Self-Assessment of Teamwork

In preparation for the ALPS slumber party later this week . . .

Two of my courses this past semester were organized in part around project-based learning. This worksheet asked students to rate each other’s soft skills contributions to their teams, but I didn’t use it as a formal assessment instrument. Nothing that students wrote on their worksheets counted toward their course grade.

I created another self-assessment instrument that did contribute to the final grade. Here are the directions:

For each member of your team (including yourself), assign a score and discuss the reasons for the score. Consider your and your teammates’ contributions to the project in terms of:

• quality and relevance of research
• quality of writing
• leadership and initiative
• completing tasks and meeting deadlines.

Each member of your team must be given a different score. A score of 1 means most valuable contribution. A score of two is second most valuable contribution. Etc.

Your score on this assignment will be based on the ratings provided by everyone on your team.

How did I factor the information from these evaluations into the final course grade? The evaluation was worth up to 30 points out of 300 for the whole course. I averaged the ratings for each member of a team to generate a rank order of the team’s members. Each student who submitted the evaluation earned 15 points. A team’s first place student received another 15 points; the second place student 10 more points, and the third place student an additional 5 points.

This system was quite simple to use.