When we hear ‘peer evaluation’, it’s usually found on the lips of the hard workers or the carry of the group whose backs are literally breaking from all those hours in front of their computers; whilst their slacking counterparts are busy somewhere else.
“Woe is me!”, says the diligent student. Not only do they have to struggle through the project with less help, but they’re faced with the dilemma of considering the feelings of the bad group mate? Not an easy position to be in.
We’ve heard plenty of laments by the good group mates; but what about the bad ones? Oops, they’re not even around most of the time to get a word out of them.
Well, today you get to hear from me, representing a side of the story you often don’t get to hear. This is my story as someone who got peer-evaluated.
Do peer evaluations even work?
Peer evaluation works insofar as to achieve its desired outcome: there was unfair fulfilment of project roles and thus, unfair for an even distribution of marks. Completely justified for the ones who did most of the work to request for this to be enforced.
This was the case for me: I struggled with the knowledge learned during the course of the module and didn’t produce what was considered a job well-done with a lot of the gaps needing my group mates to fill in for me. I too was a hardcore procrastinator; which didn’t help.
I was cool with being peer evaluated and understood that the overall grade could've been higher if I pulled my weight just as everyone else. I wasn’t going to let my laziness or incompetence pull others down.
In my opinion, it’s actually really simple
Were you surprised by my last paragraph?
Is this guy trying to paint himself as a saint despite being a burden to his team? Certainly not, because I really do think that way.
I think this way because back in polytechnic, I valued my service to other extra-curricular activities more. The nights that I could’ve used for revision or rest were used for other things that I felt were more important.
I started to dislike my course of study more and more through my 2nd and 3rd year till I couldn’t put myself through studying much for it.
I chose to prioritise my needs back then and laying off studying hard was one of them. There was, of course, a price to pay for every decision I made.
Peer evaluation is a touchy subject not because we’re in contention with whether or not it’s effective because IT IS. It’s a touchy thing to talk about because we’re actually dealing with people; the subjects on the receiving end of this action.
My take on peer evaluation
I’ve had my good moments of being the group leader or maybe carry of the team in my 1st year.
Thinking back, if I was a motivated student who wanted to strive for that 4.0, I would’ve made the effort to communicate it to my group mates at the start of the project.
If they followed suit, great. If they didn’t and rather settle for subpar work, I may have forgone pursuing it in certain cases like preserving good relations or just going for a peer evaluation at the end of the project.
If you’re like me, being that underperformer for the most part, I’d say be prepared to buck up or be marked down if it came to it.
Whining about injustice when you contributed little to nothing substantial is just disgraceful. The least you could do is to support your friends who are aiming for that dream university or job by donating your marks.
To sum it up…
Let’s not make peer evaluation an emotionally-charged activity and behave like mature individuals who know what they want… Grades at all cost or a comfortable Poly life.
Making it emotionally-charged results in disrupting class harmony and souring relationships within groups are just not worth it.
We live in a reward-for-work and work-for-reward education system. Allow those who put in the hours contributing to get the grades they deserve for good work.
The same applies to those who’d rather hang out at the basketball court and build a wider circle of community whilst developing Curry-like 3-pointers.
Whether it’s for grades or for other achievements, everybody deserves the reward based on the work they put in.
It’s your grades, your poly journey, your life. Let your every decision count in moulding yourself to become the person you envision to be.
