Guide to Setting up Group Member Contribution Adjustments

Instructor Guide - peerScholar

🎯 Overview

Contribution Adjustments allow instructors to fairly adjust individual grades on a group assignment based on peer-rated group member contributions.

This feature is commonly used to:

• Reduce free-riding

• Reward high contributors

• Improve fairness in group grading

• Apply WebPA-style weighting automatically

When enabled, peerScholar uses group member evaluation ratings to calculate a contribution factor for each student and adjusts their group grade accordingly.

✅ Before You Begin

To use Contribution Adjustments, you must:

• ✔ Create a Group Member Evaluation activity

• ✔ Add at least one graded assessment for the group artifact

• ✔ Ensure students are assigned to groups

🚀 Where to Find It

Contribution Adjustments are configured in:

Build Activity → Customize Grading → Contribution Adjustment Settings

🧩 Step 1 — Add the Group Artifact Grade

First, ensure the group work itself is graded.

What to do

1. Go to Customize Grading.

2. Under Instructor/Teaching Team Evaluations (or Peer Ratings if used for the artifact):

3. Add at least one assessment worth points.

4. Save.

✅ This grade becomes the base group mark that can be adjusted.

⚙️ Step 2 — Enable Contribution Adjustments

1. In Customize Grading, open Contribution Adjustment Settings.

2. Check Apply Contribution Adjustment.

3. Select which Group Member Evaluation(s) will be used.

You may select one or multiple evaluations.

🎚️ Step 3 — Set the Adjustment Weight

This controls how much of the group grade is affected by contribution ratings.

Weight slider options

• 100% → fully WebPA-style (most common)

• Partial (e.g., 50%) → protects part of the group grade

• 0% → no adjustment (effectively disabled)

🛡️ Protecting Part of the Grade

If weight is less than 100%:

• A portion of the original group grade is protected

• The remainder is adjusted by contribution

✅ This is helpful when instructors want fairness without large penalties.

Example

Group artifact grade = 80

⬆️ Step 4 — Allow Scores Above the Group Grade (Optional)

Toggle:

Allow group members to receive a grade above the group mark

When ON

• High contributors can earn above the group grade

• Low contributors may receive below

✅ Recommended when you want to reward exceptional effort.

When OFF

• Students can only be adjusted downward

• The group grade acts as a ceiling

✅ Recommended for more conservative grading policies.

How the Calculation Works (Simple Explanation)

peerScholar uses a WebPA-style approach:

Step-by-step logic

1. Students rate each group member’s contribution.

2. The system calculates each student’s average contribution score.

3. Scores are normalized within the group to create a contribution factor.

4. The group artifact grade is multiplied by this factor.

5. The Weight slider determines how strongly this affects the final grade.

📐 Simple Example

Group grade = 80

Peer contribution results: