Assessment of Collaborative Learning

From personal experience I can say grading group work can be very challenging. Even in a F2F classroom where you can observe the students’ working it is hard to know exactly how much each student has contributed to a collaborative product. But there are many ways to provide effective assessment for collaborative online projects and they are well worth the effort. These include:

• Making assessment the starting place of course design
• Collaborative assessment not a one-time, one-method thing
• Teacher-directed, rubrics – clear easy to understand
• Learner-centered incorporating self-reflection
• Incorporate fulfillment of role in the collaborative group
• Criterion-referenced, context specific

Much like Wiggins & McTighe’s (2005) backward design of curricular units described in Understanding by Design, good collaborative learning assessment should be the starting point in designing online collaborative projects. Your end goals, what skills, knowledge and understandings you want your students have, are your key assessment points.

Participation in a collaborative learning community can be complex. To equitably assess student participation, roles in that community must be clearly outlined by the teacher from the start. Rubrics clearly describing expected performance levels can help in this process. Both self- and peer-assessments should be incorporated into participation grading.

Assessment of the final product should be a collaborative effort as well. Again the basis for assessment must be clearly outlined by the instructor. Rubrics, again, are an excellent format for communicating expected outcomes. The teacher is responsible for the final grad, but some component of that grade should allow for group and peer group assessment.

Assessment should also be an ongoing process. Feedback must be provided to the group and by group members themselves as to how they are fulfilling their roles and making progress toward their end product. Guidelines must be outlined for such giving and receiving feedback. It should also be incorporated into the course grade to encourage students to engage in providing effective feedback.

Writing clear, simple rubrics can be challenging. Getting students to use them effectively can be challenging as well. This is something my colleagues and I have experienced with our middle school students. But providing them and continually reminding students to check their progress against the rubrics gives them a clear picture of what is expected.

While challenging assessment of collaborative online projects can provide powerful learning. Product, participation, feedback and self-reflection, each incorporated as part of the final grade, provide the opportunity for many levels of learning to occur in collaborative projects. This deep, rich learning is what all educators, online, blended or F2F, should strive for.



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MacGregor, J. Assessment in and of Collaborative Learning. Retrieved from http://www.evergreen.edu/washcenter/resources/acl/index.html

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Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by Design. (2nd Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ.: Prentice Hall.