Teamwork represents a challenge for some students and a valuable opportunity for others to develop collaborative skills. Despite its many advantages, it also brings certain challenges – especially in terms of fair distribution of work and assessment of individual contributions within the group.
At DOBA Faculty, we have taken this issue very seriously. This year, we introduced the digital tool FeedbackFruits – Group Member Evaluation (GME), which enables students to assess how their peers contributed to the group. More importantly – this is done anonymously and with analytical support.
Modern learning is no longer just about listening to lectures, but involves active participation. This means students must learn to collaborate, share ideas, take responsibility, and communicate. But this isn’t always easy – especially if someone in the group doesn’t contribute enough.
Transparency in the learning process is one of the key conditions for effective collaborative learning. When students have a clear assessment structure and insight into group dynamics, their sense of responsibility and understanding of their individual contribution increases (Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick, 2006).
Fairness – Research shows that students perceive group grades as less fair if individual contributions are not considered (Lejk & Wyvill, 2001). Peer evaluation increases fairness by allowing group grades to be aligned with each individual’s actual contribution.
This is where the GME tool comes in. It allows team members to give feedback to each other on their contributions. Each student sees how they were rated by their peers – reinforcing responsibility, transparency, and fairness. Online mentors and instructors can also monitor whether someone is significantly passive or active and intervene in time or adjust the final grade accordingly.
The concept is simple, but the implementation is well thought out:
After completing the group task, students evaluate each other based on predefined criteria.
All evaluations are anonymous, and AI guides students in writing and delivering constructive comments.
Online mentors have access to detailed analytics that show team dynamics and identify where issues may have occurred within the group.
Satisfaction with teamwork exceeded expectations, indicating that students felt a greater sense of connection and fairness during collaboration. What is often a source of frustration was rated as a positive experience.
Satisfaction with the tool is a significant indicator of usability. Students saw GME as beneficial – which, considering the adjustment period required for any new digital tool, is a major success.
Overall course satisfaction remained high and stable, suggesting that incorporating GME did not negatively impact the overall course experience – on the contrary, it likely enriched it.
Course performance slightly improved. This suggests that the tool contributed to more effective work and successful completion of assignments.
Negative feedback was extremely low (less than 3%), indicating that students mostly had a positive experience – with the tool and the learning process.
Student experience: The GME tool brings an important change – it encourages real collaboration and active participation of every team member.
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