In one of my classes, we had do a major group research project that counted for half our grade. the group I was in was larger than the other groups because one person in the other group dropped out and so our group was combined. we had to do peer evaluations of our group members out of 10- this would be the basis for our overall grade and not the grade you actually get on the group project. I rated everyone a 10 because I thought it was pretty equal, but i looked at mine and it was a 6.5/10. this was shockingly low to me, i couldn’t believe that i got rated so low and that they would do that. i mean i showed up to every meeting and tried to participate and think I did contribute as much as everyone else, but when the group was bigger it was difficult to contribute as much than if it had been smaller like the other groups, especially because my personality is not as dominant in a group setting with people I don’t really know. And it didn’t help that they weren’t very good group members either, like they didn’t even talk to me about any issues that they were having or anything to let me know or else I would have tried to contribute more, it’s not like I was purposefully trying to do less work they didn’t even tell me anything. I mean i didn’t really like them but I didn’t think they would stoop that low since this affects my overall grade. why would they do that knowing how much it could affect my overall grade? And one of the group members was overbearing and annoyingly bossy and tried to do a lot of the work herself so how would that be my fault. but my teacher is strict and made it so that the overall grade for the project is based off peer evaluations, resulting in my project grade being a 60/100, when i believe my group members all got better grades. I think this is so unfair, it’s not my fault that I got stuck with terrible group members. I’m so shocked that they would do this. I seriously really hate them right now.
I’m sorry about that. I’m against peer evaluations wholeheartedly for a number of obvious reasons.
I’m confused, early in your post you said that the peer evaluations “would be the basis for our overall grade and not the grade you actually get on the group project”. And I would maybe talk to the professor about instituting some sort of comment system. Peer evaluations can be very useful when done properly, and it sounds like your professor isn’t doing them properly at all.
At least then you could see WHY you had such low reviews, rather than just assuming as you’re doing now.
As for the bossy girl, frankly, I’m that type of person. If I think my group is incompetent, I will take over and just delegate as I see fit and if I don’t think anyone can do a part better than I could, I do it. If someone doesn’t like it, they need to speak up, I’m not a mind-reader.
I’m very sorry for your low grade, as you seem honestly shocked by it, but learning how to speak up in group settings is a valuable lesson that it sounds like you need to learn.
Well, what did you actually do on the group project, besides just showing up? Your other group members might have felt like you just came to the meetings, but you didn’t do any of the work. Having a larger group isn’t an excuse. Having more people means you should be able to do a better project, not that you should be able to coast on what other people do. I’m not saying that’s what you did, but other students can feel like that. Do you have a record of what you actually did to contribute?
I’d recommend talking to your professor about it, unless you are comfortable asking your other group members why they gave you the evaluation they did. Tell your professor that you believed you did the same amount of work as the other students and you’re trying to understand the low evaluations. Tell the professor what you did to contribute, compared to what the other students did.
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It seems like a strange way to grade based on peer evaluations. This is why i’m against them as well.
Well at the end of the day, what kind of big impact is it having?
The big impact would be my overall grade for the class. Like if for the overall project we got a grade of A, but you got a D on the peer evaluations, then you would get the D letter grade regardless of how well you did on the project, which I think is a terrible grading system. Like even if the evaluation was worth like part of the grade and not the whole thing I would understand more but basing the whole grade on it seems unfair. But having a larger group doesn’t necessarily mean that you would do a better project if the group didn’t work well together. Specific tasks weren’t really delegated, we just worked together on shared document.But the evaluations can be biased too and you don’t know why they rated you that way and you may not agree with it, like there’s too many factors involved. I didn’t feel comfortable enough that I could speak up, but I realize I probably should have.
The cynical way to look at it is that your group members figured if they graded you down, their grades might end up higher. But it could be that you didn’t step up as much as some of your teammates did, or impeded the progress of the group in some way. I have to say that I work with a fair number of people who think that just showing up is enough of a contribution, but it isn’t…
I’m not saying that you would actually do a better project. I’m saying that it’s not unreasonable to expect more of a larger group. You should be doing as much work as the students in the smaller group, so therefore, your group should have come up with something better than a group with a smaller number of students. If it’s exactly the same as a smaller group, then that could indicate that not everyone was contributing as much as they should have been. It’s easy to sit back and do less when you have a big group, which is probably what the professor was worried about. Not everyone is going to be able to work well together, but you have to learn to work with people who you don’t necessarily get along with.
What shared document? Did you use google docs? Google docs can show you a history of who made what changes to the document. A word document? Word can also track changes, but I think you need to turn this on beforehand.
And when I said a record, I didn’t mean an official record. I just meant tell your professor what you were responsible for and what you did to contribute. For instance, how much of the project did you originally write? What ideas did you contribute? I don’t know what the actual assignment was, but for example, I once had a group project where part of it was to write a research paper. So we split up the topics we were going to cover in the research paper. We all edited each others work, rearranged things, and put it all together in one paper, but everyone could point towards particular topics and say I did the research for that and wrote the original draft of that portion. Students could say I formatted it into the final layout or I read over the final draft and edited it or whatever. Granted, it’s just your word, but you can compare what you actually did to what other students in the group did and ask your teacher to reconsider. If you can get other members of your group to support you, then that would be helpful, but it doesn’t sound like you have a very good relationship with them.
Even if the tasks weren’t officially assigned to anyone, you should be able to say specifically I wrote this paragraph or I edited this document or I did this research or I contributed this idea. If you can’t think of specific things that you did to contribute to the project, then perhaps you didn’t do as much as you think you did.
I agree that someone’s grade shouldn’t be determined by their peers, but arguing about the grading system isn’t going to get you anywhere. The professor was clear about the grading system from the beginning (I hope!), and you went into the project knowing what was expected of you.
Think about it from the other point of view. What if you had worked really hard and did most of the project, while everyone else just sat around and did nothing (or very little)? Perhaps, you were coming up with all of the ideas, and others were just agreeing. And then you did most of the writing, while others just read over what you wrote. And then you all get the same grade, even though you did all the work. Wouldn’t you feel a little resentful that everyone got a good grade even though you did all the work? I think this is the situation that this type of grading system is supposed to help prevent. It’s a way to hold students accountable for the work they do outside of class when the professor can’t be watching everyone.
Do I think it’s a good grading system? No, definitely not, but it’s not up to me or you to determine the grading system. It’s up to your professor. It’s unfortunate, but you knew what was expected. All you can do now is talk to your professor about it and explain your understanding of how much work you contributed. Definitely, do not tell your professor that you think the grading system is horrible. That’s not going to help.
Whenever we had those peer evaluations, our group always agreed to rate everyone the max. I always figured this was basically standard. Perhaps next time you have a group you should propose this.
I’ll say I’ve had a couple of times where I had to rate teammates where one person literally did nothing. In one case it was a team of two and I did the whole thing, but didn’t mind as it wasn’t a big assignment and it wasn’t something that needed more than 1 person, so I just gave him the max and I didn’t care. In the other it was a team of 4 and one guy was just an idiot and the other 3 of us had it under control so we just didn’t want his input. In the latter case the guy showed up to meetings but did literally no work. The other 3 of us didn’t really care but I suppose in some teams the other teammates might. Is it possibly that’s how your team felt about you?