Hi Jarek, I and some colleagues ran a course that sounds quite similar, at least in structure and goals - it was an introduction to R and statistical data analysis for ecology <https://uoftcoders.github.io/rcourse/>. We had groups of 4 students working on a data analysis project at the end, and to assess their group contributions we had them each submit a one-paragraph self-assessment along with the project, outlining what their contribution to the project was. Very similar to what Sarah said, and I agree with her on the benefits of doing that in a way that all group members can see.
We had tried in a previous version of the course to use GitHub contributions to track group participation, but since Git was so new to the students, there was often one student in the group who did most of the GitHub management, and we felt it would be unfair to penalize them for distributing the labour in that way. Another thing that I cannot recommend enough: if possible, get each group to make themselves a code of conduct. From what I saw, this really helped with the tone of the group work and the eagerness of everyone to contribute to their groups. Best, Madeleine On Fri, Jan 18, 2019 at 5:33 PM Sarah Supp <[email protected]> wrote: > Both of these suggestions are great - peer evaluation and using GitHub or > another tool to track evaluations. Another thing I sometimes do in a group > project situation is have students add a "Personnel" or "Contributions" > section, where they need to list each of their names and write about what > aspects of the project they took the lead on and contributed to. I think > for many students, when they have to "claim" parts of the project > officially in writing, it feels a little more real and like there's some > weight to actually making a significant contribution vs free riding. They > also might get some real pushback from their peers if at the end of the > project someone claimed to take lead on something that they actually > contributed little to, and become apparent to the instructor. > > Good luck! > > On Fri, Jan 18, 2019 at 9:56 AM Erika Mesh <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Hi Jarek, >> >> >> >> I teach a lot of group projects here at RIT. Peer evaluations is a huge >> element of being able to assess contributions. I also have groups keep >> everything in GitHub so that I can objectively see evidence of what they >> report in the peer evals. I then generally say that I “reserve the right” >> to adjust a student’s grade up or down based on the evals + my observations >> of their engagement in the project. >> >> >> >> Catme.org is another great resource about peer evals and managing group >> work. >> >> >> >> --Erika >> >> >> >> Erika S. Mesh, GOL-2573 >> >> Visiting Lecturer, School of Interactive Games & Media >> >> Rochester Institute of Technology >> >> [email protected] >> >> >> >> *From:* Jarek Bryk via discuss <[email protected]> >> *Sent:* Friday, January 18, 2019 9:41 AM >> *To:* discuss <[email protected]> >> *Subject:* Re: [discuss] Ideas needed for asessment of group-based data >> analysis project >> >> >> >> Hi, >> >> >> >> The projects would be group responsibility and they will be of sufficient >> complexity that working on them only during the class will not be >> sufficient (at least not for all groups). I can also imagine a scenario >> where a group decides to split tasks to different individuals (and of >> course we cannot control what students would work on outside the class). So >> I think the answer to your question is mostly - but not entirely - in-class >> group work :-) This group work throughput the project is what assessment of >> is giving me headaches. >> >> >> >> Best >> >> Jarek >> >> >> >> On 18 January 2019 at 13:56:21, Leinweber, Katrin ( >> [email protected]) wrote: >> >> Hi Jarek, >> >> That sounds interesting! One question to clarify: Will the students work >> on the group projects only together during the class (thus creating a >> pair-/mob-programming-like situation) or also individually outside of class >> (and for example bringing completed subtask to the next time their group >> meets)? >> >> As I understand this now, I think the two different situations may have >> very different biases attached to the perception of individual >> contributions. >> >> Kind regards, >> >> Katrin >> >> University of Huddersfield inspiring tomorrow's professionals. >> >> >> This transmission is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you >> receive it in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail and remove it >> from your system. If the content of this e-mail does not relate to the >> business of the University of Huddersfield, then we do not endorse it and >> will accept no liability. >> >> > > -- > Sarah R. Supp <http://www.sarahsupp.org> > Assistant Professor > Data Analytics > Denison University > my impactstory <https://impactstory.org/u/0000-0002-0072-029X> > > *The Carpentries <https://carpentries.topicbox.com/latest>* / discuss / > see discussions <https://carpentries.topicbox.com/groups/discuss> + > participants <https://carpentries.topicbox.com/groups/discuss/members> + > delivery > options <https://carpentries.topicbox.com/groups/discuss/subscription> > Permalink > <https://carpentries.topicbox.com/groups/discuss/Tc92aacda71839af9-Ma07659a54ae4ccb9c5560237> > ------------------------------------------ The Carpentries: discuss Permalink: https://carpentries.topicbox.com/groups/discuss/Tc92aacda71839af9-M5da0c1067b692cabd628208d Delivery options: https://carpentries.topicbox.com/groups/discuss/subscription
