Peer Evaluations

The peer evaluations are a way for students to evaluate the contributions of their team members to the project. The peer review evluations account for 25% of the grade, so it is important to take this seriously.

The peer evaluation will be done using a Qualtrics Survey, which students will receive a link to via email. The survey will be open for a limited time, so make sure to complete it before the deadline.

All answers are anonymous, and the results will be shared with the instructors only. If you have questions regarding grades, please contact the instructors directly.

Tasks

Students have to assess themselves and their teammates on the following dimensions, then allocate a total of 100 points across all team members, including themselves, and finally provide qualitative feedback.

Contributing to the Team’s Work

High (Above Expectation):
- Does more or higher-quality work than expected.
- Makes important contributions that improve the team’s work.
- Helps to complete the work of teammates who are having difficulty.
Medium (Meets Expectation):
- Completes a fair share of the team’s work with acceptable quality.
- Keeps commitments and completes assignments.
- Fills in for teammates when it is easy or important.
Low (Below Expectation):
- Does not do a fair share of the team’s work. Delivers sloppy or incomplete work.
- Misses deadlines. Is late, unprepared, or absent for team meetings.
- Does not assist teammates. Quits if the work becomes difficult.
Intermediate Levels:
- Demonstrates behaviors between high and medium.
- Demonstrates behaviors between medium and low.

Interacting with Teammates

High:
- Asks for and shows an interest in teammates’ ideas and contributions.
- Improves communication among teammates. Provides encouragement or enthusiasm to the team.
- Asks teammates for feedback and uses their suggestions to improve.
Medium:
- Listens to teammates and respects their contributions.
- Communicates clearly. Shares information with teammates. Participates fully in team activities.
- Respects and responds to feedback from teammates.
Low:
- Interrupts, ignores, bosses, or makes fun of teammates.
- Takes actions that affect teammates without their input. Does not share information.
- Complains, makes excuses, or does not interact with teammates. Accepts no help or advice.
Intermediate Levels:
- Demonstrates behaviors between high and medium.
- Demonstrates behaviors between medium and low.

Keeping the Team on Track

High:
- Watches conditions affecting the team and monitors the team’s progress.
- Makes sure that teammates are making appropriate progress.
- Gives teammates specific, timely, and constructive feedback.
Medium:
- Notices changes that influence the team’s success.
- Knows what everyone on the team should be doing and notices problems.
- Alerts teammates or suggests solutions when the team’s success is threatened.
Low:
- Is unaware of whether the team is meeting its goals.
- Does not pay attention to teammates’ progress.
- Avoids discussing team problems, even when they are obvious.
Intermediate Levels:
- Demonstrates behaviors between high and medium.
- Demonstrates behaviors between medium and low.

Expecting Quality

High:
- Motivates the team to do excellent work.
- Cares that the team does outstanding work, even if there is no additional reward.
- Believes that the team can do excellent work.
Medium:
- Encourages the team to do good work that meets all requirements.
- Wants the team to perform well enough to earn all available rewards.
- Believes that the team can fully meet its responsibilities.
Low:
- Satisfied even if the team does not meet assigned standards.
- Wants the team to avoid work, even if it hurts the team.
- Doubts that the team can meet its requirements.
Intermediate Levels:
- Demonstrates behaviors between high and medium.
- Demonstrates behaviors between medium and low.

Having Relevant Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

High:
- Demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities to do excellent work.
- Acquires new knowledge or skills to improve the team’s performance.
- Able to perform the role of any team member if necessary.
Medium:
- Has sufficient knowledge, skills, and abilities to contribute to the team’s work.
- Acquires knowledge or skills needed to meet requirements.
- Able to perform some of the tasks normally done by other team members.
Low:
- Missing basic qualifications needed to be a member of the team.
- Unable or unwilling to develop knowledge or skills to contribute to the team.
- Unable to perform any of the duties of other team members.
Intermediate Levels:
- Demonstrates behaviors between high and medium.
- Demonstrates behaviors between medium and low.

Allocating One Hundred Points

Students must distribute 100 points among team members, including self. They can give each member a score between 0 and 100, but the total must equal 100. This is a way to quantify the contributions of each member of the team.

One must give oneself at least 100/N points, where N is the number of members in the team, whether they honestly feel they deserve them or not. This is to avoid an unrealistic “self-incrimination” requirement. For example, if the student has a team of 4 members, one must give oneself at least 25 points. One can give oneself more than 25 points, but the total must equal 100.

Qualitative Feedback

Finally, students will be asked to provide any additional comments about their team members. This is optional, but it can be helpful for the instructor to understand the dynamics of the team. Here are the questions, written from the point of view of the student:

For particularly high or low allocations, provide concrete examples to illustrate your reasoning. What particular behaviors of the team members are particularly valuable or detrimental?
Overall, how effectively is your team working? Explain.
What did you learn about working in a team that you will carry into the future?

Again, the results will be shared with the instructors only. If you have questions regarding your grade, please contact the instructors directly.

Grade Calculation

For the five criteria, the steps are outlined below:

Convert the ratings to a 60-100 scale, where
- (Low) 1 = 60,
- 2 = 70,
- (Medium) 3 = 80,
- 4 = 90,
- (High) 5 = 100.
Average the ratings for each member of the team (excluding self)

Each individual score is thus the average of the ratings given by the other team members, scaled to a 60-100 scale.

For the 100-point distribution, the steps are outlined below:

Verify that self-evaluation is at least 100/N points and total score is 100 in each survey.
Average the ratings for each member of the team (excluding self)
If the team has more or less than 5 members:
- Multiply the average by N (the number of team members )
- Divide by 5
If the average is less than 10, set it to 10 (85%)
If the average is greater than 40, set it to 40 (115%)
Apply the following formula: $0.65 + 0.0225\cdot x - 0.00025\cdot x^2$ , where $x$ is the average score from the 100-point distribution.

Using this formula with the minimum and maximum values, we can see that the 100-point distribution score will be strictly between 85% and 115%, which is pretty generous. Scoring over 100% means your team members were particularly generous in their ratings, and you will be rewarded for your work.

The final score for each member of the team is the average of the scores from the five dimensions and the 100-point distribution score.

References

[1] M. W. Ohland et al., “The Comprehensive Assessment of Team Member Effectiveness: Development of a Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale for Self- and Peer Evaluation,” AMLE, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 609—630, Dec. 2012, doi: 10.5465/amle.2010.0177.

[2] “Fairly Assessing Individual Contributions to Group Software Projects.” Accessed: Mar. 31, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://www.cs.ubc.ca/wccce/Program03/papers/Gardner-Group/Gardner-Group.htm