Much has changed since the last post about the project and peer evaluations, but I wanted to follow up regarding these topics. As part of the final project deliverable, you will be expected to complete a peer evaluation of everyone on your project team, including yourself. The purpose of this peer evaluation is two-fold. First, the feedback can be very helpful in identifying your strengths and areas in which to improve, particularly in preparation for capstone projects. Second, I expect everyone to contribute significantly to the project, and peer evaluations are one way that I can verify that this has happened.

In an attempt to minimize any surprises from the peer evaluation form, I encourage you to look at the questions being asked. It isn’t too late to improve, especially if you haven’t been pulling your weight on the project deliverables to date.

I should note that the exact way that I use the feedback when assigning the project grades remains to be determined. I loosely anticipate using scores as a “multiplier” on individuals’ scores – e.g., someone who has done half as much work will earn half as many points. Consideration will be given to group consensus: if everyone (including you!) agrees that you haven’t done much work, then the penalty will be more significant than if only one person on the team has that opinion.1 Specific details remain to be determined at this point, though.

Finally, I know that a few of you have requested to change teams due to teammates who either dropped the course or graduated. If that’s the case for you, please check your project team in Blackboard and send me an email no later than tomorrow, 24 April, if it has not been updated (and be sure to CC your new teammates). I want to make sure that I review all these changes to teams in case it is appropriate to rescope the project.

  1. As stated previously, the peer evaluation also includes a self-evaluation because I want to make sure that everyone’s perspective is considered, especially when the feedback may influence grades. Your self-evaluation is critical when others don’t recognize (or don’t appreciate) the work that you might have done behind the scences. In addition, I always try to reconcile significant differences before determining how the feedback should affect an individual’s grade. ↩