Assessing Individual Contributions: Experience of Peer Evaluation in Major Group Projects

With an increasing use of group activities in higher education there are questions being asked about the extent to which the final grading properly reflects individual contribution (or lack of it). The paper describes the development and use of peer evaluation in a DMS group project. Experience of using this method of evaluation shows that groups must be prepared for, and committed to, the activity. Peer evaluation forms part of the assessment process but does not seem sufficiently robust to be the sole source of informational input—especially if substantial grade variations are called for.