Individual accountability
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Ensure that each student is individually accountable with little
possibility of having free rides.
It may seem paradoxical but ensuring that each individual is accountable
for learning the work is one of the most important elements of successful
group work. Failing to ensure this is one of the most common causes
for the breakdown of collaborative group work. Learning is ultimately
an individual process but well functioning groups can help each person
learn.
• There should be frequent individual assessments to make sure
that no one is coasting along on the work of others. Some cooperative
learning advocates suggest that the results of individual assessments
should also be shared with the group. I tend to not do so out of concerns
about privacy, and to spare the student any embarrassment that a poor
performance might cause.
• Students should realize that one person in the group may be
called upon to answer for the whole group.
• Group performance incentives can be made dependent on individual
performances achieving a specified level.
EVALUATION OF GROUPS
A good rule of thumb is that the greater the percentage of the group
grade that goes towards each student's individual grade, the more
closely the instructor has to monitor the progress of the groups.
If you have a large class that prevents you from following the progress
of each group, then do not make the group grade percentage too high.
For a group to function effectively, everyone has to play a positive
role. But only the group members themselves can really evaluate how
well the group is functioning.
There are several ways that an instructor can build in accountability.
• At the very least, every group assignment must carry a statement
that the work was shared by all the group members, and the statement
must be signed by each member.
• Every group project must include a statement that states what each
person contributed to the project (editing, writing, proof-reading,
graphis, programming, research, etc.)
You can also have more complex self-evaluation schemes like the following
that I use:
At the end of the project, the group is required to evaluate how well
each person in the group is contributing to the group effort. In other
words, how well each person is behaving, according to your own list
of criteria for good group behavior.
If the group project is worth 100 points, the group product itself
will carry a common grade that counts towards 80 points of your individual
grade.
The remaining 20 points is determined as follows. For a four-member
group, you will be given 80 points and you as a group will decide
how these points are to be distributed by the members of the group
by consensus.
If the group feels that everyone contributed equally to the class
group work, then each will get 20 points added to whatever points
the group got for its project (out of 80). If the contributions were
not equal, then the point distribution should reflect the unequal
work load. The decision is up to the group. The instructor will intervene
only if there is a disagreement that cannot be resolved by the group.
As a group, you will hand in a sheet (signed by each member of the
group) to the course instructor giving distribution points to each
person in the group according to how much each person assisted the
group to function well.
It is a good idea to do such an evaluation early on in the group
project in order to bring to the surface any latent problems that
may exist before the project is too far along.
