Nutbeam and Bauman 2006 Trochim 2006

Record presentations for feedback: If students are happy to do so, presentations (and clinical skills practice) can be recorded, put online and students can watch and grade them in their own time (See Using video for self assessment). This reduces pressure to make decisions and judgments are more likely to be objective. Students who are crippled by performing in front of an audience might prefer this method of assessment. Consider the quality of sound and video recordings however.

Group work: Evaluating peers’ contributions to group work in order to counter social loafing

In group work, students and teacher often complain about students dominating group work, while some feel they do not need to put in as much effort.  Awarding individual marks for contribution can help this, but somewhat defeats the object of true collaborative group work and this does not usually happen in authentic work and research situations.

A solution is to provide students an anonymous online page to evaluate the contribution of their peers’ contribution. This allows students the opportunity, especially in large classes where teacher supervision of group work is more difficult, to express concerns with peers, issues arising in  allocating roles, or even their own problems such as extra curricula responsibilities which are preventing them form contributing. The teacher can then decide how to intervene. The students’ evaluation of their peers can be used as part of the group (or individual) grade.

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