Cooperative learning and peer evaluation: The effect of free riders on team performance and the relationship between course performance and peer evaluation

Cooperative learning has gained popularity in higher educational settings. However, assigning grades equitably to all team members in a way that rewards them for their contributions remains challenging. In this paper, we ask whether having free riders on a team lowers the quality of submitted work, and whether students’ course performance correlates with peer evaluations. In an introductory sociology course, 101 students were organized into 20 teams; each team completed a set of three papers. Students were evaluated by the quality of work submitted and peer evaluations. For statistical analysis, we organized the teams into one of three groups, among which we compared average paper grades: group one contained teams with free riders, group two contained teams that may have free riders, and group three contained teams with no free riders. We found that teams with free riders did not submit significantly lower quality work than teams without free riders. We also statistically analyzed the relationship between student course performance and their peer evaluation, and found that students’ performance in the course showed little correlation with their peer evaluations. Our results indicate that free riders do not depress the grades of non-free rider students. We also found that students’ peer evaluations do not correlate with their course performance, a finding which warrants further research.