Behaviorally anchored rating scales for teamwork peer assessment

In team projects, peer evaluations are frequently used to evaluate students' teamwork skills and their individual contributions to project outcomes. Unfortunately, peer evaluations are usually time consuming to conduct due to the large amount of data collected. In order to efficiently assess teamwork skills of students through peer and self-evaluations, we created a web-based tool called Peer Evaluation and Assessment Resource (PEAR). Using the PEAR, instructors are able to see where students need to improve their teamwork skills and give individual feedback. We have used the system in several classes and been able to gain valuable information to help instructors improve their classes. However, we have also identified several problems such as very high peer and self ratings inconsistent with students' expected skill levels. We redesigned a peer assessment instrument from the literature based on behaviorally anchored rating scores in order to address some of these problems. This new instrument has been tested in the PEAR system, and in this paper, the results are compared to the ones obtained using a continuum scale version of the instrument.

Introduction

Knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) required for effective teamwork are among 21st Century skills desired for STEM graduates [1]. Teamwork has become increasingly important in many organizations across many different industries. In turn, universities have begun to incorporate teamwork into classwork in order to help students develop their teamwork skills. In addition, collaborative learning strategies are also shown to enhance student learning. Therefore, instructors find the increasing need to incorporate more teamwork-based activities into their classes.