Assessment of the Agroecosystems TopicsContentsOutlineEach of the Agroecosystems Topics was assessed via the Web by
More detailsWhen papers (Web pages) became due (1700 April 23), the Instructor copied the papers off of student's sites, put them into his Public Directory, and adjusted the links of the Home Page accordingly. Students had been told beforehand that this would be completed by 1200 h, April 24, at which time the instructions for assessing other students' pages would also be posted. They would be given until April 29 to compete their assessments, and to submit their "Peer Assessment Factors". Some students had already left campus, but this did not pose any difficulties because the whole process was conducted via the Web. Students assigned marks according to their own criteria Similarly, the external reviewers accessed the documents via the Web. They were given information on the context of the exercise, and asked to apply whatever criteria they felt appropriate to marking the papers. The externals included an adjunct professor (PhD) involved in Environmental Studies at Dalhousie, a Researcher (MSc) in Agroecology at Macdonald College of McGill University, and a Professor Plant Science (PhD) at the University of Manitoba. Each marked 8 papers plus two "reference papers" chosen to represent what the Instructor considered a very good paper, and an average paper. Marks assigned to the reference papers were averaged, and an adjustment factor was calculated for each external as: (avg. of all marks assigned to reference papers)/(avg. of 2 marks assigned by one external reviewer). Marks assigned by an external individual reviewer were multiplied by the adjustment factor in order to standardize marks between the reviewers. The Instructor marked all papers, emphasizing technical aspects. A composite individual mark was calculated for each student as (average mark given by 10 students/10)+(external's standardized mark/10)+(Instructor's mark/10)/3. A group mark was calculated as the average of the composite individual marks for members of a group. The final mark that students received was calculated according to an Individually Weighted Marking Scheme, which included an individual component (the composite mark) and a group component; the latter was the group mark multiplied by PAF (Peer Evaluation Factor). Calculation of the Peer Assessment FactorWhen classes were over and all assignments were completed, each student submitted a confidential peer assessment mark calculated as follows:"To assign these marks, multiply the number of persons in the group, excluding yourself, by 10 to give the total number of marks to assign; then apportion those marks according to your assessment of your peers' input and cooperation. For example, if your group has 5 persons in total in it, then the total marks to be assigned is (5-1)*10=40. If everyone had more or less equal input, each person gets 10 for a total of 40; if you feel one person deserves some extra marks compared to the rest, e.g. 2 extra marks and the rest are equal, then that person gets 12, and the rest get (40-12)/3=9.33; again the total should add up to 40; in this case we have 12+9.33+9.33+9.33=39.99 (close enough)." Students submitted their Peer Assessment by e-mail; they were averaged for each student, and then the student's "Individualšs Group Mark" was calculated as (Avg. points/10)* Group Mark. Related DocumentsIndividually Weighted Marking Scheme
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