Many teachers are struggling with the process of grading projects or group work, which becomes even more difficult in a COIL environment where students are expected to work together and share their ideas. For example, how do you grade collaborative work?

Assessing and grading online projects can be challenging, but worry not! We have some tips on how to grade COIL projects.

Developing the Assessment

When you design the project, make sure to think about what is important to grade. Your online collaborative projects should have a grading system. Defining these grades will help students understand what they should be choosing so they can complete the task successfully. You might want to consider including the below:

• Collaboration and Teamwork. Despite the online environment, did everyone in the team work efficiently together to make it a success? Did all team members help equally, or were there members who didn't contribute at all?
• Content and Knowledge. Did your students learn something new from the project? Did the project make them more interested in learning more about the topic?
• Technology and Communication. Were there any technical difficulties that interfered when the group was planning the project? If so, were they able to overcome these interferences?

Creating Rubrics

Once you have determined how you will assess the project, it’s time to get specific. Some components of the project may not be easily quantified so you want to be as specific as possible.

To create an effective assessment tool, your rubric should be able to:

• Help remove bias and subjectivity during the evaluating process
• Help students understand where and what they need to improve
• Explain what part established the success of the project
• Enumerate the important aspects of the project on which they will be evaluated
• Examine the outcome of the project and the entire process that led to its success
• Provide clear expectations

Involving Students During Evaluation

Since your students are the ones doing the project, involving students in assessment can be a big help. By having them assess their progress, they become more motivated, and are able to see where their focus should be. Here’s how you can get them involved during assessments:

• Peer evaluation. You can give them the rubrics, and let them evaluate the performance of each member in the group.
• Self-assessment questions. You may also ask them to assess their own performance during the project-making process. This will allow them to share learnings that are not reflected in the rubrics.

Audience Assessment

If your COIL projects are shared with the entire class, then you may want to ask your students to rate the projects after each group’s presentation. You could also invite experts on your panel that could help you assess presentations in areas that you don’t have experience in. With your students’ evaluations and additional assessments from your expert panel, you’ll be able to grade each project with more objectivity and accuracy.

Learning does not have to be boring.

Make your courses more engaging by adding fun activities and projects to your lessons. You can do all of this and more with ImmerseU’s collaborative tools. Start your COIL journey with us today!