The influence of peer evaluations on individual contributions to group work in online graduate education

As online learning has become increasingly interactive and collaborative, group work and other collaborative learning exercises have become more prevalent in online curricula. Unequal levels of effort in online group work causes frustration and can reduce overall learning among students. Students who are perceived by group members to contribute less than their fair share to online group work are considered free-riders. Peer evaluations have been shown to increase individual contributions to group work in face-to-face, undergraduate environments. There is a need to examine the influence of peer evaluations on contributions to group work in online, graduate-level environments. The purpose of this study was to compare individual student contributions to group work between three different groups of students using different peer evaluation approaches in online, graduate-level coursework in the US Army Command and General Staff Officers Course (CGSOC). This quantitative causal comparative study examined 230 CGSOC students who engaged in a complex, collaborative planning group project in the first module of the course between January and July of 2015. Controlling for the variables of project position, grade, and Army component, a four-way ANOVA was used to analyze study data. While there were no significant differences found in individual contributions to group work between the groups, there were significant interaction effects between peer evaluation approach and Army component, as well as between peer evaluation approach and grade. These interaction effects indicated that, in certain situations, the level of contributions of students using different peer evaluation approaches tended to cluster or spread depending on their component or grade. Pre-announced peer evaluations generally resulted in similar levels of contributions of students amongst different components and grades of officers. The complex nature of the interaction effects suggests that additional research is required to fully understand the influence of peer evaluations in online adult education. As a result of this research, instructors and curriculum developers may have more insight into the utility and applicability of peer evaluations in different facets of graduate-level online education.