DIGITAL LIBRARY
USE OF AN ONLINE PEER FEEDBACK TOOL FOR STUDENT TEAM PROJECTS
National University of Singapore (SINGAPORE)
About this paper:
Appears in: EDULEARN13 Proceedings
Publication year: 2013
Page: 6345 (abstract only)
ISBN: 978-84-616-3822-2
ISSN: 2340-1117
Conference name: 5th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies
Dates: 1-3 July, 2013
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Abstract:
In education, assigning group projects to students is driven both by pedagogical and practical concerns. Despite the widespread adoption of team projects for courses of all kinds, there is always the perennial problem of ascertaining the extent of contributions by project team members and whether members contribute their fair share of the work. In addition, teams with non-contributing or non-performing members rarely approach teachers for help, preferring to deal with the situation themselves and focus on completing their project. Often, this means taking on extra work to cover for the non-performing team member.

This paper describes the use of a cloud-based software service called TEAMMATES for a team writing project in an undergraduate business communication course for Computing students. TEAMMATES enables students to evaluate their contribution and that of their team members to projects of a collaborative nature with the ultimate objective of improving teamwork. It allows students to give anonymous feedback to their team mates and gives teachers an indication of how well a student is contributing to the team.

The paper presents an analysis of students’ comments on team members’ contributions to the team writing project in TEAMMATES to identify types of comments given, consistency in students’ evaluations of team mates, and a comparison of students’ claimed contribution and that perceived by their team mates. It also shares students’ feedback on the use of the service and the teacher’s reflections on its ease of use and usefulness. The paper concludes that TEAMMATES is not only convenient but can also be potentially very useful to implement in student team projects.
Keywords:
Group work, team projects.