evaluation Considerations Include the Following: ​​​​​​​

1. Develop learning objectives for the group project.
   Learning objectives are statements that articulate the specific, measurable outcomes that an instructor expects successful students to achieve by the end of a course. The literature on course design recommends alignment among the three major course components: learning objectives, assessments, and instructional strategies. Learning objectives can be viewed as the foundation for the process of creating alignment. They are the starting point for designing the rest of a course: aligning objectives to tests and assignments and then to class activities that teach students the skills needed to accomplish these objectives. In this case, the instructor must consider whether the learning objectives for a group project should include objectives related to process as well as product and individual performance as well as group performance.
   ▶ Developing Student Learning Objectives
2. Create a rubric to set evaluation expectations.
   A rubric is a scoring guide that articulates and assesses specific components and expectations for an assignment. The rubric can be holistic (one overall rating) or analytic (several relevant dimensions). Analytic rubrics have three components: (a) dimensions of performance that will be assessed, (b) the characteristics associated with each dimension, and (c) a rating scale that identifies students’ level of mastery within each criterion. In this case, depending on the learning objectives identified, the instructor must decide on which dimension each objective is to be rated (e.g., product and/or group functioning) and the indicators of level of performance to be rated (e.g., what constituted outstanding performance).
   ▶ Creating Rubrics​​​​​​​
3. Share rubric with students.
   Student should be made aware as early as possible of the expectations for the assignment (as well as for the entire course). This information can be included in the syllabus, where the assignments are described, or provided when assignment are described in class. By examining the rubrics, students should be able to know how they will be graded and what they must do to attain each grade. This clarity is especially important in groups, so there is no confusion about expectations among the participating members.
4. During the group work process, give regular feedback, so the group members can assess their progress and modify their behavior, if necessary.
   This can be achieved by:
   1. ​​​​​​​Periodically observing group meetings.
   2. Holding individual meetings with group members to review project status.
   3. Requiring students to keep journals of events that occur in each group meeting and submit them periodically. These might include information on who attended, what was discussed, and plans for future meetings.
   4. Asking students to keep minutes for each group meeting and submit them regularly. These might include who attended, tasks completed, tasks planned, and contributors to various tasks.

   Sources

   Cornell University Center for Teaching Innovation​​​​​​​
   Presents a discussion of evaluating group work and an example of a group work assessment rubric.
   Group Work: How to Evaluate It
   Example of Group Work Rubric​​​​​​​

   Carnegie Mellon University Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation
   Provides an example of a rubric for assessing group work, as well as samples of forms for evaluating group process and self and peer evaluations.
   How Can I Assess Group Work?
   Assessing Group Work
   Grading rubric for a Group Project
   Group and Self-Assessment

   University of Tennessee Walker Center for Teaching and Learning
   Provides a list of techniques for evaluating group projects as well as multiple examples of forms.
   Evaluating Group Projects

   University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill Center for Faculty Excellence
   This handout focuses on evaluating collaborative coursework and includes detailed instruction for using a model to derive individual grades from collaborative work.
   Evaluating Collaborative Coursework

   Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching
   This is a general discussion of aspects of group work with a brief allusion and some links to evaluation.
   Group Work: Using Cooperative Learning Groups Effectively

   University of California/Santa Cruz Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning
   Provides a handout with guidelines for designing group projects, which discusses accessibility and includes a brief section on assessment.
   7 Tips for Designing Effective and Accessible Group Work

   University of Michigan Center for Research on Learning and Teaching
   These two links include a brief summary of guidelines for using groups effectively and a list of resources on the topic.
   Guidelines for Using Groups Effectively
   Teaching Strategies: Using Group Work and Team Work

   University of New South Wales Teaching
   Includes a list of ways to encourage students to reflect on their participation in group activities and identify how they can improve as well as a variety of ways to assess group work.
   Supporting Students to Reflect on their Group Work
   Assessing by Group Work

   University of Waterloo Centre for Teaching Excellence
   Lists advantages and disadvantages of various approaches to assessment of group work.
   Methods for Assessing Group Work

   University of Alberta Center for Teaching and Learning
   This is a discussion of evaluating group work and participation and a summary table.
   Assessing Group Work and Participation
   Assessing Group Work

   University of Central Florida Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository
   Provides examples of forms for peer evaluation of group members’ participation and contribution.
   Use Group Evaluating to Assess Group Work

   University of California/Davis Teaching online
   Provides information on group work online, including grading rubrics.
   Group Work and Participation
   

   Oregon State University Center for Teaching and Learning
   Focuses on assessing student learning in group projects. It addresses the issues of the balance between group output and individual student performance as well as the balance between product and process.
   Assessing group projects
   

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