Flexible Peer Assessment Formats to Acknowledge Individual Contributions During (Web-Based) Collaborative Learning

Theoretical Background

Collaborative learning is a common practice in education. Crucial to collaborative learning is that group members perform a fair share of the task. Problems arise when one of more group members do not. This lack of individual effort is referred to as social loafing and free-riding. Social loafing is a tendency to reduce individual effort when working in a group, as compared to individual effort expended when working alone (Williams & Karau, 1991). Free-riding exists when an individual does not bear a proportional amount of the collaborative learning process and yet s/he shares the benefits of the group (Kerr & Bruun, 1983). Social loafing and free-riding are two often voiced complaints regarding unsatisfactory assessment experiences during collaborative learning (Johnston & Miles, 2004). Positive interdependence (Johnson, 1981) and individual accountability (Slavin, 1980) are crucial to any approach of collaborative learning (Strijbos, Martens, & Jochems, 2004). For a group to be successful, group members need to understand that they are each individually accountable for at least one aspect of the group task. Moreover, apart from conventional instructional approaches (e.g., scripted cooperation; O’Donnell & Dansereau, 1992), assessment can be applied to enhance both positive interdependence and individual accountability, as well as address concerns regarding a group members’ below or above average contribution. However, how the group score can be supplemented with (or corrected through) an individual students’ contribution to the collaborative process is precisely the tricky issue we will address in the chapter. We will first outline the lack of alignment between collaborative learning and assessment. We then introduce peer assessment as a method to reduce social loafing and free-riding in (web-based) collaborative learning. It should be noted that this chapter predominantly focuses on the design of peer assessment formats (for classroom and web-based settings) and that the technological design aspects are beyond our scope.