Peer-and-Self Assessment to Reveal the Ranking of Each Individual's Contribution to a Group Project

Authors

Yanbin Tu, University of Connecticut
Min Lu, University of British Columbia

Abstract

Teamwork and virtual teamwork are becoming more and more important in IS professions. Group project assignments play an important role to train students' skills in teamwork in IS education. To reduce the free-rider problem and treat each group member fairly, the instructor needs to distinguish each individual's contribution to a group project. In this paper, we analyze one commonly used peer-and-self assessment application and point out its critical drawback: the deduced ranking might be wrong as some members do not tell the truth. Alternatively, we propose an effective mechanism to modify the peer-and-self assessment. Under the revised peer-and-self assessment, truth-telling is each individual's dominant strategy and the instructor can effectively distinguish each member's contribution to a group project. A field experiment and the associated survey are used to validate the revised self-and-peer assessment approach. Generally, the revised peer-and-self assessment is acceptable to students and it is a valid, effective, and useful tool to the instructor.

Recommended Citation

Tu, Yanbin and Lu, Min (2005) "Peer-and-Self Assessment to Reveal the Ranking of Each Individual's Contribution to a Group Project," Journal of Information Systems Education: Vol. 16 : Iss. 2 , 197-206.
Available at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/jise/vol16/iss2/9