Grading Group Projects:
The Knickrehm "World Series Shares" Method¹

[G]roup projects often suffer from "free riding".... Free riding occurs when some members of a group shirk their responsibilities, forcing others to choose between working harder or accepting a poor project and a lower grade....

Free riding is possible, perhaps even likely, since professors can judge (grade) the overall quality of a final project, but have no idea who did what to get it there....

One way to overcome the free rider problem is to employ a method first suggested by political science professor Kay Knickrehm of James Madison University.... Under the "Knickrehm Method," the professor grades the group project, and, in addition to this overall grade, students can gain or lose points depending on the evaluations of other group members. With this method, each member of a group is asked to evaluate each other member of their group (but not themselves), and is given a set number of points ("shares") to distribute to other group members in confidential balloting.... Students are asked not to discuss their evaluations with others.

Students are expected to award two shares to the average group member, and have an additional share to award the group's "Most Valuable Person." Share awards are described...as follows:

0--Contributed little or nothing.
1--Contributed some, but significantly less than their share.
2--Did a good, solid job, a fair share. (This should be the most common score.)
3--Contributed significantly more than their fair share.
4--Did most of the work on this project. (Obviously this can go to no more than one person in a group.)²

Any additional shares awarded over and above the normal two-per-member (with one bonus share) must come at the expense of other group members. The awarding of shares thus serves as a deterrent to free riding. Students are urged not to split hairs: they should normally expect to award two shares to most or all their peers. Higher and lower scores should be reserved for superior contributions and for obvious free riding....

Single outlying scores are discarded in the calculation of mean shares awarded to limit the impact of individual personality clashes....

Since individuals have an extra point to award their MVP, this system raises grades more often than it lowers them.

For our class: Your annotated bibliography, and annotated outline (5 points total) will be graded normally, by me. The project and the revision are each worth 10 points. I will grade you on those 10 points. I will then deduct 2 points, and you will use the above formula to redistribute these 2 points.

² This score can only be achieved with the 'MVP' point added.