Individual Grades

Individual grade only. This approach usually combines both a team evaluation and individual documentation, taking into account both peer input and individual self-assessment and reflection.  Each student can document his or her contributions, and members can rate one another on their attentiveness at meetings and the team aspect of pulling everything together at the end. Depending on the nature of the project, some instructors find it helpful to be able to monitor informal group communications, to better inform grading decisions after the project ends. For example, some instructors have students use tools like Google Docs as a collaboration mechanism. The instructor can occasionally view the document, seeing what students are contributing the most or if any one student appears to be putting in the bulk of the effort. Many wikis also have this capability, allowing the instructor to view change logs and other ‘digital footprints’ that shed light on an individual team member’s activity.

Advantages:

  • Often perceived as a very fair way to grade.
  • With the reliance on documentation, such as meeting minutes, attendance sheets and so on, this method draws attention to the teaming process, which might be a large part of the learning process for the entire project.

Disadvantages:

  • Depending on the number of materials and documentation created, this method can be time consuming for instructors.
  • Reliance on documentation might backfire. If students do not generate enough documentation or keep good records, instructors will have difficulty grading accurately.